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tongued and grooved, and there is a space of eight inches between the two 

 walls. It is almost impossible for the frost to penetrate, especially if the 

 fodder has been properly cut and packed so as to exclude the air. The 

 whole cost of such a silo is about $46, and every farmer who has built one 

 has found it so profitable that ho has added more afterwards. No man of 

 any intelligence would deny that the silo is about the most profitable 

 investment a farmer can make, but at the present time, when it is just 

 being introduced, it is essential that it shoald be in every respect com- 

 pletely successful. A silo with a wall of a single plank may not produce 

 all the results a farmer expects, and others may be deterred by his experience 

 from adopting the system." 



It was remarked, the other day, that it was a hard task to get our 

 farmers to grow roots, and that it was for the purpose of persuading them 

 to do so that a grant was made to them of 50 cents a ton for all beets 

 delivered at the factory. It is much less troublesome to persuade them to 

 grow maize for ensilage, thereby furnishing themselves with the means of 

 drawing a very satisfactory revenue from their farms, either by using the 

 silage to fatten beasts or by giving it to their dairy cows. 



The farmer who has a field of corn can not only fill his silo with it as 

 a provision for the winter, but use some of it in summer. When the burn- 

 ing rays of the sun shall have scorched up the pastures, so that the cows 

 begin to dry up, he can mow some of this succulent fodder and give it to 

 his cattle, either on the pastures or in the cow-house. 



People complain, and with reason, that emigration is decimating us ; 

 those on the opposite benches throw it in our teeth. "We are all anxious to 

 abolish it. "Were the system of ensilage diffused over the whole country, 

 farming would be attractive because it would be remunerative. The silo 

 is the savings-bank of the farmer, which will always give for him abund- 

 ant supplies for the whole of his establishment. Winter and summer, 

 summer and winter, at all seasons, his cattle will be always full-fed, their 

 number, through its aid, will be constantly on the increase, and, at the 

 same time, his stock of manure will be multiplied indefinitely. 



The scarcity of manure — there's another thing that needs a remedy. 

 If we would reflect a little on the way in which we have farmed our land, 

 we might say, as Mr. Ayer said the other day, that, without exaggeration, 

 the soil of the Province of Quebec possesses an extraordinary stock of fer- 

 tility. For, in truth, for years and years we have worked the land ; We 

 have extracted from it vast stores of wealth ; we have never made it any 

 return, o.nd, even now, it is not worn out. 



