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 systems 
Fig. 19. — A pile of bagasse, or pomace, after sirup-making time. 
of farming in vogue tend so strongly 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 any 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 
