M ARUM 19 
tached to the frame eothat a horse may walk 
between the rows. The plants are usually set 
about 20 inches apart in the row. The rollers, 
therefore, should be about five feet in circum¬ 
ference, having three cleats fastened at equal 
distances. 
ing the silos. I wish to build one the coming 
SprlDg; but do not want to start unless there is 
an assurance of success Now is the time to 
make our arrangements if we are to have suc¬ 
cess this year, aud all information on the sub¬ 
ject would therefore be especially acceptable. 
If the system proves such a benefit aB we have 
been told by some of its advocates, it will help 
the Eastern farmer to hold his own with the 
Western dairyman. 
Plymouth, N. Y. w. b m. 
Remarks. —The Rural is watching the sub¬ 
ject very closely. It is because we still enter¬ 
tain doubts as to the value of the system that 
we hesitate to commend its adoption. Better 
deby a year than to build costly silos to be 
abandoned after a few years of trial. We have 
on several occasions referred to all the books 
or pamphlets that have been published on 
the subject.— Eds. 
the Grass or Odessa wheat. I have myself 
raised 23 bushels per acre of this wheat sown 
as a Fall wheat, and at the same harvest I 
have cut 20 bushels of the same as a Spring 
wheat. j. h. 
Tekonsha, Neb. 
filled the pits with it. He had a frame built 
perpendicular with the sides of the pits 15 feet 
above the bam iloor; filled It; put a tight 
cover over it and weighted the contents with 
bags of wheat screenings. He had kept 120 head 
of cattle, including 40 milch cows and 12 head 
of horses. He began feeding from the silos 
last October and had fed up the fodder in one 
silo, and would have enough to last nutil 
Spring. Dr. Cook said his cattle looked well; 
Mr. Mills estimated the weight of green stuff 
from the eleven acres at 000 tons, the ensilaged 
fodder costiog him a sum total of $500. 
Ensilage had been tried as an experiment at 
the College Farm. The silo there holds 15 or 
20 tons, and it is a perfect success as far as the 
preservation of green corn is concerned. Rye 
cut in the miik, clover, Hungarian Grass, 
brewers'grains, etc., mt.ght be preserved in 
the same way with equal success. The stock 
ate it better and seemed to relish it more than 
the dried corn-stalks. Ha said it is possible 
for a change to occur iu ensilaged fodder en¬ 
hancing its nutritive qualities. 
For example, Winter apples were more nu¬ 
tritious in the Spring than when put up iu the 
Fall. Wood might be changed by chemicals 
SOME OF OUR GRASSES 
PBOFE8SGKW. J. BEAL. 
It is a good sign to hear farmers begin to in¬ 
quire about the qualities of d ffercut grasses. 
Some of them have already found out that 
there is something worth raising besides Tim¬ 
othy and red clover. Prominent reasons why 
farmers have not paid more attention to other 
grasses are these; —There are so many kinds 
it is difficult to learn to recognize each, espe¬ 
cially since they vary much at different seasons 
ar.d in dill-rent soils. A mere description with 
the name is often of little value to a majority 
of people. Excellent illustrations with the 
descriptions are far more valuable, and we 
cannot help complimenting any journal which 
shall often produce good cuts of grasses. 
This is a subject which has just begun to at¬ 
tract attention in this country. We should 
have a thousand students where we now have 
one who can recognize our grasses at sight. 
To learn to do this, requires considerable ap¬ 
plication. After a good understanding of the 
structure of planlBund flowers, as usually stud¬ 
ied in schools, one should analyze and preserve 
specimens iu a herbarium, and preserve 
bunches of each grass by themselves. This 
should be followed up for a whole year. 
The Btudent will need much practice before 
he can learn to recognize nil the grasses in 
any neighborhood, many of which will con¬ 
tain 50 to SO native species. No person will 
ever r egret the time spent in acquiring bu ae 
curate knowledge of grasses. The training is 
worth all it costs, and to marry it will be of 
great value in other respects. 
Orchard Grass—Cock'a-Toot—Dacty Ms glorocrata. 
This grass lias often been mentioned by the 
press, but many are ycl ignorant of its virtues 
and peculiarities. It has long been well and 
favorably known as one of the best forage 
plants in Great Britain and 6ome other parts 
of Europe. Its reputation in the United States 
is quite variable. Some who know it well aud 
have raised it for years, thluk there Is no bet¬ 
ter grass for pasture or meadow. It is em¬ 
phatically a grass that is sensitive to extra 
treatment. On poor, thin soils, the crop is 
small; on rich soils, heavy. The grass grows 
in bunches and looks rather coarse. It will 
not spread and make a thick, handsome turf. 
It sturts vei y ea« ly in Spring, and very soon af¬ 
ter it has been mowed or eaten off. Stock of all 
kinds are fond of it and thrive on it. If bowu 
alone, about iwo bushels of seed in the chuff 
are used on au acre. The plant flowers quite 
early—about the same time as red clover. It 
will grow on sandy soil, or on clay, or on 
loam. The hay, when cut at the proper time 
and well-cured, is of excellent quality. If left 
to staud, eveu a few days after flowering, the 
stems speedily become woudy and the hay will 
be of poor qualby. It is usually ready for 
mowing before the farmer gets rttn y II de¬ 
lays—and the grass is cnudemned because the 
hay is poor. Orchard Grass has been found to 
be one of the best for incudow or pasture for 
the dry, fertile plains of Kansas and Nebraska. 
Unlike Timothy or clover, it will stay on the 
land ten years or more. It is often spoken of 
as admirably adapted to growing in (he shade; 
but it is no better for this purpose than June 
Grass. Both are of much better quality when 
grown in open spaces ful y exposed to the 
sun. 
ENSILAGE 
I herewith send yon 6ome extracts from 
Professor G. n Cook's lecture on ensilage be¬ 
fore the 8oiuerset County Agricultural Society, 
delivered at Somerville, February Iff, J881. 
Ensilage means green fodder of any kind 
preserved in a cellar. The word is taken from 
the French. It Is uo new theory, except in its 
application. The same principle is embodied 
in ranking saur-kraut. The green corn is 
taken from the ground at the time of tasseling; 
pnt through a cutting machine, cuttiug it into 
about half-inch pieces. It is then put into pits 
or silos made water-tight, as qnickly as possi¬ 
ble, and packed therein by men, mules, or 
FEEDING TRIALS AND DAIRY PRODUCTS 
CONRAD WILSON. 
Among the valuatle experiments of the last 
few years there are some that are highly cred¬ 
itable to their authors, as well as greatly en¬ 
couraging to farmers, aud it is gratifying to 
find also that some of our agricultural col¬ 
leges have lately turned their attention ear¬ 
nestly in this direction. The instructive pam¬ 
phlet of trials and results lately received from 
Conductor Sanborn, of the New Hampshire 
College Farm, abonnda with facts and figures 
of more than usual interest and clearly shows 
the value of '.his kind of work. 
Iu one series of these experiments, continued 
through 70 days, each separate trial comprised 
a pair of twc-yeai-old steers, grade Durham?, 
of nearly uniform weight. The feeding ration 
for the first lot was swale hay, 2,490 pounds, 
and coltou-seed meal, 560 pounds ,* making 
the total feed a little over H ton. The in¬ 
crease of live weight from this feed was 167 
pounds, at a cost of $15, with a manorial re¬ 
sult equal to $12 SO, which made the net cost 
of the feed over the vainc of the manure equal 
to $2.24. From this it appears that the net 
cost for gain of flesh during 70 days was only 
Two Cents per Pound. 
This result plainly indicates the value of 
cotton-seed meal both as an economical flesh 
builder and as a source of rich manure. 
In the second lot, the feeding ration was hay 
only, ami amounted to 3,536 pounds. The gain 
of live weight was 135 pounds, in 70 days, at a 
cost of over five cents per pound. The evident 
lesson from this trial is that the daily ration 
cannot safely be limited to a single kind of 
food, whatever may be its nutritive value. 
In lot No. 3, the ration consisted of corn 
meal and straw, amounting together to 2.770 
pounds, with a gain of 120 pounds of beef, 
costing four cents per pound. The point here 
to be noted is the obvious fact that the propor¬ 
tion of corn meal per day was evidently too 
small to ensure the best result; being only five 
pounds a day tor two steers. If the meal given 
had been five or six pounds for each animal, 
the cost of the beef would doubtless be less per 
pound, and with a larger Increase of live weight. 
Now, if these three trials are taken together, 
the average cost of the increase is less than 
four cents per pound. If the average of the 
1st and 3d is taken, it is less than three cents. 
While ia Lhe2ad trial with only one kind of 
feed (meadow hay), the C 06 t of increase was 
over five cents. 
Without stopping at present to examine all 
the results of this series, it is perhaps enough 
to ssy that in the 5;h trial, with a ration of 
straw, blood aud corn meal, the cost of beef 
was 3^ cents a pound, while in the 6th and 7th 
trials, with a daily ration of clover rowen and 
oat straw, the cost per pound for increase was 
less than two cents. 
It thus appears that the final average of six 
trials shows a result of 145 pouuds of increase 
for each trial of 70 days at a cost of three 
cents a pound for the beef. 
Experiment of Prof. E. XV. Stewart. 
In a very interesting feeding trial as former¬ 
ly conducted by Prof. E. W. Stewart, for test¬ 
ing results In milk aud butter, the daily ration 
adopted tor the purpose consisted of hay, oran, 
grouud peas and oil meal, amounting in all to 
16 pounds. With ihls ration, when given raw, 
it was found that the product of butter was 
less than five pounds per week. From the 
same ration when cooked, the yield of butter 
was eight pounds per week, and of milk 16 
quarts per day. It was also found that an 
addition of two pounds a day to the cooked 
ration gave an increase of two pounds of but¬ 
ter per week. 
Though this trial was chiefly intended to 
show the difference between cooked feed and 
uueooked. yet the results obtained for this 
point, do not by any means exhaust the exper¬ 
iment, which, while It sheds some light on the 
steaming of food, is also very suggestive for 
other questions equally importaut. 
We find, for example, that the feeding ration 
in one case produces over two pounds of milk 
for each pound of feed, and further, that when 
two pounds of feed are added, as above men¬ 
tioned, to the daily ration it means 
St Patrick and Burlinnk Potatoes. 
Are these the same ? Having seen a noiciu the 
Rural in which a correspondent says that he 
thinks them the same. I will say that the time 
of ripening of both is nearly the same. The 
Burbauk I consider the stronger grower and 
probably the belter yielder. Ours were grown 
about ten feet apart, the rows tanning the 
same way. On comparing them I now find 
that nearly all the Burbanks have a russet 
coating, wrtb a yellow'uh cast. The St. Pat¬ 
ricks are almost smooth, aud a shade whiter. 
It would take a very good judge to tell these 
varieties apart, if they were tin own together. 
When cooked I find the St. Patrick at least 
good, while the Burbank is not more than fair 
iu quality, both boiled in the same pot. There 
is more difference between these varieties than 
between many others. Our St. Patrick came 
from Peter Henderson <& Go., and the Burbanks 
from B. K Bliss Sous, and both were prob¬ 
ably correct to name. Thu St. Patrick may 
become popular ; the Burbauk mii6t go out. 
Titusville, N. J, I. j. Blackwell. 
ORCHARD ORASS-COCK’S FOOT—DACTYLIS GLOMEKATA 
oxen, and a tight covering having been made 
to exclude the air, it is weighed down with 
some convenient material. It has succeeded 
admirably well at the College Fa- m. 
He gave the names of Francis Morris, Oak¬ 
land Mauor, Howard County, Maryland; Mr. 
Buckley, Port Jervis. N. Y.. Messrs. Whitman 
and Burrell, Little Falls, N. Y ; Messrs. Coe, 
Bro's.. Meriden, and B. C. Platt. Suffiuld, Ct.; 
and Dr. J M. Bailty, Billerica, Mass., as having 
sent well-preserved samples to the station 
showing that if ihe work Is properly done, it Is 
a perfect success. He mentioned Jas. Llppin- 
cott, Jr., Mount Holly, Burlington Couutv. and 
C. W. Mills, Pompton, of our own State, as 
having also succeeded with it. 
He had visited Mr. Mills and learned from 
him that he had eleven acres of corn and was 
using it for Winter fodder. He had an old 
barn, and, having built a partition wall 
through the middle of It, he had con¬ 
structed two silos, each twenty feet deep, 
thirteen feet wldo and forty feet long. He had 
cutup all the stuff froji the eleven acres aud 
Ensilage. 
There is nothing that interests practical 
farmers hereabouts so much as ensilage of 
green fodder, and there is no way in which 
so much good can be done In so small a space 
in the Rural as by telling us about the suc¬ 
cesses as well as failures of this system, aud giv¬ 
ing directions for building, managing and 1111- 
Spring and Fall Wheats. — I see inquiries 
in the Rural in regard to changing Spring 
wheat into Fall wheat, and I would say that it 
is no uncommon thiug for a Nebraska farmer 
to sow the sume sort both in Fall and Spring 
out of the same blu, and raise a good crop 
from each sowing. The variety thus sown is 
