ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 
27 
! animals from the hitherto almost useless dry stalks of the cereals and 
[grasses, which it now preserves fresh with all of their natural and 
[nutritious juices. Thus, by ensilage, a large quantity of cheap food 
s preserved, and by means thereof all of the phosphates are pre¬ 
served to the soil, and, therefore, two crops may be harvested from 
every acre at the least possible impoverishment of the soil, for these 
crops are gathered before the maturity of the seeds. 
The process is simply to cut the crops designed lor ensilaging 
just at the approach of, or early flowering season. These are cut by 
a power cutter about three-eighths of an inch long, so as to enable 
them to settle and pack firmly in the silo so as to most perfectly ex¬ 
clude the atmospheric air. Pressure sufficient to exclude and keep 
I cut the air is all that is required. 
Among those who have taken advantage of this process since 
1876 in this country are Messrs. Francis Morris, O. B. Potter, C. W. 
Mills, Whitman & Burrill, John I. Holly, Dr. J. M. Bailey, and scores 
of practical and scientific agriculturists, who have all verified the great 
value of ensilage by keeping larger herds on less land than it was pos¬ 
sible on the old, wasteful, imperfect and indigestible and unnutritious 
fodder. Variety in crops for ensilage is desirable. 
The feeding of properly mixed and properly preserved fodders 
possesses many advantages over the old system. First-class butter, 
cheese, beef, mutton, lamb and veal can be supplied to a high-priced 
market all through the droughts of midsummer, and the cold of a long 
and severe winter. All herbivorous animals thrive better in winter 
on ensilage than on dry fodder, and the quantity and quality of their 
products are superior. 
Maize is doubtless the most profitable and the largest yielding 
crop. It should be cut at early flowering. Millet makes a large and 
profitable crop, as also does clover, for they can be cut two or three 
times in a season, and cut in early bloom, and when ensilaged, these 
crops never injure cattle even when very liberally fed. The Southern 
cow pea or bean also makes a valuable crop for ensilaging. 
By the most exact calculations of those who have had the most 
experience with ensilage, it has been proven that at least one-third 
greater number of animals can be kept on the same number of acres, 
than by the old method of feeding dry crops. 
All ensilage should be permitted to slightly ferment before feed¬ 
ing. At this stage it can be fed with corn meal, cotton seed meal, 
linseed meal, shorts, or bran, where high feeding is desirable. This 
plan is especially beneficial to working oxen, horses and'mules. By 
ensilage the South can keep their mules at less than half the cost of 
other fodder and grain, thus saving a large sum of money annually. 
Near large towns where grains can be cheaply procured, it will be 
good economy to mix the ensilage and grains together, and fed with, 
or without the addition of bran or the various meals. 
If a cow will more than pay her care and keeping in the dairy, 
she will nine times in ten pay also a premium on extra food supplied 
to her. The most liberal feeding for any product—whether milk or 
beef, or butter or cheese, or wool or pork— pays, provided the food 
