44 BULLETIN 486, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



filling it, as in filling with other forage, it is essential to tramp it in 

 the silo very thoroughly, not only in the middle but near the walls 

 as well. The importance of thus compacting it is not generally 

 appreciated by those not familiar with making ensilage. 



From these experiments it is evident that the main question with 

 the farmer in this method of utilizing the tops is no longer whether 

 it makes good feed, but rather whether he has the labor and teams 

 available at the time to collect and haul the tops and to fill the silo. 

 It was found in these experiments to require only an insignificant 

 amount of extra time on the part of the toppers to throw the tops 

 into heaps, 8 to 10 feet apart, while they top the cane. The work of 

 collecting the tops and filling the silo is therefore the main consider- 

 ation. Important additional value comes from the manure resulting 

 from feeding these tops. In these same localities, where the svstems 



Fig. 19. — A pile of bagasse, or pomace, after sirup-making time. 



of farming in vogue tend so strongty to deplete the soil of its humus 

 content, the manure has unusually high value. 



The bagasse, or pomace, accumulates in vast heaps at the sirup 

 mills and at present finds but little use. (Fig. 19.) Some farmers 

 even go to the expense of hauling it off to waste woodland areas with- 

 out getting am' use from it. These small mills effect too incomplete 

 an extraction of the juice to admit of using the bagasse as fuel, as is 

 done in the big sugar factories. The most profitable disposition of 

 it now being made is to use it in large quantities as litter to mix with 

 the barnyard manure, and when rotted for about a year in this form, 

 to apply it to sweet-potato land or to land for some other crop not 

 injured by fresh applications of manure. As a result of the low ex- 

 traction of the juice by small horsepower or gasoline-power farm 

 mills, which recover only 50 to 60 per cent of the 88 to 90 per cent of 

 juice present, the bagasse has a feeding value while fresh that is not 

 insignificant, especially where roughage is at a premium. While 

 fresh, stock will eat it readily, but it soon sours when exposed. If it 



