UC-NRLF 
 
 7D Sfih 
 
OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 4 
 
 OF 
 
LA; 
 
THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE; 
 
 OR, THE 
 
 NEW DISPENSATION FOR FARMERS. 
 
 EXPERIENCE WITH "ENSILAGE" AT "WINNING FARM." 
 
 HOW TO PRODUCE MILK FOR ONE CENT PER QUART; BUTTER 
 
 FOR TEN CENTS PER POUND; BEEF FOR FOUR CENTS/ 
 
 PER POUND ; MUTTON FOR NOTHING IF WOOL 
 
 IS THIRTY CENTS PER POUND. 
 
 BY JOHN M. BAILEY, 
 
 i^ 
 
 PROPRIETOR OF "WINNING FARM," BILLERICA, MASSACHUSETTS, AND VIRGINIA STOCK 
 FARM, SUSSEX COUNTY, VIRGINIA. 
 
 FARMERS 1 EDITION. 
 
 " I beg to express my gratitude to you for the noble efforts you are making in behalf of the cause of 
 agricultural science. Ensilage is to prove a great blessing to the world. ... I am very glad that you 
 have given us the results of your experience in so neat a volume, and in so clear a manner, that he who 
 runs may read." MARSHALL P. WILDER. 
 
 " A work of incalculable importance to American farmers." LEVI STOCKBRIDGE, President 
 Massachusetts Agricultural College. 
 
 " Your ' Book of Ensilage ' is received and read through. You seem to have covered the whole 
 subject and lapped around it, Alpha and Omega. It will be greedily read." J. B. BROWN, Trans- 
 lator of M. Goffart's "Ensilage of Maize." 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 ORANGE JUDD COMPANY, 
 
 245 BROADWAY. 
 1881. 
 
COPYRIGHT, 1880, 
 BY JOHN M. BAILEY. 
 
 Prett of Mills, Knight Sf Co., Boston. 
 
INTRODUCTION TO NEW EDITION. 
 
 WHEN, in the winter of 1879-80, I took the liberty of dedi- 
 cating the first edition of the " Book of Ensilage " to the 
 " farmers of America," the system of ensilage, so far as related 
 to its adaptation to America and to American wants and 
 methods, was in that state of uncertainty that no one could 
 be found who dared to thoroughly try it, partly on account of 
 the expense involved, and perhaps more through an unwilling- 
 ness to run the risk of failure, and consequently be compelled 
 to bear the ridicule of those who stand ready, whenever a pro- 
 gressive man takes a step in advance of the old methods, in 
 hopes that something better may be found which shall serve to 
 elevate humanity, or lessen the toils and improve the condition 
 of his fellow-man, to say, until complete success silences them, 
 " I told you so." Could these doubters, these dispensers of 
 ridicule, always have had their own way, and prevented pro- 
 gressive men from trying, every farmer would to this day have 
 carried his grist to mill slung across his horse's back, with a 
 stone in one end of the bag to balance the weight of the 
 corn in the other. 
 
 The success of my experiments was, however, so complete, 
 the results were so startling, but so conclusive, that thousands 
 of the most intelligent and progressive farmers and business- 
 men with a taste for agriculture, came to "Winning Farm," 
 and examined the practical workings of the system of ensilage 
 for themselves. So convincing was the exhibition of what they 
 saw, that I can truly say that there is to-day, not a State in the 
 Union which has not a silo constructed in all material points 
 after the "Winning Silos." Nebraska one of the last we 
 
4 INTRODUCTION TO NEW EDITION. 
 
 would suppose to economize forage can boast of having 
 the largest silos in America, if not in the world. Dr. Eager 
 of Middletown, Orange County, N.Y., visited "Winning Farm" 
 early in the winter of 1879-80, and has constructed at West 
 Point, Neb., four silos, each 60 feet long, 20 feet deep, and 16 
 feet wide, capacity about 2,000 tons. California has its silos, 
 as have Florida and Texas. In New England and the Middle 
 States, hundreds have been built. At this date (Dec. I, 1880) I 
 am in receipt of many letters daily, announcing the openings of 
 silos. In every case the success is absolute. Hundreds of suc- 
 cessful experiments in 1880 from the one seed sown by me in 
 1879! No more doubting. Every farmer is considering how 
 he shall build, and where he shall locate, his silos. I do not 
 claim the credit of originating the system of ensilage. No 
 man can claim that ; for it is older than the Christian era. We 
 are all under great obligations to M. Auguste Goffart, a dis- 
 tinguished' member of the "Central Agricultural Society of 
 France," and "Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur," who spent 
 years in patient experimentation before success crowned his 
 efforts. I have carefully tested it, and by my success have 
 made " Silo " and " Ensilage " household words in every part of 
 the land. One of the earliest Latin writers speaks of subter- 
 ranean vaults (silos), wherein the ancient Romans used to pre- 
 serve fruits, grain, and forage in its green state, in very much 
 the same manner as is practised at this time by Mr. O. B. Potter 
 of Sing Sing, N.Y. The Mexicans have practised the same pro- 
 cess for centuries, and to this day preserve the bulk of their 
 forage in the same manner. Probably the idea was carried to 
 Mexico by some learned Spanish monk or priest of a practical 
 and agricultural turn of mind, who, filled with a religious zeal, 
 accompanied the Spanish adventurers in their crusades, which 
 resulted in the subjugation of Mexico, and nearly all the 
 American continent south of it. 
 
 If the system was thus introduced into America, whether he 
 was successful or not in teaching the heathen how to save their 
 souls, he certainly taught them how to save their forage. 
 
 Upon the discovery of America, the Indians in the southern 
 part of our country preserved their stores of maize in pits in 
 
INTRODUCTION TO NEW EDITION. 5 
 
 the ground. As the earth is the common mother of us all, so 
 is she the great preserver of all things. The first idea which 
 occurred to the primitive man when he wished to preserve any 
 thing valuable or which" he prized was, without doubt, to bury 
 it in the earth. 
 
 So that, after all, the system of ensilage is not so much a 
 new dispensation as one of the " lost arts," which, after the 
 lapse of centuries, has just been re-discovered, improved, 
 adapted to the requirements of modern civilization, and which 
 is destined to be the means of producing a revolution in our 
 agricultural methods. Allow me, in this introduction to this 
 NEW EDITION, to express my cordial thanks and appreciation 
 of the by far too-flattering notices which " The Book of Ensi- 
 lage " has received from the press. Editors and reviewers 
 have, with scarce an exception, spoken only to commend, 
 touching but lightly, if at all, upon the faults of style and 
 diction, which are many, realizing that it was a book written 
 by a working farmer in order that that which was hard and 
 perplexing for him to accomplish, with none to advise or in- 
 struct, might be made plain and easy to his fellow-farmers. 
 Also to the many gentlemen, eminent in all the walks of life, 
 for the kind and grateful letters in which they have shown their 
 appreciation of my humble efforts to improve the condition of 
 the farmers of America, upon whose prosperity depends not 
 only the well-being of all other classes, but the very stability 
 and permanence of our democratic institutions. 
 
 I am grateful also for the success, I see by accounts in the 
 papers, which has attended the efforts of so large a number of 
 those, who, in the early stages of their experiment, solicited and 
 received all the help my experience could render. The possibili- 
 ties of ensilage can hardly be over-estimated. When I said in 
 my first edition that 40 to 75 tons of green-corn fodder could be 
 raised upon an acre of land, provided proper seed was used, suffi- 
 cient manure was applied, and the right kind of cultivation be- 
 stowed, many doubted, and some ridiculed the statement ; " but 
 he laughs best who laughs last ; " and I am happy to be able to 
 state that one of my neighbors has raised corn-fodder this year 
 weighing at the rate of 72 tons to the acre, and that his whole 
 
6 INTRODUCTION TO NEW EDITION. 
 
 crop averaged over 50 tons to the acre. Some of the stalks 
 were 19 feet 6 inches tall, and weighed 12 pounds each. I have 
 not done as well ; but it should be borne in mind that I am 
 experimenting upon an old, run-down farm, which, in 1877, 
 could keep but 6 cows and one horse. I have now in my barn 
 (Dec. I, 1880) sufficient hay to keep 6 horses, and forage in my 
 silos ample for the sustenance of 40 head of horned cattle, 
 nearly 200 sheep, and 60 swine. I may state also, that, during 
 the past three years, I have bought no hay or manure. This 
 much ensilage has benefited me ; and there is no reason .why it 
 should not benefit every farmer in like manner. That it may 
 do so, is the earnest wish of my heart. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 DISADVANTAGES OF THE SYSTEM OF CURING FORAGE BY DESICCATION . n 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE "WINNING- FARM" SILOS 16 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 FILLING THE SILO 24 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 OPENING OF THE SILO 28 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 COST OF KEEPING STOCK UPON ENSILAGE . . 34 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TIME WHEN FORAGE PLANTS CONTAIN THE GREATEST AMOUNT OF NU- 
 TRITIVE VALUE 39 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 ANALYSIS AND COMPOSITION OF CORN WHEN CUT IN ITS GREEN STATE . 42 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 EXPLANATIONS WHY ENSILAGE MUST KEEP 54 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 ENSILAGE ADAPTED TO WARM AS WELL AS COLD CLIMATES . . ' 59 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 A NEW DISCOVERY 66 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 FOOD INGREDIENTS. CHEMICAL TERMS EXPLAINED 69 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 CAPACITY OF SILOS 71 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 ENSILAGE IN THE GREAT DAIRY DISTRICTS ....... 74 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 HISTORY OF MAIZE, OR INDIAN CORN 77 
 
 7 
 
g CONTENTS. 
 
 * 
 
 THE IDLENOT PAPERS. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 COST OF PRODUCING MlLK ONE CENT A QUART, OF BUTTER TEN CENTS 
 
 PER POUND, AND OF PORK THREE CENTS PER POUND, BEEF FOR 
 FOUR CENTS A POUND, AND MUTTON FOR NOTHING, IF WOOL is 
 THIRTY CENTS A POUND 81 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 SECOND IDLENOT PAPER 90 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 ANALYSIS OF ENSILAGE FROM THE "WINNING-FARM" SILOS ... 97 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 HOW TO PRESERVE GREEN CORN FOR THE TABLE IOO 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 MY EXPERIENCE WITH SUGAR-BEETS. COST OF RAISING ONE-FOURTH 
 
 OF AN ACRE, AND THE YIELD IOI 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 SUMMARY 104 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 EFFECT OF ALCOHOLIC FERMENTATION IN ENSILAGE UPON "GILT-EDGED 
 
 BUTTER" 106 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 MODEL DAIRY STABLE ADAPTED TO THE SYSTEM OF ENSILAGE . . . in 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 CONCLUSION OF THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE . . . . . . .119 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 LATEST RESULTS IN PRESERVING AND FEEDING ENSILAGE . . . .122 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 FATTENING STEERS, FEEDING SWINE, METHOD OF FEEDING, WARM WATER 
 
 FOR STOCK, ETC 128 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 ILLUSTRATING THE NUTRITIVE VALUE OF ENSILAGE 133 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 CHEMISTRY OF THE SILO . . .135 
 
CONTENTS. O 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 How TO RAISE THE MAXIMUM CROP OF FODDER CORN . . . .138 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 NEW FORAGE PLANTS AND NEW USES FOR ENSILAGE 139 
 
WHAT IS A SILO, AND WHAT IS ENSILAGE ? 
 
 This is what the farmers want to know when the "New 
 Dispensation, or system of Ensilage" is presented to their 
 attention. 
 
 A SILO is a cistern or vat, air and water tight on the bottom 
 and sides, with an open top, constructed of masonry or concrete. 
 It may be square, rectangular, round or oval in shape, with per- 
 pendicular sides, used to store in their green state forage-crops, 
 such as corn, sorgho, rye, oats, millet, Hungarian grass, clover, 
 and all the grasses. This forage is cut and taken directly from 
 the field, run through a cutter which cuts it into pieces less than 
 half an inch in length, and trampled down solidly in the SILO, 
 and subjected to heavy and continuous pressure. 
 
 The structure is the SILO, which may be above ground, or 
 partly or entirely below the surface of the ground. The fodder 
 preserved in SILOS is ENSILAGE. 
 
THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 ACCOUNT OF THE "WINNING-FARM" SILOS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 DISADVANTAGES OF THE SYSTEM OF CURING FORAGE BY 
 DESICCATION. 
 
 THE great obstacle to raising stock at a profit has 
 always been the high cost of all kinds of fodder for 
 winter feeding. Especially has this been the case in the 
 eastern part of the New England and Middle States. 
 The lowest cost at which a cow can be kept in Eastern 
 Massachusetts is twenty-two cents per day for feed, allow- 
 ing nothing for care except the manure. This makes 
 the yearly cost of keeping a cow to be at least $80.30. 
 Many of my fellow farmers who raise milk inform me 
 that it costs them twenty-six cents per day, which raises 
 the cost to $94.90 per year. To meet the lowest sum 
 $80.30, at the highest price at which milk has been sold 
 in Eastern Massachusetts during the past few years, viz., 
 twenty-five cents per can of 8|- quarts, each cow would 
 have to yield 321^ cans, or 2,730 quarts, about 5,500 
 pounds. 
 
 " It goes without saying," that there is not one herd 
 of cows in fifty which averages 5,000 pounds of milk per 
 
12 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 head yearly. While this is so, that ninety-eight per cent 
 of the cows yield less value in milk than it costs to feed 
 them, still as a choice of evils farmers are obliged to 
 keep them rather than sell the provender they consume, 
 though it would bring more money than the milk. By 
 gratuitously incorporating a large amount of labor ir\to 
 the milk, they are enabled to keep up the fertility of 
 their farms, while on the other hand were they to sell 
 their forage they would soon impoverish their land. 
 
 Paradoxical as it may seem, the only way the majority 
 of farmers near our large cities can make (?) any money 
 is, and has been, to sell milk at less than it cost to pro- 
 duce it ! This is a very unsatisfactory condition of 
 affairs. 
 
 For several years I have been anxiously looking for 
 science to show us agricultural laymen the way 
 out of the wilderness into the promised land, where 
 crops could be grown at a profit without the farmer's 
 labor being thrown in as straw quantum sufficit is 
 when figuring up the cost of wintering stock in the 
 West. 
 
 Analyses of the soil at one time promised to bring 
 about a great change in agriculture, by showing us just 
 what the soil lacked to produce bountiful crops of what- 
 ever we wish to raise. This proved an ignis fatuus, 
 for nearly all soils were found to contain when chemically 
 analyzed every thing required to produce scores of 
 bountiful crops of almost every thing. 
 
 The trouble was, that while the elements of fertility 
 were there chemically, they were not there in such a 
 form as the growing plant could avail itself of. 
 
 The next great panacea was to analyze the crop which 
 it was proposed to raise, and apply to the soil the various 
 elements found in the crop, principally nitrogen, phos- 
 
DISADVANTAGES OF CURING BY DESICCATION. 13 
 
 phoric acid, and potash. The trouble with this is, that 
 no one can tell except by a series of careful experiments 
 whether one, two, or all three of these elements must be 
 applied to the land in order to raise a satisfactory crop. 
 Having ascertained that a certain crop can be raised 
 upon a certain piece of land by applying 1 one, two, or all 
 three of the above-named elements of fertility ; another 
 set of equally careful experiments must be tried when- 
 ever a different crop is attempted upon the same land, 
 or the same crop upon another piece of land. 
 
 This necessitates the farmers' trying all these experi- 
 ments upon their own land ; which is out of the question, 
 for while they might, they certainly will not do it. 
 
 Therefore commercial fertilizers will perforce have to 
 be applied in the future as in the past, mostly at random. 
 
 I do not wish to be understood as saying that com- 
 mercial fertilizers are not valuable and useful in their 
 place ; which place is not to take the place of barn-cellar 
 manure, but as an economical adjunct to it in the hill 
 and drill. 
 
 The chief objection to depending in the main upon 
 them is, that in the majority of cases the fertilizer costs 
 more than the crop will bring. 
 
 No great agricultural prosperity can come through the 
 increased use of commercial fertilizers, except as aids to 
 barnyard manure. 
 
 Experiments in England have demonstrated that the 
 crop does not increase in proportion to the amount of 
 fertilizers applied, even when the most consummate skill 
 directs the operations. 
 
 While agriculture has not been benefited to the extent 
 hoped for by the processes mentioned above, there was 
 one man who was patiently experimenting, and endeavor- 
 ing to solve the problem in an entirely different way. 
 
!4 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 It has long been apparent to every observer, that 
 there is an immense loss sustained in the manner in 
 which all forage-crops have been cured from time im- 
 memorial, viz., by desiccation or drying. While it is 
 agreed by all that a larger proportion of all vegetable 
 growth comes from the atmosphere than from the soil, 
 it does not appear to have struck scientific agriculturists 
 that during the process of curing by drying, a very 
 large proportion of the most valuable elements of nutri- 
 tion are returned to the atmosphere from whence they 
 came. 
 
 " The cow which gives us in summer while feeding on 
 green grass such excellent milk, and butter of such 
 agreeable color and flavor, furnishes us in the winter, 
 when she eats the same grass converted into hay, 
 an inferior quality of milk, and pale, insipid butter. 
 What modifications has this grass undergone in changing 
 into hay? These modifications are numerous. It is 
 sufficient to cross a meadow when the new-mown grass 
 is undergoing desiccation, to recognize that it is losing 
 an enormous quantity of its substance that exhales in 
 the air in agreeable odors, but which, if retained in the 
 plant, would serve at least as condiments favoring diges- 
 tion and assimilation. All stock-raisers know how rap- 
 idly young stock increases in weight in summer upon 
 green pastures, and also that the same amount of grass 
 converted into hay and judiciously fed in winter does 
 not always prevent them from shrinking, and seldom 
 gives any increase. 
 
 "The loss by desiccation in fine weather under the 
 best conditions, added to that caused by the physical 
 modifications which render mastication and digestion of 
 the hay more difficult than of the grass, and conse- 
 quently assimilation less complete, merits the most seri- 
 
DISADVANTAGES OF CURING BY DESICCATION. 15 
 
 ous attention on the part of those who are interested in 
 agricultural affairs. 
 
 " Rains, and even dews, add immensely to the dete- 
 rioration inseparable to a process of curing by dessica- 
 tion. What agriculturist has not seen a hundred times 
 his hay, notwithstanding the utmost care, injured by rain, 
 deprived of its richest and most assimilative elements? 
 If these things occur to the common fodder-crops, 
 timothy, orchard-grass, clover, &c., what would (or 
 rather, what does) happen when the saving of fodder- 
 crops of high growth and great yield, such as maize and 
 sorgho, or even Hungarian grass or millet, is attempted 
 by desiccation ? never in our temperate climate could 
 we obtain for these a sufficient desiccation by the sun " 
 when raised on a large scale. I have seen a neighboring 
 farmer working nearly three weeks to cure about an acre 
 of millet, and then it was very imperfectly preserved. 
 
 M. Aguste Goffart, whom not only all agriculturists, 
 but the whole world ought to honor as it has no other 
 man, commenced his experiments in preserving fodder 
 by other means than drying, nearly or quite thirty years 
 ago. It is reasonable to suppose that he met with fail- 
 ure after failure ; but not discouraged he persevered ; and 
 during the last four years has so improved upon his 
 earlier methods, that the preservation of any and all 
 green crops, with all their valuable attributes unimpaired, 
 is no longer an experiment. 
 
 I will not take space to describe M. Goffart's Silos and 
 methods ; but would recommend all those who wish to 
 investigate the French system to send to J. B. Brown, 
 Esq., No. 55 Beekman Street, New York (the trans- 
 lator of M. Goffart's treatise) for a copy of " Ensilage 
 of Maize," and study it. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE " WINNING -FARM " SILOS. 
 
 I WAITED long in hopes that one of our agricultural 
 colleges or experimental stations would take the initia- 
 tive. 
 
 The following letters convinced me that there was no 
 use in waiting for more half-way experiments to be tried, 
 where " half of the fodder went to waste," and the bal- 
 ance was so imperfectly preserved that it was " very diffi- 
 cult to remove the peculiar and very disagreeable smell 
 from the hands after touching it : " 
 
 NEW YORK, July 26, 1879. 
 JOHN M. BAILEY, ESQ. 
 
 Dear Sir, . . . Can you not effect a combination, and build a Silo 
 of masonry, and make a business of it this fall ? I have not yet heard of 
 any one who is going to do it thoroughly. ... I speak of combination, 
 as all seem to be afraid to do it right on account of the expense. I don't 
 think any thing but masonry is sure, and that is. ... I have urged all 
 the enterprising and competent farmers I am acquainted with to be the 
 first to do it on Goffart's plan, but I have not succeeded as far as I now 
 know. 
 
 Yours truly, 
 
 J. B. BROWN. 
 
 If any thing was necessary to convince me that I must 
 depend upon myself, this letter was enough. Mr. Brown 
 knew of Mr. Francis Morris's experiments and their un- 
 satisfactory results; hence his anxiety that I should test 
 
 16 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE "WINNING-FARM" SILOS. 17 
 
 the system in a thorough manner : therefore I resolved 
 to brave the danger of being " laughed at ; " and as no 
 one could be induced to try the great experiment, and 
 that the public should not lose the benefit of a system 
 of such vast importance to the welfare of our nation, 
 and fearing also that the grand discovery of M. Goffart's 
 might fall into disrepute in consequence of not being 
 tried in a thorough and scientific manner, I decided to 
 make the experiment. 
 
 For several years I have been trying to find the way 
 to raise profitable crops, or to turn them to profitable 
 account when raised. I eagerly scanned every item 
 which appeared in the public press bearing upon the 
 process of preserving forage-crops in their green state. 
 All the plans seemed to give but imperfect results ; 
 nevertheless, there seemed to be value in the idea. 
 
 It was therefore with pleasure I saw a notice of Mr. 
 Brown's translation of M. Goffart's work upon " Ensi- 
 lage." I sent for it. Upon a careful perusal of the 
 work, and some little discussion in the columns of " The 
 Country Gentleman " with Mr. Brown upon some parts 
 of it, I became satisfied that the principle was right, that 
 M. Goffart's method with such modifications as cli- 
 matic differences demand faithfully carried out, would 
 bring success. 
 
 Having resolved to try the experiment thoroughly, 
 on the seventeenth day of July, 1879, I broke ground, 
 selecting a side hill, and locating the Silos so that the 
 corner joined the north-east corner of my barn : I ex- 
 cavated on the west side and south end seven feet deep, 
 and put in a solid stone wall on the west side, 44 feet 
 long and 12 feet high. This was built of very heavy 
 stone and in the most substantial manner. 
 
 I afterwards graded up on this side to the top of the 
 
1 8 THE BOOK OF ENSfLAGE. 
 
 wall, making a level spot to set an engine and Ensilage 
 cutter upon ; also to drive upon to deposit the corn fod- 
 der as it came from the fields on dump-carts. It took 
 13 days' work of a stone-mason, 43! days' work of 
 laborers, and 28^ days' work for one horse, to excavate 
 and build the stone wall and foundations for the Silos. 
 
 On the tenth day of August I commenced building 
 the Silo walls. These are 15 inches thick, built of con- 
 crete in the following manner. 
 
 First, 3x4 joists are set up at each of the angles, 
 and also at intervals of about eight feet on each side 
 of the walls. These scantling are placed 18 inches 
 apart, spruce plank 12 inches wide and ij inches thick 
 are set up on the inside of the scantling, which leaves 
 15 inches between the planks as the thickness of the 
 walls. 
 
 We are now ready to commence building the Silo 
 walls. The concrete is made by mixing one barrel of 
 
 : 
 
 \JT O TT TT OS 
 
 t 
 
 \o ryeis n J~L n/ 
 
 <<*. 3 X 4 inch scantling, to hold i inch plank while building wall 
 b b. Doors. 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE "WINNING-FARM" SILOS. 19 
 
 Newark, Rosendale, or Akron cement, with three bar- 
 rels of plastering" sand and four barrels of clean gravel. 
 This is thoroughly mixed together while dry. It is then 
 wet and thoroughly mixed again, making a very thin 
 mortar. 
 
 About three inches in depth of this mixture is put in 
 between the planks ; then stone of all sizes and shapes 
 are packed and bedded in this layer of concrete, after 
 which another layer of concrete is poured in on top of 
 this layer of stones, and the operation is repeated until 
 the space between the planks all round each Silo is 
 filled ; then the planks are raised about ten inches, and 
 the space filled with concrete and stones as before until 
 the walls are at the desired height. The best way is to 
 have a sufficient number of hands to just raise the wall 
 the width of the plank each day. Time was pressing 
 with me, however ; and I sometimes raised the plank two 
 and three times in one day, the concrete " setting " so 
 that I was able to do so safely. But I do not recommend 
 this haste, as the walls will not be as smooth as they 
 would be if the cement had all night to " set " in before 
 the planks were raised. A 4 X 1 2 inch sill was bedded 
 on the wall in the last layer of concrete. This sill was 
 made of 2x12 inch spruce plank nailed together. 
 Upon these sills a building was placed with posts five 
 feet high, the beams on the top of these posts being 
 thoroughly braced to the posts, thus firmly tying the 
 whole structure together. 
 
 In sections of the country where clean sand, gravel, 
 or stone is not easily obtained, Silo walls may be con- 
 structed of brick in the usual manner of brick buildings. 
 
 To put up the concrete walls and bed the sills, to- 
 gether with grading the upper side, where the cutting 
 of the fodder is done, took of the foreman 28 J days, 
 
20 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 work of laborers 149 days, and 34 days' work of 
 horse. Putting up the frame to hold the plank took two 
 carpenters two days. It required 124 barrels of cement, 
 costing- $1.25 per barrel in Lowell. The teaming of the 
 cement and lumber is included in the above account of 
 time of horses and laborers. The cost of the whole 
 structure will of course vary in different locations, as the 
 cost of labor and materials varies. 
 
 My Silos (capacity about 800,000 pounds) cost me 
 about $500. In other words, Silos will cost about one 
 dollar and a quarter for each ton's capacity. Large ones 
 will cost less, small ones more. The following diagram 
 illustrates my Silos. 
 
 Silos may be built of stone pointed with cement mor- 
 tar and plastered on the inside, or of brick, or of con- 
 crete as mine are. Whichever material is the cheapest 
 and most convenient in any locality is the best to use 
 there. Brick will cost more than the concrete. Con- 
 crete wall costs about ten cents per cubic foot. 
 
 As a general rule, Silos should be built rectangular in 
 form, the width being about one-third the length, and 
 the height about two-fifths of the length, and if possible 
 should be sunk about one-half below the surface of the 
 ground. 
 
 If there is a side hill near the stables, so that the 
 surface of the earth will come nearly to the top of the 
 walls at one end of the Silos, it will be found very con- 
 venient in filling the Silos, in weighting the Ensilage, 
 and in removing the weights as it is fed out. 
 
 These walls must be built sufficiently strong to with- 
 stand when empty the pressure of the earth inward, as 
 well as the pressure outward, caused by the settling of 
 the Ensilage under the superimposed weights placed 
 upon it. 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE "WINNING-FARM" SILOS. 21 
 
22 
 
 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 Where it is not convenient to get stone for weights, 
 heavy logs of wood may be used, sawed in pieces about 
 three feet in length, and placed on end all over the 
 planks which cover the Ensilage ; three feet of wood 
 being about equal in weight to one foot of stone. Or 
 broken bricks may be obtained at the brickyards at a 
 nominal price. Where neither of the above is availa- 
 ble, bags or boxes of earth may be used as weights. 
 Where boxes of earth are used, they should be made of 
 such a size as to fit close together side by side. 
 
 M. Goffart recommends that the corners be rounded. 
 I thought that cutting them off, as shown in the diagram, 
 would answer as well and be much less expensive. I 
 find, upon opening the Silo, that the Ensilage is pre- 
 
 Earth-box for weights, showing convenient handles which will not interfere with piling the 
 
 boxes when removed. 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE " WINNING-FARM" SILOS. 23 
 
 served as well and settled as evenly in these corners as 
 elsewhere ; also that the preservation is just as perfect 
 close to the walls as in the centre, showing that a con- 
 crete wall is more impervious to air than a brick one. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 FILLING THE SILO. 
 
 I COMMENCED cutting my green-corn fodder on Sept. 
 22, and finished putting on the stone for weight at three 
 o'clock P.M., Sept. 30, putting in about two feet in depth 
 daily. This is fast enough ; for the shrinkage will then 
 be much less when the weights are put on than it would 
 be were the Silo filled faster. 
 
 The seven acres of corn-fodder filled one Silo to with- 
 in about 5J feet from the top. Upon the top of the 
 Ensilage I put about one foot of rye straw uncut. Then 
 I commenced at one end, and floored it over by laying 
 ij inch spruce plank crosswise the entire length. Upon 
 this floor I put about 25 tons of bowlders. I am not 
 sure that the straw is necessary : further experiments will 
 decide. I shall use less next season. 
 
 The Ensilage settled about ij feet. There has been 
 no odor or steam arising from it. The cost of cutting 
 the corn up, hauling it to the cutter, cutting it T V of an 
 inch long, and packing it in the Silo, was not far from 75 
 cents per ton. 
 
 It was new work. The cutter was not adapted to the 
 business, clogging badly and necessitating slow feeding. 
 All this combined to make it cost more than it will when 
 we become used to the work of handling large amounts 
 of green-corn fodder. 
 
FlLLll 
 
 VG THE SILO, 25 
 
 The corn-fodder can be cut in the field with corn- 
 knives cheaper than by the mowing-machine. The men 
 as they cut it lay it in bunches ; for it is much easier for 
 the drivers to load it when laid in bunches, than to 
 gather it up after the mowing-machine. The extra cost 
 in cutting is more than made up by the expedition in 
 loading and hauling. 
 
 I think the cost of Ensilaging 300 to 400 tons, when 
 we have the right kind of a cutter (Baldwin's Ameri- 
 can fodder-cutter all sizes, adapted to large as well as 
 small farmers, substantially built and at reasonable prices, 
 is the best one I have seen : they are manufactured 
 for, and are for sale by, Joseph Breck & Sons, the old 
 and reliable seedsmen and dealers in all kinds of agri- 
 cultural implements, Boston, Mass. : I have bought seeds 
 and tools of them for many years, and have always found 
 them reliable and trustworthy), will not exceed 40 cents 
 per ton. This is less than it would cost to go to the 
 field, and cut and haul it into the barn ; and, after it is in 
 the barn, the labor of feeding the whole fodder is much 
 more than to fill a basket in the Silo and give it to each 
 animal. Therefore it is cheaper to cut up the whole 
 crop at one time, put it in the Silos, and feed it from 
 them to the stock even in summer, than to go to the field 
 for it as it is wanted. 
 
 Now, when it is considered that the corn-plant is at its 
 best but a few days ; that it can all be put into Silos 
 when in the best condition ; and that, notwithstanding 
 great care in successive plantings, if used directly from 
 the fields, much has to be fed either in an immature 
 state, or when too hard for the cattle to masticate the 
 stalks, it will be seen that the saving, however consid- 
 erable in planting as well as harvesting the whole crop 
 at one time, is but a trifle compared to the gain in nutri- 
 
26 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 tive value by being all cut at the right stage of growth, 
 and preserved by the system of Ensilage with all its 
 elements uninjured. 
 
 Ensilage is therefore the most economical method of 
 soiling. The preserved succulent forage is improved by 
 lying in the Silos, and at the same time the easiest and 
 cheapest road by which green crops can reach the man- 
 ger is through the Silo. It practically annihilates winter, 
 and places the stock-raisers and dairymen in better cir- 
 cumstances than they would be if they had throughout 
 the year the waving fields of oats or rye and the luxu- 
 riant corn in their best stage for soiling, from which to 
 cut the daily food of their animals. The advantage of 
 being able to plant or sow the whole crop at one time, 
 and to cut and store it all at once, when in its most 
 nutritive state, can hardly be over-estimated. 
 
 My corn was planted from the I5th to the 25th of 
 June. On one acre was Stowel's evergreen sweet corn ; 
 the other six acres, Southern white corn. 
 
 There were at least twice as many tons of the latter to 
 the acre as of the former. I shall plant no more sweet 
 corn for Ensilage. The corn was all sown in drills about 
 three feet apart, one bushel of seed-corn to the acre; 
 was manured with about six cords of stable manure 
 spread broadcast after ploughing, and harrowed twice 
 with a Thomas smoothing harrow. It was planted with 
 an " Albany corn-planter ;" which, in addition to opening 
 the drill, dropping the corn, and covering it, also de- 
 posited about two hundred pounds to the acre of a mix- 
 ture composed of equal parts of superphosphate, cotton- 
 seed, meal, and gypsum. A portion did not come up 
 well, and had to be replanted. The dry weather and 
 cool nights of the summer of 1879 prevented a rapid 
 growth in certain portions. In fact, it was not a good 
 
FILLING THE SILO. 27 
 
 corn year, so that, the crop was somewhat uneven at 
 harvesting. The leaves at the bottom of the stalks had 
 largely become dry and dead, and a sharp frost when the 
 cutting was about half finished injured somewhat the 
 leaves on that portion still standing in the field. Some 
 of the stalks had ears large enough for roasting ; and the 
 whole of it, I think, was rather too mature. 
 
 There was estimated to be in the Silo when opened 
 125 tons. The crop was very uneven, some parts having 
 at least 40 tons to the acre. Upon other parts, where 
 the drought affected that which was replanted, the yield 
 was not over 10 tons per acre. I do not think it will 
 be at all difficult to raise 40 to 75 tons per acre upon an 
 average on good corn-land. It should be planted from 
 the ist to the loth of June. It will then be in full 
 blossom, and in the best condition to cut, by the last of 
 August and before any frost can injure it. 
 
 As stated above, the cutting was finished on the 3Oth 
 of September. It was decided to open it on the third 
 day of December ; and, as the condition of the Ensilaged 
 maize was a question of the utmost importance, it was, 
 upon the suggestion of Mr. Brown, decided to have the 
 "opening of the Winning- Farm Silos" a public matter 
 " as the American Initiative." 
 
 Accordingly invitations were sent to quite a number 
 of gentlemen, well known for their interest in agricul- 
 ture, as well as for the benefit they have conferred upon 
 the whole country in the untiring efforts they have made 
 to improve not only our system of cultivation, but our 
 domestic breeds of cattle and all the fruits of the earth 
 which minister to the wants and add to the pleasures 
 of mankind. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OPENING OF THE SILO. 
 
 UNFORTUNATELY the meetings of the State Board of 
 Agriculture and the Massachusetts State Dairy Fair, 
 were held on the same day as the opening, which pre- 
 vented the attendance of many gentlemen, who, however, 
 sent letters of regret expressing great interest in the 
 result. 
 
 The following letter was received from the United 
 States Commissioner of Agriculture : 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, WASHINGTON, Nov. 23, 1879. 
 
 J. B. BROWN, 50 Beekman Street, New York. 
 
 Dear Sir, I am much gratified to receive and thank you for the 
 invitation to attend the opening of the FIRST American Silo at the farm 
 of Mr. John M. Bailey at Billerica, Mass. 
 
 As Congress will be in session at the time mentioned, it will not be 
 possible for me to attend, a fact which I regret very much. Will you 
 have the kindness to convey to Mr. Bailey my sincere regrets, and ask 
 him to give me a detailed statement of the experiment from beginning 
 to end, for publication in my next annual report ? 
 
 I look upon the system of Ensilage as one which has wrought won- 
 derful changes in certain French provinces, and from which we may hope 
 for greater success in this country. 
 
 It will prove, I have little doubt, a very decided advance in our agri- 
 cultural methods. 
 
 Very respectfully yours, 
 
 WM. G. LE Due, Commissioner. 
 28 
 
OPENING OF THE SILO. 29 
 
 The following letter from Hon. Marshall P. Wilder 
 shows us that neither his advanced age, nor the painful 
 accident from which we all rejoice to know he is rapidly 
 recovering, has diminished his interest in all that per- 
 tains to an improved agriculture : 
 
 BOSTON, Dec. 2, 1879. 
 
 My dear Sir, I would be glad to be at the " Winning reception " 
 to-morrow, but I am not sufficiently recovered to take the journey. With 
 thanks for your kind invitation, 
 
 I am yours as ever, 
 MR. BAILEY. MARSHALL P. WILDER. 
 
 RAMSEY'S, BERGEN .COUNTY, N.J., Nov. 27, 1879. 
 MR. J. B. BROWN. 
 
 My dear Sir, In reply to your letter of the i9th inst., I regret to 
 say that I shall leave in a few days for California, and am therefore un- 
 able to accept the invitation of Mr. Bailey to be present at the opening 
 of his Silo of 1 20 tons of " Ensilage," on the 3d of December, on his 
 farm at Billerica, Mass. 
 
 I have no doubt that the preservation of corn-stalks green for winter 
 fodder will soon become the great resource of our farmers, giving, as it 
 will, increased remuneration to agricultural industry. 
 
 Mr. Bailey is to be congratulated upon giving the FIRST public exhi- 
 bition of Ensilage, which promises such important changes. 
 
 I am confident, from the investigation I have given the subject, that 
 it will be a convincing showing of its great national value to all present. 
 I have felt for the last three years that I could render no greater benefit 
 to my neighbors, than to direct their attention to this system of hus- 
 bandry. 
 
 I am, with great respect, your obedient servant, 
 
 RODMAN M. PRICE. 
 
 MORETON FARM, ROCHESTER, N.Y., Dec. 2, 1879. 
 JOHN M. BAILEY. 
 
 Dear Sir, I received your kind invitation to be with you to-morrow. 
 Nothing would please me better ; but I am so busy with my seeds, that 
 it will be impossible to spare the time. 
 
 I think you have struck the right idea. 
 
 Respectfully yours, 
 
 Jos. HARRIS. 
 
30 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 Letters were also received from the agricultural edit- 
 ors of the " New York Tribune," " New York World," 
 " Land and Home," and other journals, asking for infor- 
 mation as to the experiment ; and also from Professors 
 Stockbridge, Goessmann, and Maynard, Richard Good- 
 man, Esq., H. H. Commins, Esq., William H. Bowker, 
 Esq., T. G. Huntington, O. A. Hillman, S. C. Stone, and 
 many others interested in agricultural developments. 
 
 Mr. J. B. Brown, President of the " New York Plough 
 Company," and translator of M. Goffart's book, was pres- 
 ent ; and there were quite a large number of gentlemen 
 from New York and the New England States. 
 
 After briefly looking at the Berkshire swine, Oxford- 
 shire-down and Cotswold sheep, and Jersey and short- 
 horn cattle, the company repaired to the Silos ; and to 
 say that there was a good deal of anxiety felt while the 
 stones and spruce plank were being removed for the 
 space of about three feet at one end of the Silo, would 
 be stating no untruth. 
 
 The top and edge of the Ensilage next the door for 
 two or three inches, was somewhat musty, and in places 
 almost rotten. But directly below this the fodder came 
 out cool, soft, moist, and wholesome looking, with a 
 strong alcoholic odor, and quite acid. It was evident 
 that fermentation had been going on until acetic acid had 
 been formed. 
 
 The following from the report of the editor of " The 
 Lowell Journal," who was present, will describe the im- 
 pression received by those present at the " opening : " 
 
 " There was, however, no unpleasant taste, except the acidity, and no 
 unpleasant smell. 
 
 " There were twenty or thirty head of cattle on the farm, as well as 
 sheep, swine, and horses. They were all given some of the Ensilage. 
 
 " The hogs ate it greedily. The sheep also seemed very fond of it. 
 
OPENING OF THE SILO. 3 i 
 
 The neat stock were not so eager for it at first; but mos of them 
 seemed after a while to acquire a taste for it, and soon manifested a 
 desire for more. 
 
 " There were spots where the fodder was not so sour ; but it was evi- 
 dent that it did not come out the sweet, fresh, and palatable fodder 
 which has been secured in the French Silos. 
 
 " The reasons which may be ascribed for this are various. Mr. Brown 
 thought it was due to the maturity of the fodder when cut. 
 
 " It may be that being just at the upper corner, near the door, the 
 preservation from oxygen was less perfect than will prove to have been 
 the case farther down in the mass. 
 
 " The numerous dry and dead leaves caused by the drought and frost 
 may possibly have something to do with it. We shall know more about 
 this as the Silo is emptied. 
 
 "One thing is certain thus far: the fodder is so well preserved that 
 the cattle will eat if, and there is no question but that they will thrive 
 on it. 
 
 " Since writing the above we have received a note from Mr. Bailey, 
 dated Dec. 5, in which he says, 
 
 " ' Yesterday morning we fed what Ensilage was taken from the Silo 
 while you were here. All of the animals but four ate it all, licking out 
 their mangers clean. The four finally ate theirs up before noon. This 
 morning we fed about a bushel to each grown animal, and a proportionate 
 feed to younger ones. I am pleased to state that they have all eaten it 
 up clean. The acidity appears to be much less than when first opened, 
 and there is emitted as there should be a strong alcoholic odor. I 
 think that under the circumstances we can claim it as a perfect suc- 
 cess.' " 
 
 There can be no doubt that the cause of this acidity, 
 and the alcoholic odor in the Ensilage, is on account of 
 the stalks being too mature before cutting. 
 
 Professor Goessmann Writes that " acetic acid had 
 formed in the stalks before they were cut." 
 
 If cut at the period of blossoming, but very little 
 acetic fermentation will take place in the Silo, and no 
 alcoholic fermentation until after it has been exposed in 
 a large pile to the action of the atmosphere. 
 
 I think there is always more or less acidity present. 
 
32 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 From a report to the Central Agricultural Society of 
 France by a " committee of the sections on live stock, 
 physico-chemical and high cultivation," upon the subject 
 of the "Ensilage of green-cut corn-fodder seance, April 
 7, 1875," I make the following extract: 
 
 " The fodder has an alcoholic odor quite marked and slightly acid. It 
 is eaten with avidity by the cows, and constituted their sole food since 
 the commencement of winter. We were struck by the hearty appear- 
 ance of the 28 or 30 cows. Their eyes were bright, their skins soft, and 
 they are in good condition. (Goffart's ' Ensilage of Maize.')" 
 
 On the Qth of December the following report was 
 made to "The Country Gentleman : " 
 
 ENSILAGE IN MASSACHUSETTS. 
 
 EDITORS COUNTRY GENTLEMAN : 
 
 . The " Winning Farm Silos " are a perfect success. The preserved 
 corn- fodder which was cut about T \ of an inch long, and placed in the 
 Silo about the last of September, and subjected to heavy and continuous 
 pressure, is being fed to the stock. They all eat it with avidity. Its 
 preservation is perfect. It has an alcoholic odor, and is somewhat 
 acid. My stock eat it all, lick out their mangers, and look wistfully for 
 more. When the Silo was first opened, Dec. 3, there appeared to be a 
 strong acidity, so much so that some of the gentlemen present were some- 
 what disappointed ; but as we get farther into the mass of Ensilage the 
 acidity is much less, while the alcoholic odor upon exposure to the air 
 several hours is much stronger. 
 
 I tried a little experiment with it this afternoon. I had a pen of seven 
 Oxfordshire-downs, and another pen of five maple-shade Cotswolds. 
 They had just been fed with some clean bright hay. In another feed- 
 trough I put some Ensilage. Five of the seven Oxfordshire-downs left 
 the hay, and ate the Ensilage, and four of the five Cotswolds left their 
 hay and did likewise. 
 
 I feed, in place of the ration of hay, 25 to 30 pounds of Ensilage to 
 each cow in the morning, and the same at night, which has lain upon 
 the barn-floor all night, during which time fermentation is quite active so 
 that it is warm in the morning. 
 
 The Ensilage in the Silo which is compacted, although exposed to 
 
OPENING OF THE SILO. 33 
 
 the air seems to undergo no change. It is pressed so hard that the air 
 cannot enter, and therefore does not affect it at all. I am delighted with 
 the success of the enterprise. 
 
 I believe it is possible to keep four cows a year upon corn fodder 
 Ensilage raised upon one acre of land. Verily we are under the greatest 
 obligation to M. Goffart, and to J. B. Brown ; to the former for demon- 
 strating to our satisfaction that corn-fodder can be successfully preserved 
 in this manner, and to the latter for translating M. Goffart's work into 
 English so that we may profit by his great success. If he is truly blest 
 who " causes two blades of grass to grow where only one grew before," 
 how much more to be honored is this man who has taught us how to 
 keep four cows upon an acre of land where one cow would find but 
 scanty subsistence before ! A most fortunate agricultural revolution is 
 indeed impending, and one which I trust many of our progressive farm- 
 ers will engage in during the coming season. 
 
 JOHN M. BAILEY. 
 "WINNING FARM," BILLERICA, MASS. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 COST OF KEEPING STOCK UPON ENSILAGE. 
 
 THE following statement from a gentleman whose 
 estate joins " Winning Farm " will be read with interest. 
 
 JOHN M. BAILEY, ESQ., 
 
 Winning Farm, Billerica, Mass. 
 
 Dear Sir, In accordance with my suggestions made on the occa- 
 sion of the opening of your Silo, Dec. 3, 1 have used your Ensilage in 
 manner as follows. My small herd of six cows calved early in the 
 spring, viz., in the months of March and April. They are of the ordinary 
 New England stock, with no pretensions to any pedigree. I sell no milk ; 
 and my cows, such as they are, were selected more for their butter-mak- 
 ing qualities than for any extra milking properties. These cows had 
 served through the season for butter-making, and with the commence- 
 ment, of cold weather and the stoppage of " fall feed " had begun to 
 shrink in milk. 
 
 Previous to the use of your Ensilage, the six cows had been fed two 
 bushels of flat turnips, with four quarts of bran to each cow daily, and 
 what dry corn-fodder they would eat. The amount of milk given by 
 them daily was 30 quarts, from which 18 pounds of butter were made 
 per week. 
 
 I commenced using your Ensilage on Wednesday, Dec. 10, and left 
 off using it on the iTth, feeding 18 barrels, or 54 bushels, during the 
 week. All but one cow took to the fodder at first kindly, and their 
 appetite for it increased from day to day. There was an increase of 
 milk from 30 quarts to 35 quarts daily. The cream was thicker, of 
 richer color, and of better quality, than from their previous feeding. 
 One sack of bran of the value of 90 cents was all that the cows ate dur- 
 
 34 
 
COST OF KEEPING STOCK UPON ENSILAGE. 35 
 
 ing the week in addition to your Ensilage, except a small amount of 
 bog or meadow hay of nominal value. 
 
 The account for this week would therefore be for the six cows : 
 
 54 bushels Ensilage (1,620 Ibs.), @ $.001 .... -$1.62 
 i bag wheat shorts 90 
 
 $2.52 
 
 The cows should be credited with 22 pounds of butter at 35 cents 
 a pound, and say 210 quarts of skim-milk at one cent per quart, which 
 I consider its value as feed for the pigs. 
 
 22 pounds butter, @ $.35 . ,' ,, % v >. . $7.70 
 2 10 quarts skim-milk .01 , ' . . . . . 2.10 
 
 Cost of keeping 
 
 Profit . ..,;><_, -':. . : ;,..,:.>,;. . $7.28 
 
 The flavor of the butter was excellent, and its color a good yellow 
 equal to that which sweet pasture gives. 
 
 In the above brief statement I have confined myself strictly to facts, 
 and will make no comments, except to say that I am convinced that 
 your method of preserving green fodder for use in winter time is a suc- 
 cess, and will eventually be adopted in this part of the country. 
 
 HENRY B. JUDKINS. 
 
 Since receiving the above, Mr. Judkins informs me 
 that his cows shrank so that they gave but 20 quarts 
 daily, three days after resuming dry feed. 
 
 This is about what they would have shrunk to by this 
 time, had the natural shrinkage not been arrested and an 
 increase caused by the one week's feed of Ensilage. 
 
 I have a Jersey heifer 20 months old which has 
 doubled her yield of milk since I began to feed Ensilage. 
 I have one cow 13 years old which came in Dec. i, three 
 weeks ago. She is now giving 16 quarts daily upon 60 
 pounds of Ensilage and four quarts of shorts. I am 
 feeding 35 head of cattle and 100 head of sheep upon 45 
 bushels (about 1,350 pounds) of Ensilage, and 80 cents' 
 
36 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 worth of shorts, and less than 50 pounds of hay daily. 
 I cannot make the cost of corn Ensilage to be more than 
 one mill per pound, or $2 per ton. 
 
 It will, therefore, be seen that the expense of keeping 
 35 horned animals and 100 sheep at " Winning Farm" 
 is as follows : 
 
 1,350 pounds of Ensilage (a) $.001 .' ' ? - ; . ;i 
 90 pounds of shorts . ^. - . " . : ; 
 50 pounds of hay (a) $15 per ton . ' v . 
 
 Total cost per day ...... $2.52^ 
 
 The cost of keeping the above stock upon hay and 
 grain would be as follows : 
 
 20 pounds of hay to each animal (ten yearlings count- 
 ed as five cows), making 30 head, would require daily as 
 follows : 
 
 600 pounds of hay for cattle, at $15 per ton . . . $4 50 
 
 200 pounds of hay for 100 sheep . . . . . . i 50 
 
 1 20 pounds of shorts for cattle, at $18 per ton . . . i 08 
 
 40 pounds of shorts for sheep ...... 36 
 
 Total cost of keeping 30 cattle and 100 sheep per day on hay 
 
 and grain . . . . . . . . $7 44 
 
 Cost of keeping the above on Ensilage as above . . . 252^ 
 
 Daily balance in favor of Ensilage $4 91^ 
 
 From my experience in feeding so far, I consider Ensi- 
 lage to be worth one-half as much as the best timothy 
 hay. I would not, however, exchange Ensilage for hay 
 and give two tons for one. I believe that 40 to 75 tons 
 of corn-fodder can easily be raised upon an acre, which 
 if properly Ensilaged will be equal to from 20 to 370 tons 
 of hay. To receive the fullest benefit, however, I think 
 there should be some nitrogenous food, such as oats, 
 shorts, pea or bean meal, oil meal or animal meal, fed 
 with the Ensilage. 
 
COST OF KEEPING STOCK UPON ENSILAGE. 37 
 
 Judging from the appearance and the droppings of 
 rny animals, I believe they are fed as high as young and 
 breeding stock should be fed. 
 
 There is another advantage : after the corn is cut and 
 put into the Silo, the last of August or first of Septem- 
 ber, the land can then be ploughed, and sown with 
 winter rye. The summer, fall, and winter accumulations 
 of manure can be hauled out, and spread broadcast upon 
 the rye at any time after it is sown, during the fall and 
 winter months or early spring. The rye will be in blos- 
 som, and ready to cut, between the loth and 25th of 
 May, and should be cut yg- of an inch long, and put into 
 the Silo in the same manner as the corn fodder. 
 
 Land highly manured ought to give ten tons of green 
 rye for Ensilage per acre. The manure having been 
 applied to the land during the time it was occupied by 
 the rye, nothing remains but to plough in the rye stubble, 
 and drill in the corn. Thus 40 to 75 tons of Ensilage 
 can be easily raised from one acre of good corn-land. 
 
 I roll my fodder-corn land as 'soon as planted, harrow 
 with a Thomas smoothing-harrow just as it is prick- 
 ing through the ground, and once every week or ten 
 days until it is about a foot high. Then, if there appear 
 any weeds, I go through it once with a horse-hoe. I 
 like the Centennial horse-hoe, manufactured by Tim- 
 othy B. Hussey, North Berwick, Me., best of any I have 
 tried. 
 
 In conclusion, let me urge every farmer, who can, to 
 build a Silo. They will have to build sheds to accommo- 
 date the stock they will be able to keep. Silos and 
 cheap cattle-sheds are much cheaper than expensive hay- 
 barns. 
 
 No manure-cellars are needed. Cement the floors of 
 the cattle-sheds (it costs less than a plank floor) , so as 
 
38 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 to save all the manure, both solid and liquid ; bed them 
 with leaves, meadow hay, or any kind of hay, for that 
 matter. 
 
 Apply the manure as it is made, broadcast upon the 
 rye fields. The land will continually grow richer, the 
 crops of rye and corn fodder heavier. The stock upon 
 the farm will increase in number and value until agricul- 
 ture will become the most profitable as well as the 
 noblest avocation which shall engage the attention of 
 intelligent and refined manhood. 
 
 The foregoing was it will be seen written at 
 intervals, from the time of opening the Silo until about 
 the third day of January, when I went to Virginia to visit 
 my stock farm in Sussex County. A month had elapsed 
 since I first began to feed the Ensilage, and I was absent 
 from " Winning Farm " about a month. 
 
 Although letters from my manager had informed me 
 from time to time that " the Ensilage works better every 
 day," still I was unprepared to see such an improve- 
 ment in the general appearance of the stock. They 
 lookecl as if they had been at pasture with feed up to 
 their eyes, sleek and smooth. Hundreds of people have 
 visited " Winning Farm " during the winter to see the 
 Silos, and examine the stock fed upon Ensilage. All 
 expressed the same surprise and delight at their appear- 
 ance. It is all eaten, not a pound is wasted : sheep, 
 hogs, cattle and horses, all like it. Sheep seem to be as 
 fond of it as they are of oats. In January I purchased 
 the maple-shade flock of Cotswolds, or, at least, all the 
 best ewes in the flock. Since their arrival at ''Winning 
 Farm " they have been fed Ensilage daily. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 TIME WHEN FORAGE PLANTS CONTAIN THE GREATEST AMOUNT 
 OF NUTRITIVE VALUE. 
 
 A GREAT advance has been made within a few years in 
 agricultural knowledge ; and among the most valuable 
 facts learned has been this, that grass contains a greater 
 amount of nutrition when in blossom than at any time 
 before or afterwards. 
 
 What is true of the common grasses, viz., timothy, red- 
 top, orchard-grass, and clover, is equally true of corn, 
 which is but a gigantic grass. 
 
 If, then, a stalk of corn contains at the time it blossoms 
 more nutritive value than at any subsequent time, how 
 foolish and wasteful to let it stand for the ear to form at 
 the expense of the stalk, while at the same time great 
 loss is going on from the leaves and the stalk, as is the 
 case with other and smaller grasses. 
 
 The seed formed in the head of a stalk of timothy or 
 other grass while very rich and nutritious in itself 
 does not by any means compensate for the loss which 
 has been sustained by the stalk and leaves while the 
 seed is forming and ripening. 
 
 The loss which is sustained in the ripening process is 
 not all. By expending a great amount of labor the corn 
 is shucked and put in the cribs. There it suffers more or 
 less from the depredations of rats, mice, and other vermin. 
 
 39 
 
4O THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 We re-shock or stack the corn-fodder. If we hope 
 or expect to induce our cattle to eat much of the 
 stover, we must cut it with a powerful cutter ; next the 
 corn must be ground, and carefully mixed with the cut 
 corn-fodder. Then it must be steamed ; and after all this 
 labor and expense the stock will nose it about in their 
 mangers, and leave enough of it to keep themselves well 
 bedded. Now what do we accomplish by all this shuck- 
 ing, cribbing, grinding, cutting of the fodder, mixing 
 and steaming? Why, we have been getting up a very 
 poor quality of " Ensilage " ! 
 
 After the stalks and leaves had become almost worth- 
 less by exposure to the rains and dews while the ripen- 
 ing of the ears was being accomplished, we then, by 
 an expensive, laborious, and roundabout way, try with all 
 the appliances of steam and machinery to get the corn 
 back into the stalks so that we can induce our cattle to 
 eat them. 
 
 Why not take and preserve the plant when its nutritive 
 value is the greatest ? when all its valuable elements are 
 mixed and blended in an harmonious whole exactly 
 adapted for the healthy sustenance of our domestic ani- 
 mals, by that Master Chemist whose handiwork as seen 
 in the tiniest leaf is so far in advance of our most skilful 
 combinations that we can never even hope to comprehend 
 how it was formed from the original elements. 
 
 It will be almost unnecessary to state that this system 
 of preserving corn-fodder is equally well adapted to all 
 the grasses, clover, Hungarian grass, millet, pea and 
 bean vines, and, in fact, to all kinds of forage-crops, par- 
 ticularly heavy crops of aftermath, which it is often im- 
 possible to cure by drying, owing to the lateness of the 
 season, the sun by the obliquity of its rays having lost 
 much of its potency. 
 
TIME OF GREATEST NUTRITIVE VALUE. 41 
 
 There is no doubt in my mind that there is more 
 available nutrition in a kernel of grain when it is fully 
 grown, before it has had time to harden, before a part of 
 its substance has been converted into a hard, tough en- 
 velope which is almost indigestible, than at any subse- 
 quent time. This hard protecting envelope is a wise and 
 providential provision to protect the kernel as a seed for 
 future crops. Heretofore no means have been known 
 to preserve grain except by ripening and drying, nor to 
 cure forage crops except by drying : since Ensilage has 
 been proved practical, we may now harvest all our crops 
 when they contain the greatest available amount of as- 
 similable nutritive elements, and preserve them unimr 
 paired indefinitely. In this view of the object of ripen- 
 ing grain, the conclusion is irresistible that the nutritive 
 acme in corn and other grain is to be found at or before 
 the blossoming period, as it is in the grasses. 
 
 It is by no means certain, so far as the kernel of grain 
 itself is concerned, that the ripened grain contains as 
 large an amount of available nutritive elements as it does 
 when in the milk. I have often observed that pigs when 
 fed upon soft corn grow better than when fed upon old 
 corn. Experiments in feeding swine at the West, re- 
 ported in ''The National Live Stock Journal," show this. 
 In the August number I find the following : 
 
 " There is no article of food for swine, available to the ordinary farm- 
 er, that will fatten hogs so rapidly as green corn. Its use may be com- 
 menced just as soon as the kernels are fairly filled with 'milk;' and 
 the gain that young pigs, as well as mature hogs, will make upon this 
 food is surprising: In preparing swine for exhibition at the autumn fairs, 
 or for an early market for pork, nothing is equal to it." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ANALYSIS AND COMPOSITION OF CORN WHEN CUT IN ITS 
 GREEN STATE. 
 
 THE following is taken from J. B. Brown's translation, 
 and is a letter to Mons. A. GofTart from J. A. Barras, 
 Perpetual Secretary of the Central Agricultural Society 
 of France, and editor of " Journal de TAgriculture. " 
 
 "You do not seek to produce a fermentation." (Earlier in the experi- 
 ments it was thought that fodder could only be preserved in a green state 
 by fermentation. This is found to be a mistake : all fermentation is 
 but the beginning of decomposition and decay, and should be avoided 
 as much as possible. J. M. B.) "You propose to maintain all its parts 
 in a condition as near as possible like that of the plant at the moment it 
 was cut. 
 
 " It is important to ascertain what is the distribution of mineral and 
 organic matter in the different parts of the stalk of corn. 
 
 " When it is cut for the Silo it becomes a mixture of all parts of the 
 plant in such a manner as to give to the stock those which are richest in 
 nourishment as well as those that are the poorest. 
 
 " This is one of the advantages of the method. If you give the corn- 
 plant to the stock in the natural state, they will eat' first the tender parts, 
 and will leave the hard parts which offer the most resistance to the teeth 
 and have the least flavor. 
 
 " I have taken thirteen stalks of corn weighing altogether 37 pounds." 
 (In reducing the weights and measures of the metric system to pounds, 
 feet, and inches, I omit small fractions, getting it near enough for all 
 practical purposes. J. M. B.), "and have cut them up into six lots as 
 follows. Each of these lots has been dried at TOO degrees (R.). The 
 stalks were cut into three parts. The length of each portion was : upper 
 42 
 
ANALYSIS AND COMPOSITION OF CORN. 
 
 43 
 
 part, 25.50 inches; middle part, 34.60 inches ; lower part, 31.50 inches. 
 Average total lenglh of each stalk without tassels being a fraction over 
 nine feet. 
 
 Table No. i. 
 
 
 WEIGHT IN 
 GREEN STATE. 
 
 WEIGHT AFTER 
 DRYING. 
 
 WATER, OR 
 Loss PER CENT. 
 
 
 Grammes. 
 
 4.80 c 
 
 Grammes. 
 1. 11 ^ 
 
 T>.6l 
 
 Tassel . 
 
 .IO2 
 
 *'J l D 
 
 .04.7 
 
 r6 O7 
 
 Ear with stern . . 
 
 7 0^6 
 
 7 C'* 
 
 7 C 14 
 
 Upper part of stalk ..... 
 
 I.27O 
 
 /!>- 
 
 .1 > r 
 
 O >1 4 
 QO I C 
 
 Middle part of stalk . ... 
 
 2.446 
 r T/i6 
 
 ;~j 
 341 " : "'. 
 
 66 1 
 
 86.06 
 
 87 ic 
 
 
 
 
 
 i i stalks 
 
 l6.7QS 
 
 3->4I 
 
 8076 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 "Thus the water was quite unequally distributed in the stalk. They 
 were more watery at the upper part, but the flowering portion was much 
 less ; the grain was still milky. 
 
 " The relations between the different parts of the plant are found to 
 be as follows : 
 
 Table No. 2. 
 
 
 GREEN STATE. 
 
 DRY STATE. 
 
 Leaves ... 
 
 Percent of Weight. 
 2Q.2O "i 
 
 Per cent of Weight. 
 4O. C7 \ 
 
 Tassel 
 
 66 > 47.87 
 
 1.42 / 65.19 
 
 
 iS.OI ) 
 
 21.2O ) 
 
 Upper part of stalk . . . 
 
 7. ^6 1 
 
 -1.8 c } 
 
 Middle part of stalk 
 
 /O u 1 
 14.86? S2.I1 
 
 IO. S2 > "?4.8l 
 
 Lower part of stalk 
 
 30.01 ' 
 
 20.44 / 
 
 
 
 
 
 100.00 100.00 
 
 IOO.OO IOO.OO 
 
 " This shows that the stalks when green surpass in weight the remain- 
 der of the organs of the plant. They contain, however, a less propor- 
 tion of dry matter, and less even than the leaves which have in the fresh 
 state a much less weight. 
 
44 
 
 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 " I have analyzed separately each of the six lots ; and I have obtained 
 the following composition in organic substance, and ashes or mineral 
 substance : 
 
 Table No. 3. 
 
 
 
 
 
 STALK. 
 
 
 
 
 
 LEAVES. 
 
 J 
 
 1 
 
 c/5 
 
 < 
 
 H 
 
 I 
 
 I 
 
 X 
 
 ll 
 
 i 
 
 H 
 
 Organic substance 
 
 8601 
 
 Q4 80 
 
 08 70 
 
 
 
 98 26 
 
 26 
 
 Ashes or mineral substance . . 
 
 10.99 
 
 5.20 
 
 yo.jvj 
 1.70 
 
 4-57 
 
 2.69 
 
 1.74 
 
 5-74 
 
 
 100.00 
 
 100.00 
 
 100.00 
 
 100.00 
 
 100.00 
 
 100.00 
 
 IOO.OO 
 
 " Thus it will be seen that the mineral substance is accumulated in 
 the leaves and upper part of the stalk. 
 
 " Here ar<^the exact proportions of the mineral substance in the dif- 
 ferent organs of corn : 
 
 Table No. 4. 
 
 Leaves 77-7O 
 
 Tassel 1.22 
 
 Ear and stem 6.79 
 
 Upper part of stalk 3.13 
 
 Middle part of stalk 4.87 
 
 Lower part of stalk 6.29 
 
 100.00 
 
 "Thus, more than 77 per cent of mineral substance is accumulated 
 in the leaves, more than 14 per cent in the stalk, and only about six per 
 cent in the ear. 
 
 " We will now ascertain the composition of the different parts of the 
 plants, as appears when dried : 
 
ANALYSIS AND COMPOSITION OF CORN. 
 Table No. 5. 
 
 45 
 
 
 
 
 
 STALK. 
 
 
 
 
 
 LEAVES. 
 
 a 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 MIDDLE. 
 
 K 
 
 I 
 
 I 1 
 
 Nitrogenous substances . . . 
 Fatty matter soluble in ether 
 Saccharine matter soluble in al- 
 cohol . . 
 
 6.28 
 1.30 
 
 6 co 
 
 6.27 
 
 1.90 
 
 4 7O 
 
 11.09 
 
 2.50 
 
 8 1O 
 
 4-34 
 
 I.OO 
 
 3.86 
 .40 
 
 3-37 
 3 
 
 6.47 
 1.28 
 
 Starch 
 
 64 n 
 
 2C 21 
 
 71 CI 
 
 3Q 4Q 
 
 
 
 11.77 
 
 Cellulose . . . . r ..l . . . 
 Mineral substance 
 
 1 0.60 
 
 TO QQ 
 
 56.70 
 
 2.90 
 I 7O 
 
 33*^o 
 
 33-80 
 
 2 69 
 
 38.00 
 
 5-35 
 18.37 
 
 
 
 - 1 ' 
 
 
 57 
 
 
 1./4 
 
 5-74 
 
 Total 
 
 IOO OO 
 
 IOO OO 
 
 IOO OO 
 
 IOO OO 
 
 IOO OO 
 
 
 
 Nitrogenous per cent .... 
 
 1.004 
 
 1.004 
 
 1-775 
 
 .694 
 
 .617 
 
 540 
 
 I -33 
 
 " The ear is found, as we would expect, much richer in nitrogenous 
 substance than the other parts of the plant. The nutritive power (or 
 comparative value) as it is agreed to define it, by the relation of the 
 azotic substance to the sum of the fatty matter, sugar, and starch, is quite 
 inferior in the stalks to that of the other organs, as the following table 
 3hows. 
 
 "Taking the ear as unity, the proportionate nutritive power is as 
 ^ollows : 
 
 Table No. 6. 
 
 
 
 NUTRITIVE VALUE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 WHOLE PLANT. 
 
 Leaves 
 
 66 
 
 2 C4 
 
 Tassel . 
 
 I 4Q 
 
 3^ 
 
 OQ 
 
 Ears 
 
 I.OO 
 
 2.C7 
 
 Upper part of stalk 
 
 C7 
 
 17 
 
 Middle part of stalk . 
 
 J/ 
 4Q 
 
 .4.1 
 
 Lower part of stalk 
 
 ,A C 
 
 .60 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 6.47 
 
 " The stalk, however, shows that it is very rich, and, above all, the 
 leaves, which therefore should be taken care of for the cattle. The fatty 
 matter is concentrated in the leaves and in the ear, the saccharine mat- 
 ter in the leaves and stalk, and mostly in the lower part of the stalk. 
 
4 6 
 
 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 " The following table indicates the concentration of saccharine mat- 
 ter in the leaves and stalk : 
 
 Table No. 7. 
 
 
 EACH PART CON- 
 TRIBUTES. 
 
 PER CENT OF DIF- 
 FERENT PARTS 
 TO THE WHOLE. 
 
 
 2.64 
 
 22.36 
 
 Tassel 
 
 .07 
 
 .CO 
 
 Ears . . 
 
 I.Q7 
 
 l6.4I 
 
 Upper part of stalk 
 
 .67 
 
 C.6Q 
 
 Middle part of stalk . 
 
 2.17 
 
 18.45 
 
 
 4- 2Q 
 
 ^6. CO 
 
 
 
 
 
 11.77 
 
 100.00 
 
 " Cellulose substance is, as we would expect, in large proportion in 
 the stalk, and mostly toward the lower part of it. It is principally in the 
 leaves and ears with stem, that the starch and the other principles which 
 are neither cellulose nor nitrogenous nor mineral are found : 
 
 Table No. 8. 
 
 
 Entire Plant. 
 
 Leaves. 
 
 Tassels. 
 
 1 
 
 N 
 
 CO 
 
 
 
 L 
 
 Jj2 
 -ac/3 
 
 1 = 
 
 b 
 
 D.j^j 
 
 ^5 
 
 s 
 
 Phosphoric acid 
 
 7.17 
 
 5.07 
 
 IO.OI 
 
 77. CO 
 
 Q.O7 
 
 I4-O 
 
 7.17 
 
 Sulphuric acid 
 
 78l 
 
 > 21 
 
 6 17 
 
 7 c.8 
 
 c.6l 
 
 865 
 
 78l 
 
 Chlorine . 
 
 J.Ol 
 I.-5C 
 
 J..41 
 
 I O4 
 
 2 7"! 
 
 JO" 
 
 5 r-> 
 
 yy 
 
 2 I c 
 
 Trace 
 
 J.Ol 
 
 I 7C 
 
 Potash 
 
 4.41 
 
 I ^7 
 
 7.88 
 
 JO~ 
 27 1 1 
 
 14 61 
 
 2 41 
 
 ^'Jj 
 
 4 41 
 
 Soda 
 
 8 26 
 
 678 
 
 IO 77 
 
 7 r -3 A 
 
 I 2 C7 
 
 8 "'Q 
 
 8 "6 
 
 Lime 
 Magnesia 
 
 I2.g6 
 660 
 
 I3-78 
 *64 
 
 11.87 
 I 1 O7 
 
 3-46 
 7 04 
 
 '-:)/ 
 10.29 
 
 IO 5 
 
 14-31 
 
 8 71 
 
 12.96 
 660 
 
 Iron . 
 
 O C I 
 
 o 46 
 
 Oil 
 
 Trace 
 
 2 08 
 
 o 6? 
 
 O CI 
 
 Silex 
 
 U..DI 
 
 C4 7 C 
 
 6776 
 
 ->t 81 
 
 O 1A. 
 
 ^087 
 
 41 77 
 
 '-'i 1 
 
 rx 7 e 
 
 Carbonic acid and waste . . . 
 
 J^'/J 
 
 0.18 
 
 0.13 
 
 JJ-'-'J 
 0.03 
 
 O.O9 
 
 *y U J 
 
 3- 2 7 
 
 1. 4.9 
 
 J^'/ J 
 0.18 
 
 
 100.00 
 
 100.00 
 
 IOO.OO 
 
 IOO.OO 
 
 IOO.OO 
 
 roo.oo 
 
 IOO.CO 
 
 "The above table shows that the ears are the richest in phosphoric 
 acid and potash. These also contain the largest percentage of soda, 
 the least of lime and silex. 
 
ANALYSIS AND COMPOSITION OF CORN. 
 
 47 
 
 " As to the distribution of each mineral element in the different parts 
 of the plant, it is necessary, in order to study it thoroughly, to enter into 
 a more detailed and separate examination. Phosphoric acid or phos- 
 phorus, plays an important part in agriculture, not because it is more 
 indispensable to vegetation than several other elements, but because na- 
 ture has not distributed it with so much profusion in all lands or in the 
 atmosp'here as certain other elements that on that account are considered 
 secondary. Indeed, there is not any one element in vegetation of any 
 greater importance than another ; and, if any person judges otherwise, it 
 is because he places himself at the point of view of an agriculturist who, 
 having need to produce certain crops of a special kind, needs to accu- 
 mulate such elements as enter specially into their organization. . 
 
 " Therefore, in order to obtain abundant food, in order to produce 
 with rapidity domestic animals whose organs require much phosphorus, ; 
 it is necessary to seek methods for increasing the supply of phosphates, 
 more or less assimilable, that the plants may find in the bed where their 
 roots develop. 
 
 " To indicate the sources of the supply, whether in the residuum of 
 factories, or of the household, or in the numerous repositories, has been 
 one of the greatest services rendered in modern times to agriculture by 
 chemistry and geology. 
 
 " But there our knowledge ends : we are entirely ignorant as to how 
 the phosphorus distributes itself in the vegetable, by what process it 
 penetrates and circulates and accumulates in certain organs, or exactly 
 what these organs are. 
 
 " As to the relative distribution of these elements ; the following tables 
 show as far as concerns maize fodder intended for green preservation 
 by Ensilage. 
 
 PHOSPHORIC ACID. 
 
 Table No. . 
 
 
 AMOUNT IN EACH 
 
 PART. 
 
 PRESENT IN DIF- 
 FERENT PARTS. 
 
 Leaves '. 
 
 Grammes. 
 O.I 77 
 
 42.06 
 
 Tassel 
 
 O OO7 
 
 I.7O 
 
 Ears ... 
 
 O.I 72 
 
 72.O4 
 
 
 O.O2O 
 
 4-85 
 
 Middle stalk . . . . . . 
 
 0.0^6 
 
 6.31 
 
 Lower stalk ...... 
 
 O.OCO 
 
 12.14 
 
 
 
 
 Whole plant dry .... 
 
 O.4I2 
 
 IOO.OO 
 
 
 
 
4 8 
 
 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 SULPHURIC ACID. 
 
 "The role of sulphur in vegetation is nearly unknown : all that we 
 know is that it is absolutely necessary. It is generally found in less pro- 
 portion than phosphorus, in corn as 88 to 180. 
 
 Table No. 10. 
 
 
 QUANTITY IN EACH 
 
 PART. 
 
 PER CENT IN EACH 
 PART. 
 
 
 Grammes. 
 .144 
 
 6S.75 
 
 Tassel . . . '* . "> 
 
 0.005 
 
 2.28 
 
 Ears 
 
 0.014 
 
 6.7Q 
 
 Upper part of stalk 
 
 O.OCK) 
 
 4.11 
 
 Middle part of stalk 
 
 0.016 
 
 7.7O 
 
 Lower part of stalk 
 
 0.031 
 
 14.17 
 
 
 
 
 Whole plant dry 
 
 0.219 
 
 IOO.OO 
 
 
 
 
 CHLORINE. 
 
 "By the conclusive experiments of Prince de Salon- Horstman we 
 know that chlorine is indispensable to the regular operations of the 
 different phases of vegetation ; but the most complete obscurity rests 
 upon its real action. 
 
 Table No. n. 
 
 
 QUANTITY IN EACH 
 
 PART. 
 
 PER CENT IN DIF- 
 FERENT PARTS. 
 
 Leaves . 
 
 Grammes. 
 0.047 
 O.OO2 
 0.014 
 O.OO9 
 O.OO6 
 
 Traces. 
 
 60.26 
 
 2. 5 6 
 
 17-95 
 11.54 
 
 7-69 
 
 Traces. 
 
 Tassel 
 
 Ears 
 
 Upper stalk 
 
 Middle stalk 
 
 Lower stalk ... 
 
 Whole plant dry 
 
 0.078 
 
 IOO.OO 
 
 
 POTASH. 
 
 "Berthier's saying, 'No plant without potash,' has become a maxim. 
 
ANALYSIS AND COMPOSITION OF CORN. 
 
 49 
 
 Table No. 12. 
 
 
 QUANTITY IN EACH 
 
 PART. 
 
 PER CENT IN EACH 
 PART. 
 
 Leaves . 
 
 Grammes. 
 
 OO. CC 
 
 21. 04 
 
 Tassel 
 
 O.OO6 
 
 2.27 
 
 Ears 
 
 O.IO7 
 
 4.2. 2Q ' 
 
 Upper part stalk 
 
 0.036 
 
 14.27 
 
 Middle part stalk 
 
 0.041 
 
 1 6. 2O 
 
 
 OOO8 
 
 j.17 
 
 
 
 
 Whole plant dry 
 
 O.2C7 
 
 IOO.OO 
 
 
 
 
 SODA IN CORN. 
 
 " In the whole plant 0.475 grammes, of which two-thirds accumulated 
 in the corn and one-sixth in the ears. 
 
 LIME IN CORN. 
 
 " Lime has been considered necessary to plant-growth from a very 
 ancient period : more than four-fifths are found in the leaves, only two 
 per cent in the ear, and the quantity increases in descending the stalk. 
 
 MAGNESIA IN CORN. 
 
 "The role of magnesia in vegetation has been but little studied. 
 There is no doubt, however, after the experiments made in Germany, 
 that its presence is indispensable to plants. Two-thirds of it is found 
 in the leaves, and the remainder equally divided in the other five parts 
 of the plant. 
 
 IRON IN MAIZE. 
 
 " Iron is evidently of great importance to the life of animals who are 
 nourished by vegetation. As with sulphur, chlorine, soda, lime, and 
 magnesia, the greatest accumulation is in the leaves. But it is a notice- 
 able fact that it is absent from the ear, which would seem to explain the 
 opinion of physicians as to the insufficiency of corn-meal for exclusive 
 human food. 
 
 " As to corn harvested green in order to be fed to cattle after Ensi- 
 lage, the lack of it in the ear is equalized by its presence in other parts 
 of the plant. 
 
THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 SILICA. 
 
 " It is probable that all silica enters the organs of vegetation in the 
 soluble state. The quantity found is very considerable. 
 
 Table No. 13. 
 
 
 QUANTITY IN EACH 
 
 PART. 
 
 PER CENT IN DIF- 
 FERENT PARTS. 
 
 
 Grammes. 
 2.84^ 
 
 QO.4C 
 
 Tassel . 
 
 O.O26 
 
 0.82 
 
 Ears 
 
 O.OOI 
 
 O.O'? 
 
 Upper part of stalk 
 
 O O4. 
 
 I *?1 
 
 Middle part of stalk 
 
 0.084 
 
 2.67 
 
 Lower part of stalk 
 
 O.I 47 
 
 4-7O 
 
 
 
 
 \Vhole plant dry 
 
 314^ 
 
 I CO OO 
 
 
 ^HO 
 
 
 " Thus the stalk contains only about one-tenth part of the amount 
 in the leaves, which contain 90 per cent of the whole plant." 
 
 Thus it is seen by the Table No. i , that the ear with 
 cob and stem forms but about one- fifth of the whole 
 plant either in its green or its dry state. By Table No. 
 2, that the leaves contain of solid material over 40 per 
 cent of the whole plant. By Table No. 4, that of the 
 mineral constituents the leaves contain over three-fourths 
 of all the mineral element in the whole plant. 
 
 But referring to Table No. 6 we find that when none 
 of the valuable attributes of the plant are lost, the 
 value of the ear as compared to the leaves is as 2.57 
 to 2.54 ; and, as compared to the whole plant, as 2.57 to 
 6.47. This shows the stock, leaves, and tassel to be 
 worth nearly three times as much as the ear, taken when 
 the ear is in the milk. Experiments made last season in 
 the West showed that hogs fattened faster upon green 
 corn (probably past the milky stage) than when fed 
 upon old corn. 
 
ANALYSIS AND COMPOSITION OF CORN. 51 
 
 Table No. 7 shows that the ear and cob contain less 
 than one-sixth as much sugar as the whole plant, and 
 but little more than two-thirds as much as the leaves, 
 and little more than one-fourth as much as the stalk. 
 
 While the ears are richer in proportion to their weight 
 in phosphoric acid, the most expensive mineral which 
 we require to restore to our long-cropped fields, es- 
 pecially where dairying has been pursued, still Table 
 No. 9 shows that the leaves altogether contain one- 
 fourth more than the ear, and that the ear contains but 
 32 per cent of that contained in the whole plant. 
 Tables 10 and 1 1 show that the ears contain but 6 per 
 cent of the sulphuric acid, and bujt 18 per cent of the 
 chlorine. And Table 12 is still more instructive; for it 
 shows that the leaves contain more than half as much 
 potash as the ears, that the stalk contains nearly as much 
 as the ear, and that the ear with the cob and stem con- 
 tain but 42 per cent of the potash contained in the 
 whole plant. Iron that which gives color not only to 
 the beautiful and luxurant vegetation, but paints the rose 
 upon the cheek of health, and gives vigor to the animal 
 system, and strength and clearness to the human brain, 
 is not found in the ears at all. 
 
 Of silica we find that over ninety per cent is in the 
 leaves, while but three one-hundredths of one per cent 
 are in the ear. 
 
 The lesson I wish to draw from this summary is two- 
 fold. First, it is shown that the ear contains, before 
 the stalk has lost by deterioration through exposure to 
 the weather, but a small part of the valuable constitu- 
 ents of the whole plant. 
 
 The following table, carefully compiled from the fore- 
 going, gives the comparative value which the ear bears 
 to the balance of the plant. 
 
52 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 Nutritive Value of the Ear, compared to the Rest of the Plant. 
 
 
 IN THE EAR. 
 
 IN BALANCE OF THE 
 
 PLANT. 
 
 TOTAL. 
 
 
 27 2O 
 
 7680 
 
 
 
 6 J" 1 " J 
 16.41 
 
 87 CO 
 
 IOO 
 
 Mineral substances 
 
 6.7Q 
 
 "OOV 
 Q-y 21 
 
 IOO 
 
 Phosphoric acid 
 
 72.O4 
 
 yj.^i 
 
 67.06 
 
 IOO 
 
 Sulphuric acid 
 
 6.7Q 
 
 Q7.6l 
 
 IOO 
 
 
 17 QH 
 
 8205 
 
 
 Potash 
 
 42.2Q 
 
 C7 71 
 
 IOO 
 
 Soda . . . . . 
 
 16.66 
 
 87.74 
 
 IOO 
 
 Lime 
 
 2.OO 
 
 qS.OO 
 
 IOO 
 
 
 667 
 
 Q-7 -1-J 
 
 IOO 
 
 
 Trace 
 
 Vj-JJ 
 IOO.OO 
 
 IOO 
 
 Silica . . . . 
 
 O.O7 
 
 QQ.Q7 
 
 IOO 
 
 
 
 
 
 Now, all of these mineral constituents are necessary 
 for the health and well-being of our domestic animals ; 
 and when corn is cured by Ensilage they are all present 
 in solution, so that when introduced into the alimentary 
 canal such parts and proportions as the animal economy 
 requires can be readily taken up and assimilated. Now 
 comes an almost equally important fact ; and it is this, 
 a very large proportion of these mineral constituents of 
 the plant passes through the animals, and is found in 
 their excrements. 
 
 When corn is preserved by Ensilage, all of these 
 valuable mineral elements are in condition, when ap- 
 plied in the manure to the next crop, to be immedi- 
 ately taken up and assimilated by the growing plants. 
 What an immense saving is here ! When corn-fodder 
 is cured by desiccation, many of the leaves, that part of 
 the plant which is richest in mineral matter, are lost, 
 being blown by the winds into the fence-corners, and 
 other out-of-the-way places where their mineral wealth 
 is wasted. The stalks are not eaten and digested by the 
 
ANALYSIS AND COMPOSITION OF CORN. 
 
 53 
 
 animals, are a nuisance in the manure-pile, and are at 
 
 least two years in becoming sufficiently decomposed in 
 
 the field, so that their mineral fertilizing material is in 
 condition for the growing plant to avail itself of. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 EXPLANATIONS WHY ENSILAGE MUST KEEP. 
 
 MANY farmers and others came to see the process of 
 filling the Silo with the green corn-fodder ; nearly all 
 declared that it would spoil, mould, heat, and rot. Sev- 
 eral said, " I guess you will have a fine lot of manure 
 before winter." I replied, " Gentlemen, it will not spoil 
 at all ; it will not even heat : it will come out just as 
 good feeding stuff as it is now, and I think better." 
 
 None of them believed a word I said, it was plain to 
 be seen. They were certain that this last of my " new- 
 fangled notions " would prove a complete failure, and 
 they would have the laugh on me this time. Some 
 endeavored to cheer me up by saying that " even if it 
 did not work well for the purpose I intended, the Silos 
 would be a capital place to store fruit in, so that it won't 
 be all loss, any way." 
 
 This kind of talk had been going on for several days, 
 and was, I confess, getting to be rather monotonous. 
 One day a number of well-meaning but incredulous 
 neighboring farmers were present. They knew nothing 
 of agricultural chemistry, or the philosophy of its pres- 
 ervation ; but I made up my mind I would convince them 
 that the green corn-fodder would keep instead of rotting : 
 
 therefore I said, " You think it will heat and spoil, do 
 
 
 
 54 
 
EXPLANATIONS WHY ENSILAGE MUST KEEP. 55 
 
 you?" "Yes, I am afraid it will," said they each and 
 all." " Now, I tell you it won't do any such thing." 
 " Why won't it ? what makes you think so ? " they asked. 
 I knew that I might quote M. Goffart, and all the agri- 
 cultural scientists in the world to them till doomsday, 
 and it would have no impression on their minds, so I 
 took homely illustrations. Said I, " Why doesn't a pile 
 of horse-manure heat when it is left in the stable all 
 winter under the feet of the horses, until it gets three or 
 four feet deep ? Why doesn't sheep-manure heat when 
 it is left all winter in the sheep-folds, and becomes a foot 
 and a half to two feet deep? " " Because it is trod down 
 so solid, the air can't get into it." " Just so! that is the 
 reason this corn-fodder won't heat and spoil : it is ' trod 
 down' so solid that the air cannot get into it," I rejoined. 
 This was rather a staggerer. " Is there any thing which 
 is quicker to heat when it has a chance than horse or 
 sheep manure?" I asked. " No-o-o," they reluctantly 
 admitted. " Now see here," said I : " haven't you all 
 noticed in the spring, when you were getting out your 
 hog-manure, that you often came across, in the bottom 
 of the yards, buried under the manure, potato-vines and 
 weeds which had been thrown in to the hogs the fall 
 before, that were just as green and fresh as when they 
 were first pulled out of the ground?"* They all replied, 
 " Yes, we have." 
 
 BILLERICA, April 21, 1880. 
 
 * MY GOOD DOCTOR, According to request I send you an account of the find- 
 ing of a fresh and perfectly preserved lily-pad, six or seven feet below the surface 
 of one of our Concord-river meadows. It was in perfect shape, and as green and 
 healthy-looking as in its prime of life. Having a love for geological researches, and 
 thinking these meadows had some time been deposited by the river, I concluded to 
 make an examination. At the top I found a foot in depth of black meadow soil ; 
 then, next below, another foot in depth of diatomacious deposit of microscopic shells, 
 composed entirely of pure silex, so small that they make a good silver-polish. I then 
 came to a pure vegetable deposit, consisting of sticks and leaves, four feet deep. 
 At the bottom of this I found green and well-preserved lily-pads, clam-shells, char- 
 
56 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 " Well, " said I, " my Ensilage will keep just the same 
 way. I trample it down solid as it is put in the Silos, 
 cover it with rye-straw, then floor it over with plank, and 
 put about a foot in depth of cobble-stones or bowlders 
 which will press it down solid as a cider-cheese. No air 
 can then get in. The air and gases already in will be 
 continually being forced out by the weight. Therefore 
 it cannot heat any more than the horse and sheep 
 manure can when it is trodden down compactly." They 
 were silenced. 
 
 Pretty soon one old farmer who has got a great deal 
 of good, hard, sound sense in his head, slowly looked 
 round, and still more deliberately said, " By Horn, I've 
 changed my mind ! I believe it will keep. But you will 
 have to feed it all out before the weather begins to get 
 warm in the spring, won't you ? " " No," I replied : " the 
 outside temperature has nothing to do with its keeping. 
 Won't a pile of horse or sheep manure ' heat ' and ' burn ' 
 if it lies up loose so that the air can get at it in the win- 
 ter, be it ever so cold, just as badly as in the hottest days 
 of summer?" 
 
 " Well, there ain't much difference," said he. " Now, it 
 is just the same with Ensilage," I replied. "If it does 
 not ' heat ' in the winter, it will not in the summer. It 
 is the presence of air, or rather of the pxygen in the air, 
 which causes manure or any damp mass of organic mat- 
 ter to ferment or decay." " Well," said he, as he started 
 for his team, " as I said afore, I believe it will come out 
 all right." The rest of them said nothing ; and whether 
 all of them have found out to this time that it does keep, 
 
 coal, and sticks with marks of beaver-teeth, all in a fine state of preservation. These 
 deposits must have been preserved here, perfectly excluded from light and air, for at 
 least a thousand years. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 DANIEL PARKER, M.D. 
 
EXPLANATIONS WHY ENSILAGE MUST KEEP. 57 
 
 or not, I am unable to say. One thing is certain : they 
 were silenced for once. 
 
 Now, my explanation why it keeps, and why it is some- 
 what sour, is this : 
 
 When it is cut ever so fine, and trodden down ever so 
 vigorously, still there is some air left in the little spaces 
 between the pieces of the stalks ; and the dried leaves, if 
 there are any, are full of air which has taken the place of 
 the sap which has evaporated. Large stalks, after being 
 cut four-tenths of an inch long, are finer than small ones ; 
 which is one reason among several why the corn which 
 grows the largest is the best for Ensilage. The oxygen 
 in this amount of air be it greater or smaller im- 
 mediately starts a fermentation. Fermentation, mould, 
 decay, rot, and fire are all identical. The only difference 
 is in the degree of speed with which the combustion 
 goes on. They all alike depend upon the presence of 
 oxygen, and cease when this active agent of destruction 
 is removed. The process of combustion, whether slow 
 or rapid, consumes oxygen, and gives out carbonic acid 
 gas. 
 
 This fermentation consumes the small amount of oxy- 
 gen which is contained in the mass of Ensilage, and 
 liberates an amount of carbonic acid gas which takes the 
 place of the oxygen. The fermentation in its incipient 
 stage is arrested for want of oxygen. None can get in 
 from the top ; for the compression which is constantly 
 going on is all the time forcing the gases out, and where 
 there is ever so slight a flow out, none can possibly flow 
 in. Then, as the carbonic acid gas is heavier than the 
 atmosphere, the sides and bottom of the Silo being tight, 
 and as the carbonic acid gas cannot leak out, the air 
 cannot get down into the space occupied by the carbonic 
 acid gas, any more than air can get down into a jug filled 
 
58 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 with water or other heavy liquid until the water or other 
 liquid is poured or leaks out. The Ensilage is tJms 
 immersed in a bath of carbonic acid gas. Fermentation 
 under such circumstances is an impossibility. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 ENSILAGE ADAPTED TO WARM AS WELL AS COLD CLIMATES. 
 
 RIGHT here let me reply to an opinion which I saw 
 expressed in a Southern paper which was commenting 
 upon the success which had attended the " Winning- 
 Farm" Ensilage experiment: "We understand Dr. Bai- 
 ley intends to try the experiment at 'Virginia Stock 
 Farm.' We shall await the result of his- trial with a 
 great deal of interest, and hope he will succeed equally 
 well ; but we fear that while this system of preserving 
 green forage-crops will doubtless prove of incalculable 
 benefit to the North, we do not think it will answer in 
 as warm a climate as Virginia." 
 
 If any of my fellow farmers in Virginia or other South- 
 ern States have the same fear, let me call their attention 
 to the fact that the climate of that part of France where 
 M. Goffart has been so successful in preserving fodder 
 by Ensilage is nearly if not quite as warm as Virginia, 
 Kentucky, Tennessee, or Missouri ; and also to the rea- 
 sons given in the preceding chapter. I believe the 
 system is equally applicable wherever the winter's cold 
 or the droughts of summer necessitate the preservation 
 of forage for the food of domestic animals. 
 
 The sourness or acidity which is, I believe, always 
 present in a greater or less degree, especially if the 
 
 59 
 
60 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 corn is allowed to stand in the field until the ear is fully 
 formed, is far from being an injury: on the contrary, 
 it is probably an advantage. Nearly if not all of our 
 domestic animals gain faster when their food is allowed 
 to stand and ferment until more or less sour before 
 feeding. 
 
 This has been demonstrated at the Massachusetts 
 Agricultural College. There all food is chopped and 
 steamed. By actual experiments it was noticed that the 
 animal gained faster, and had a better appetite, when the 
 steamed food was allowed to stand twenty-four hours, at 
 least, to ferment until there was a perceptible degree of 
 sourness, than when fed upon the same food before any 
 such change had taken place. 
 
 In regard to swine, every farmer knows that they gain 
 faster upon sour, not putrid food, than upon sweet. 
 
 The other day a neighbor of mine, a most excellent 
 farmer, called to see Ensilage. He winters about 60 
 head of cattle. He informed me that several years ago 
 he began to cut his hay and other fodder, and mix his 
 grain with the cut fodder, wetting it thoroughly with 
 boiling water. He found a very considerable gain in so 
 doing. About three years ago he began to mix and wet 
 with boiling water a day's feed for his stock, and let it 
 stand twenty-four hours before feeding, during which 
 time it ferments and becomes quite sour. He informed 
 me that his stock ate it better for the fermentation, and 
 that there is a saving of at least 50 per cent in the 
 amount of hay they required, from the amount they 
 required if fed dry and uncut. His process, doubtless, 
 has somewhat the same effect in facilitating the diges- 
 tion and assimilation of the starch and other nutritive 
 elements in the fodder as is produced by Ensilaging. 
 
 Among the many minor advantages to be gained by 
 
ENSILAGE ADAPTED TO WARM CLIMATES. 6 1 
 
 adopting the system of Ensilage is the lessening of the 
 danger from fire. The tramp with his pipe, or the in- 
 cendiary with his match, would have hard work to raise 
 much of a blaze in a Silo with nothing but Ensilage for 
 fuel. 
 
 Another is, the crop can be all planted at one time. 
 Large lands can be ploughed and harrowed, long rows 
 planted admitting the use of agricultural implements to 
 greater advantage, and much less time consumed in 
 turning corners. The work can be not only accom- 
 plished in less time, but easier and better. 
 
 The dairyman and stock-raiser can systemize their 
 work. They will have all winter to get put their manure, 
 which they can spread broadcast upon the winter rye. 
 They will have no spring's work except to " slick up," 
 repair fences, &c., see to the kitchen and fruit garden. 
 They can now find time to trim their orchards, to graft 
 over trees which bear undesirable fruit, and to put out 
 that " little patch of strawberries," which they have been 
 promising the good wife so long, but which they never 
 before, in the hurry of their spring's work, could get time 
 to attend to. 
 
 Then, when all the little jobs that ought to be attended 
 to in the spring are done up, the potatoes planted, and 
 the pleasant days of May have come, the broad fields of 
 waving rye are beginning to show their shining heads, 
 and the time for work is here. 
 
 If the farmer I am writing about now, is a worker, and 
 economical, and he is both, he has been changing 
 work with his neighbors, helping them get their spring's 
 work done ; and now they come with their cradles, and in 
 three days the 20 acres of rye are all safely housed. Or, 
 if he has a reaper, which he has not, it can be done 
 in one day. No waiting for fair weather : a cloudy day 
 
62 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 is just as good as any ; even if it rains a little, no need 
 for the work to stop. Tis but the work of a couple of 
 hours to replace the plank covering, throw on the bowl- 
 ders, and the rye Ensilage is saved. 
 
 Now comes ploughing-in, the rye stubble. Three or 
 four teams make quick work of the 2O-acre field. I use 
 the Cassidy sulky plough. It saves not only the labor of 
 holding the plough, but does the work better. Land so t 
 hard that it cannot be ploughed with a common plough is 
 turned over without difficulty. It is much easier for the 
 team. You can turn corners quicker, and plough closer 
 to fences. At " Virginia Stock Farm " we averaged with 
 each pair of horses 20 acres per week. For ploughing 
 under weeds or green crops, nothing is equal to it. It 
 is smoothed and fined in one day by a boy and a pair of 
 horses with the Thomas smoo thing-harrow. In four 
 days the farmer himself can plant it in drills 3^ feet 
 apart, using one bushel of seed to the acre, with one 
 horse and an Albany planter. Or if he has a Farm- 
 er's Favorite grain-drill, with a pair of horses, he can 
 plant it in less than two days, at the same time distrib- 
 uting a little fertilizer in the drill. (This will pay, no 
 matter how rich your land is.) 
 
 Every farmer ought to have a Farmer's Favorite 
 grain-drill, if he raises 20 acres of Ensilage. 
 
 With it he can drill in his rye after his corn is cut, 
 which is better than broadcasting, can save ten bushels 
 of seed, and will have a better crop. 
 
 It has two sets of "feed-cups," which make it the best 
 combined grain-drill and corn-planter in the world. 
 
 If he thinks he cannot afford the Farmer's Favorite 
 grain-drill, he must have an Albany seed-sower and corn- 
 planter. 
 
 After his corn is planted, he has nothing to do but 
 
ENSILAGE ADAPTED TO WARM CLIMATES. 6l 
 
 \J 
 
 look after his stock, attend to the garden, and live the 
 life .an American farmer ought to live. A boy and a 
 pair of horses with the Thomas smoothing-harrow one 
 day in a week will keep the corn free from weeds, 
 the soil completely pulverized, inducing absorption and 
 preventing evaporation, until the corn is a foot high. 
 Then, when it is about waist high, he will want one 
 of Timothy B. Hussey's Centennial improved horse- 
 hoes. With it he can hoe five to seven acres a day 
 better than it can possibly be done by hand, killing and 
 burying up every weed, and throwing just earth enough 
 around the stalks to strengthen them and prevent the 
 wind from breaking them over. Corn is growing very 
 rapidly now, and is very tender, and I think is better for 
 a little hilling. By the way, let me say here that I have 
 a quantity of seed-corn expressly raised for me for 
 Ensilage. I tested it last year on a small scale. I had 
 single stalks which before the tassel was in sight weighed 
 nine pounds ; others when fully grown with the grain in 
 the milk weighed over 15 pounds each. I can safely 
 guarantee this corn if planted upon good corn land, in 
 good condition well manured, with proper cultivation to 
 produce from 40 to 75 tons to the acre of green fodder 
 just right for Ensilage. The stalk is extremely sweet 
 and succulent ; some of them being over six inches in 
 circumference and 14 feet high, with an immense amount 
 of long, broad leaves, some of which measured four feet 
 ten inches in length, and 61 inches in width. It will not 
 require more than half a bushel to plant an acre (of other 
 kinds one bushel is needed) ; so that, although it is some- 
 what high-priced by the pound or bushel, it does not cost 
 so very much more by the acre. It should be planted in 
 drills four feet apart, with the stalks six to eight inches 
 apart in the rows. Be sure and not get it too thick, 
 
64 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 for it throws out a great number of suckers, and to yield 
 a large crop must have room and air. I will send sam- 
 ple bags of this Mammoth Ensilage corn by mail, 
 containing one pound, on receipt of 60 cents ; three 
 pounds, $1.50 ; by express or freight, half a peck, #1.25 ; 
 one peck, $2.00; half a bushel, $3.00; one bushel, 
 $5.00; two bushels or more, $4.00 per bushel. No 
 charge for bags. 
 
 It is a waste of time to plant common sweet corn. 
 None of it is as sweet as this Ensilage corn, nor as 
 nutritious, and it will not yield one-third as much ; be- 
 sides it is much easier to cut up a ton of large stalks than 
 a ton of small ones. It is just as easy to cut with the cut- 
 ter, easier to feed into the cutter, and, when cut, the disks 
 split into small pieces, so that the Ensilage is as fine as 
 if the stalks were small, and packs closer in the Silo. 
 There is every advantage in growing the Mammoth 
 Ensilage corn. 
 
 Now I want to say something about fodder-cutters. 
 We must have a self-feeding machine, which will cut or 
 shred (which would be better, as it would pack closer, 
 thereby excluding the air more completely) at least sixty 
 tons per day without any labor on the part of the men 
 tending it, except that required to throw the fodder in 
 armfuls upon the apron of the machine. 
 
 I think I have found it in Baldwin's Improved Ameri- 
 can fodder-cutter. I shall try it this spring when I 
 Ensilage my rye, and, if satisfactory upon trial, will in a 
 second edition (if one is called for) tell you all about 
 it. One thing I will say now: a cutter which has but one 
 feed-roller will not answer. There must be two rollers, 
 the top one fluted, the bottom roller smooth, between 
 which the fodder must pass. The top roller must be 
 geared to rise and fall, to adjust itself so that a large or 
 
ENSILAGE ADAPTED TO WARM CLIMATES. 65 
 
 small amount of fodder will be fed with the same speed 
 and regularity. 
 
 Baldwin's fodder-cutter I believe to be the best cut- 
 ting machine for Ensilaging purposes on the market. 
 
 I think tearing or shredding the stalks would be much 
 better than cutting. The fodder shredded must pack 
 closer, thereby giving less room for air. I have invented, 
 and am perfecting-, a machine which will cut and shred 
 fodder of all kinds, with the expenditure of one-half the 
 power all other machines I have seen require to do the 
 same work. I utilize a principle never before made use 
 of in fodder-cutters. I hope to have it completed, and 
 be able to furnish it in season for the Ensilaging of 
 the corn. To successfully preserve green fodder, three 
 things are essential : first, that the fodder shall be in as 
 fine a condition as possible so as to compact ; second, 
 that the Silos shall be air and water tight on the sides 
 and bottom ; third, that sufficient weight shall be placed 
 upon it in order to press out all or nearly all of the air. 
 If the air can be all forced out, there will be no fermen- 
 tation, and the Ensilage will keep indefinitely in the 
 same condition as when put into the Silo. In that case, 
 in order to receive the full benefit of the system of En- 
 silage, it will be necessary to pile up the Ensilage upon 
 the stable floor twelve to twenty- four hours, until active 
 fermentation takes place, before feeding, that the bene- 
 fits of fermentation may be secured as explained in the 
 following chapter. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 A NEW DISCOVERY. 
 
 DURING my investigations and experiments it occurred 
 to me that it would be a great improvement to mix the 
 concentrated nitrogenous grain, such as the refuse from 
 flour-mills, wheat, rye, or buckwheat bran, shorts or mid- 
 dlings, the refuse grains and feeding-stuff from brewer- 
 ies, or prepared animal food from fish and meat scraps, 
 such as Bowker's animal meal, fish-scrap prepared by 
 Goodale's process or otherwise, with the green corn-stalks 
 or other forage crops at the time of Ensilaging. 
 
 For while the Ensilaging of green corn, rye, and other 
 succulent forage-crops is an immense advance over the 
 old system of curing forage-crops by desiccation, and 
 while such Ensilage is a most excellent and succulent 
 food for all domestic animals, still it is by no means a 
 perfect food, being deficient in albuminoids: therefore it 
 is necessary to add to the ration of Ensilage a certain 
 amount of concentrated nitrogenous food in the form of 
 grain, or animal-scrap-meal, or other concentrated cattle 
 foods containing albuminoids to excess. 
 
 Animals fed exclusively upon Ensilaged corn will 
 become fat, dull, heavy, and lymphatic, the nervous and 
 muscular systems not receiving that degree of nutrition 
 which they require for their full development. 
 
 ,,, 
 
A NEW DISCOVERY. 67 
 
 Starch, the chief nutritive element in corn and other 
 carbonaceous plants, is almost identical in its chemical 
 constituents with sugar. But it is difficult to digest, by 
 reason of the toughness of the envelope which encloses 
 the starch-cell. 
 
 The gastric juice of the stomach being able to dissolve 
 but a part of them, the remainder passes from the ani- 
 mal in its excrement, and is lost. 
 
 The softening and fermentive process through which 
 the Ensilage passes in the Silo bursts the starch-cells, 
 and converts the starch into sugar, as is evinced by the 
 strong odor of alcohol which is emitted when the Ensi- 
 lage is exposed to the action of the oxygen in the 
 atmosphere. The digestion of the Ensilage is thus ren- 
 dered easier, and its assimilation more perfect. 
 
 By mixing the concentrated nitrogenous food with the 
 comminuted forage at the time of Ensilaging, the labor 
 of fqeding the concentrated nitrogenous food is reduced 
 to a minimum. 
 
 The nitrogenous food is also subjected to the same 
 softening and fermentive process. The carbo-hydrates in 
 it (composed largely of starch) are liberated, and fitted 
 for easy digestion and assimilation. The albuminoids 
 (which contain the nitrogen) are also rendered more 
 digestible and assimilable by this process of maceration 
 and fermentation, which has the same effect substan- 
 tially upon them as that which is produced by the pro- 
 cess of steaming or cooking. 
 
 The concentrated food should be added in such 
 amounts that the mixture shall contain the proper com- 
 parative amounts of albuminoids and carbo-hydrates 
 which are best adapted to the sustenance and growth of 
 our domestic animals. An addition of about ten per 
 cent of wheat-bran to the corn-fodder would make the 
 
68 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 mixture about equal to the best clover hay, and would 
 be admirably adapted for milch-cows, young and growing 
 cattle, and colts. It is also excellent for breeding-ewes, 
 and for swine nothing could be better. 
 
 The great importance of this new discovery, both in the 
 saving of labor and increasing the nutritive value of the 
 concentrated food over that which it has when fed in a 
 dry and raw state, and the fear that some avaricious per- 
 son might take out letters-patent upon the process, and 
 seek to prevent the full benefits of this great and 
 improved system of Ensilage from being adopted, by 
 exorbitant claims for royalty, has induced me to make 
 application for a patent upon the process of mixing con- 
 centrated nitrogenous cattle-foods with the comminut- 
 ed green corn, rye, or other succulent forage at the time 
 of Ensilaging the same, in such proportions as shall give 
 to the mixture the proper amounts of albuminoids and 
 carbo-hydrates which are best adapted to the growth and 
 subsistence of our domestic animals. Besides the labor 
 saved in feeding (at least $1.50 for each ton of grain), 
 and the increased value by facilitating digestion (fully ten 
 per cent) , is the certainty that each animal will get its 
 ration, and no more. No heedless stable-boy will empty 
 two measures of grain into one cow's manger, and give 
 none to the next, thereby depriving one of the necessary 
 food, and impairing the digestion of the other by an 
 overfeed. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 FOOD INGREDIENTS. CHEMICAL TERMS EXPLAINED. 
 
 WATER. If a piece of wood or wisp of hay be dried some time in 
 a hot oven, more or less water will be driven off. The water in feeding- 
 stuffs varies from So to 90 pounds in every 100 pounds of young grass 
 or foddcr-com, to only 8 or 10 pounds to the 100 in dry straw or hay. 
 
 ORGANIC SUBSTANCE. If the dried wood or hay be burned, most of 
 it will pass oil as gas, vapor, or smoke. The part thus burned away is 
 the organic substance. The residue : 
 
 THE ASH contains the mineral matters, that is, the potash, lime, phos- 
 phoric acid, <Scc., of the plant. The most important part for our present 
 purpose is the organic, the combustible matter. This consists of three 
 kinds of ingredients, albuminoids, carbo-hydrates, and fats. The main 
 point in economical feeding is to secure the right proportions of these 
 at the lowest cost. 
 
 ALBUMINOIDS also called protein compounds, proteids, and flesh- 
 formers contain carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen. Thus they 
 differ from the carbo-hydrates and fats, which contain no nitrogen. 
 The name albuminoids comes from albumen, which we know very well 
 as the whites of eggs, and it is found in milk. The fibrin of bone and 
 muscle (lean meat) and the casein (curd) of milk are also albuminoids. 
 Indeed, the solid part of blood, nerves, lean meat, gristle, skin, &c., con- 
 sist chiefly of albuminoids. In plants they are equally important ; plant 
 albumen occurs in nearly all vegetable juices, especially in potatoes and 
 wheat, casein or legumin in beans and peas, and fibrin in the gluten of 
 wheat, the basis of what farmer-boys call " wheat gum." Clover, bran, 
 beans, peas, oil-cake, and flesh and meat-scrap are rich in albuminoids. 
 
 CARBO-HYDRATES consist of carbon and hydrogen. The most impor- 
 tant arc starch, sugar, and cellulose (woody fibre) . They make up a 
 
 69 
 
70 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 larger part of the solids of plants, but only a little of them is stored in 
 the animal body. Potatoes, wheat, poor hay, straw, and cornstalks con- 
 sist largely of carbo-hydrates. 
 
 FATS have more carbon than carbo-hydrates, and like them have no 
 nitrogen. Fat meat, tallow, lard, fish-oil, the fat (butter) of milk, and 
 linseed oil are familiar examples of fats. Indian corn, oil-cake, cotton- 
 seed and linseed, are rich in fatty matters." [The last three are also 
 rich in albuminoids.] From American Agriculturist, January, 2879. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CAPACITY OF SILOS. 
 
 A CUBIC foot of Ensilage weighs from 40 to 50 pounds ; 
 a daily ration for a cow is 50 to 60 pounds : therefore it 
 is only necessary to allow one-and-one-half cubic feet for 
 each cow daily, to tell how large a Silo is wanted. First 
 let the stock-raiser or dairyman decide how many head 
 of stock he wants to keep : the number he has kept will 
 be no criterion. 
 
 " Winning Farm" three years ago could keep but six 
 head of cows and one horse : now 35 cattle, 5 horses, 
 and 125 sheep are kept, and there is every probability 
 of doubling the number next season. One cubic foot 
 will keep a sheep a week in good condition. According 
 to the rule laid down above, it will require 547^ cubic 
 feet of Ensilage to keep one cow one year. To keep 
 two cows, a Silo is required ten feet wide, ten feet long, 
 and ten feet deep. This would hold about twenty-five 
 tons, and could be grown upon one-half acre of rich, 
 warm land. For four cows it should be built twice as 
 long. It will only be necessary to have your Silos con- 
 tain 550 cubic feet for each cow's subsistence for twelve 
 months. If the cows are pastured six months of the 
 year, then 275 cubic feet of Ensilage will be sufficient 
 for each cow. It is very important that the sides should 
 be perpendicular, and smoothly plastered with a cement- 
 plaster, so that the Ensilage will settle evenly, and in 
 
72 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 order that the plank covering may have nothing to catch 
 upon as it settles under the heavy weights placed upon it. 
 
 Small Silos, capable of holding enough Ensilage for 
 ten to twenty cows, can be constructed by digging and 
 walling up, as for a cellar, when stone is plenty. Mix 
 one part cement with two parts sand, and make a con- 
 crete floor about one inch thick. Put a cheap battened 
 roof over it to keep the rain and snow out, and you 
 have just as good a Silo as any. One 12 feet wide, 30 
 feet long, and 12 feet deep, would not cost, besides the 
 labor, over fifty dollars, and would hold enough Ensi- 
 lage to winter 12 to 15 cows, or about 175,000 pounds, 
 or 87^ tons. (See cut on opposite page.) This can 
 easily be produced upon two acres of suitable land prop- 
 erly prepared. 
 
 Two feet in depth daily is fast enough to fill the Silo. 
 This rate is better than to fill faster ; as the Ensilage will 
 settle better, and there will be less space lost by settling 
 at the top of the Silos. If an accident to cutter or 
 power, or if any untoward incident, stops the filling of 
 the Silo for one, two, or even three days when it is partly 
 full, no injury will be done to the Ensilage, providing 
 one or two men (according to size of Silo) are kept 
 constantly trampling upon it, so as to keep the Ensilage 
 compact. If it begins to dry or heat on top, take a 
 garden watering-pot and sprinkle over it to supply the 
 loss from evaporation. 
 
 Two small Silos are better than one large one of the 
 capacity of both ; for, with two, one will be empty in 
 the summer, ready to receive rye, clover, or other green 
 forage, which it will be as advantageous to preserve by 
 Ensilage as it is the green corn in the fall. 
 
 After the Ensilage is compacted so that it ceases 
 to settle, it is ready to feed out. This takes about a 
 
CAPACITY OF SILOS. 
 
 73 
 
 month. At any time after it is compacted, the weights 
 can be removed, the plank taken up, the straw , raked 
 off, and more green fodder of any kind put on top of 
 that which is in the Silo, thereby utilizing all the space. 
 If more fodder be raised than the Silo will hold, the 
 walls can be carried up about two feet with plank, and 
 filled so that when settled the Ensilage will fill the Silo 
 to the top of the masonry walls. 
 
 ^ 
 
 Sectional view of Silo, 12 feet wide, 12 feet high, and 24 or 30 feet long; capacity, 80 to too tons of Ensilage, 
 sufficient to winter fifteen to twenty cows ; cost, exclusive of labor, about $40, where stone are plenty. 
 
 I, I, three-inch by four-inch scantling. 
 
 II, II, i^-inch by 1 2-inch plank, between which and the rough wall a concrete or grout is poured. 
 
 III, III, dotted line showing the face of the concrete pointing and plastering. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ENSILAGE IN THE GREAT DAIRY DISTRICTS. 
 
 THE system of Ensilage is especially adapted to the 
 great dairy districts of the West. Improved Ensilage 
 will enable the dairyman to make as good an article of 
 butter in the winter as in summer. By it the number of 
 cows can be tripled. It is cheaper to soil cows during 
 the summer than to pasture them where land is valuable, 
 particularly in the vicinity of cities. Fifty cents per 
 week is the average price paid in my section for pastur- 
 ing a cow ; for less than this, a cow can be kept upon 
 Ensilage, and in better condition than the average pas- 
 ture will keep her : besides, by this system, all the 
 manure can be saved, which will abundantly pay for all 
 the extra labor of caring for the stock, if the labor is 
 greater than in pasturing, which I much doubt. 
 
 The system of Ensilage which I hope to see rapid- 
 ly adopted (of the hundreds of farmers who have visited 
 " Winning Farm'' nearly all have assured me that they 
 shall build Silos this season) will cause our exports of 
 beef and mutton to be immensely increased, while the 
 exports of dairy products will be doubled and tripled. 
 
 They are now rapidly increasing, as is shown by the 
 following table of receipts and exports of butter alone, 
 at New York, for the years 1874 to 1879 : 
 
ENSILAGE IN THE GREAT DAIRY DISTRICTS. 75 
 
 
 RECEIPTS. 
 
 EXPORTS. 
 
 1874 . 
 
 Packages. 
 QQ4.4.7O 
 
 Pounds. 
 46oc in 
 
 l37C 
 
 I 080 800 
 
 4 2l6 C48 
 
 i8 7 6 
 
 I 202 ^77 
 
 jo QAC 4^4 
 
 1877 
 
 I 260 7 CO 
 
 IO 686 AA7 
 
 !878 . 
 
 i,.6vjy,/^y 
 I 277 867 
 
 
 1870 
 
 i c8i 821: 
 
 *yr**rHy* 
 
 
 
 
 The exports of cheese are fully as important, and of 
 so fine a quality that the English and European dairy 
 farmers are in despair as to the future. 
 
 By Ensilage, wool can be produced so cheaply and in' 
 such quantities as to preclude the possibility of importation. 
 
 Ensilage being so rich in carbo-hydrates, it is espe- 
 cially adapted to the growth of wool. If, in connection 
 with Ensilage, we would feed the cotton-seed raised in 
 the South (no better -food can be imagined than En- 
 silage and cotton-seed meal) , we could not only stop the 
 importation of wool, but have wool as well as choice 
 mutton in almost unlimited quantities to export (see 
 chapter on sheep for weights of lambs) : their mothers 
 being fed upon Ensilage, numberless flocks could be 
 kept. The old pastures, which have become so worth- 
 less by being stocked with cows so long, would, if pas- 
 tured with sheep, speedily improve, and soon be restored 
 to their original fertility. 
 
 In the rich and fertile West, Ensilage of corn can be 
 raised and stored in Silos for one dollar per ton : as two 
 tons are equal to one ton of the best hay, this places the 
 comparative value of hay at two dollars per ton ; this is less 
 than hay can be cured for. Two acres of good meadow 
 are required to keep one cow ; while by the system of 
 Ensilage improved by my process eight cows may 
 be kept in high condition upon the same land. 
 
76 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 No country is so well adapted by reason of both soil 
 and climate as our own for the growth of the corn-plant. 
 Now that we know how to utilize this greatest gift of 
 Nature, and save all its valuable constituents instead of a 
 part only, who is able to correctly estimate the blessings 
 which will follow when this knowledge is universally 
 diffused and profited by ? 
 
 THE CORN-SONG. 
 
 BY JOHN G. WHTTTIER. 
 
 HEAP high the farmer's wintry hoard ! heap high the golden corn ! 
 
 No richer gift has Autumn poured from out her lavish horn. 
 
 Let other lands exulting glean the apple from the pine, 
 
 The orange from its glossy green, the cluster from the vine. 
 
 We better love the hardy gift our rugged vales bestow, 
 
 To cheer us when the storm shall drift our harvest-fields with snow. 
 
 Through vales of grass and meads of flowers, our ploughs their furrows made, 
 
 While on the hills the sun and showers of changeful April played. 
 
 We dropped the seed o'er hill and plain, beneath the sun of May, 
 
 And frightened from our sprouting grain the robber crows away. 
 
 All through the long bright days of June its leaves grew green and fair, 
 
 And waved in hot midsummer's noon its soft and yellow hair. 
 
 And now with autumn's moonlit eves, its harvest-time has come ; 
 
 We pluck away the frosted leaves, and bear the treasure home. 
 
 There, richer than the fabled gift Apollo showered of old, 
 
 Fair hands the broken grain shall sift, and knead its meal of gold. 
 
 Let vapid idlers loll in silk around their costly board : 
 
 Give us the bowl of samp and milk, by homespun beauty poured ! 
 
 Where'er the wide old kitchen-hearth sends up its smoky curls, 
 
 Who will not thank the kindly earth, and bless our farmer-girls ! 
 
 Then shame on all the proud and vain, whose folly laughs to scorn 
 
 The blessing of our hardy grain, our wealth of golden corn ! 
 
 Let earth withhold her goodly root, let mildew blight the rye, 
 
 Give to the worm the orchard's fruit, the wheat-field to the fly ; 
 
 But let the good old crop adorn the hills our fathers trod : 
 
 Still let us, for his golden corn, send up our thanks to God ! 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 HISTORY OF MAIZE, OR INDIAN CORN. 
 By E. Lewis Sturtevant, M.D. 
 
 THE corn-plant is only known as a cultivated plant. 
 When Columbus first reached the shores of the West 
 Indies in 1492, he found mahiz grown and used by the 
 Indians, and also in Yucatan upon its discovery in 1502. 
 While Cabeca de Vaca was toiling his intermittent way 
 from Florida to the Pacific coast in 1528 to 1536, he 
 found maize grown in large fields, and stored in cribs, by 
 the natives of those regions. Cortez had previously 
 found maize in Mexico, at the period of the invasion, 
 and at Cempoalla, in 1519, had eaten maize made into 
 bread-cakes, and on the march to Mexico passed amidst 
 flourishing fields of maize. When De Soto invaded 
 Florida in 1539, macs occurred everywhere in large 
 fields ; and the same year Marco de Vica found maize 
 growing in New Mexico in fields. In 1540 Vasquez 
 de Coronado mentions fields of maize in the valley of 
 San Miguel and also in store at Cibola ; and it is also 
 mentioned in Castanedo's Relations for the same date. 
 Alarcon, in 1540, found it growing in his journey up the 
 Colorado River, and Antonio de Espips in 1583 found 
 it under cultivation by the Concho Indians of this region. 
 
 77 
 
78 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 When Carrier visited Hochelaga, now Montreal, in 1535, 
 that town was situated in the midst of extensive corn- 
 fields. In 1586 Heriot refers to maize cultivated in 
 Virginia, and called by the natives " pagatour ; " and John 
 Smith in 1606 describes the Indian method of culture 
 then. Champlain in 1605 found it growing in fields all 
 along the New-England coast, and describes the man- 
 ner of its culture. Our Puritan fathers found it in 
 store upon their first expedition of discovery, and speak 
 of the deserted corn-fields, for the time was winter. The 
 Five Nations, in 1603, m ^de corn-planting their business 
 before the French arrived in Canada. The Iroquois 
 raised it in such large quantities that in the invasion 
 into the country of the Senecas, in 1687, some 1,200,000 
 bushels were destroyed. The Indians of Illinois culti- 
 vated corn when the country was first described by Mar- 
 quette in 1673, by Allouez in 1676, and Membre in 
 1679. In Louisiana they had even invented a hoe for 
 its culture. 
 
 This list might be indefinitely extended ; for so uni- 
 versal was the use of maize by the aborigines, that its 
 mention is to be found in nearly all the early chroniclers, 
 and it seems never to have been grown as a luxury 
 simply, but rather as a source of supply, and as a staple 
 food. In the southern country, it was so largely grown 
 that many tribes may be considered as agriculturists, 
 rather than as hunters ; in the northern countries it 
 shared with the products of the chase the claims of a 
 sustenance. Its merits, too, were quickly recognized 
 by Europeans, and it soon found introduction to Europe, 
 and a wide distribution. It had a strong agency in the 
 settlement of this country, as it afforded relief from star- 
 vation to the " Conquisitors " in the South, and to plain 
 Miles Standish and his contemporaries in the North. 
 
HISTORY OF MAIZE, OR INDIAN CORN. 79 
 
 The Indian made his conquest the more easy by feeding 
 his invaders from the produce of his corn-field, and the 
 parched grain supported him again in his defence. 
 Among the more imaginative Indians of the South, 
 maize became an object of worship, and a means of 
 conferring honor : it formed portions for gifts, and in 
 one instance was poured upon the ground for the 
 trampling of the horses, as an earnest of welcome to 
 the Spaniard. Everywhere the grain supplied food, in 
 many places was parted into a drink, and the leaves and 
 stalks were crushed to secure the juice to be boiled into 
 a sirup or sugar, and the stalks were used to form bags 
 and other material of wigwam use. It is passing strange 
 that the corn-plant does not appear upon the coat .of 
 arms of any of the States whose early necessities it 
 relieved. 
 
 In all the references to corn that we find for North 
 America, we find no reference to the amount of crop 
 harvested from a given area ; and this seems at first sur- 
 prising. We read of manuring and fallowing, of the 
 preparation of the ground, of the planting, of the cul- 
 ture, and the storing of the crop. We have some few 
 accounts of varieties, and frequent mention of the uses 
 and modes of preparation. In 1608 the settlers of 
 Jamestown were taught the manner of grqwing it by 
 the Indians; and in 1621 Squanto, the good-natured 
 Indian friend of the Pilgrims, taught them ; and, strange- 
 ly enough, until quite recently there has been but little 
 change from the Indian methods ; and throughout New 
 England generally the cultivation which sufficed the 
 barbarous Indian and the colonist of limited means is 
 deemed by many to be proper now, except the plough 
 has taken the place of the sharpened bough or the 
 shoulder-blade of the moose, the hoe has replaced the 
 
80 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 clam-shell, the dung-hill is called upon oftener than is 
 the sea or the stream for its fish. We now store in 
 cribs, rather than in the sacks of our instructors buried 
 in the sand ; yet the Southern Indian had cribs, even as 
 we have now. 
 
 It is a valuable reflection this, the antiquity of the cul- 
 tivation of the corn, and the little progress in the method 
 of its culture which civilization has been enabled to add. 
 It is worthy of thought, this paradox, that in this one 
 case civilization is instructed by barbarism, instead of 
 instructing. Did the Indian attain perfection, or is it 
 ourselves who are satisfied not to progress ? This latter 
 question seems the true one : for the Western farmer has 
 departed from the Indian ways, and meets a greater suc- 
 cess; the progressive farmer here and there in New 
 England has left the track beaten for him by custom, 
 and finds his gain. Yes, it is a fact, the cultivation by 
 the red man was sufficient for him with his resources, 
 but is far from satisfactory for us with our resources. It 
 is time we should follow in the line of civilization, even 
 if we would not be in the van ; and it is folly for us to 
 longer continue in the line traced by barbarians, rather 
 than by an educated experience. 
 
 WAUSHAKUM FARM, SOUTH FRAMINGHAM, MASS. 
 
 [Written for and published originally in " The Massachusetts Ploughman."] 
 
THE IDLENOT PAPERS. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 COST OF PRODUCING MILK ONE CENT A QUART, OF BUTTER 
 TEN CENTS PER POUND, AND OF PORK THREE CENTS PER 
 POUND, BEEF FOR FOUR CENTS A POUND, AND MUTTON 
 FOR NOTHING, IF WOOL IS THIRTY CENTS A POUND. 
 
 AT Winning Farm I have by careful tests demonstrated 
 that milk can be produced for one cent a quart, and a 
 clear though small profit made. More than twice as 
 much profit can be made by converting the milk into 
 butter, even though the butter is sold for ten cents a 
 pound, providing the skim-milk is fed to improved 
 breeds of swine. For producing pork with skim-milk 
 and grass, no breed is equal to the well-bred Berkshire. 
 I will as briefly as possible tell how milk can be produced 
 for one cent a quart, then show how much more can be 
 made by converting the cream of the milk into butter, 
 and finally how the greatest amount of pork can be 
 raised from the skim-milk. 
 
 To begin with, we will assume that a farmer has a 
 good farm of 50 acres, with a comfortable house and a 
 barn 36 by 48 feet. This barn will hold not far from 25 
 
 St 
 
82 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 
 
 tons of hay and the corn-stalks and butts from about 
 two acres of corn. It will probably have a lintel for 
 cows on one side of the " floor," a granary and harness- 
 room, two or three horse-stalls, and hay-mows on the 
 other side. Upon such a farm if it is a good one 
 there can be kept two horses and 10 to 15 cows upon 
 hay and grain, providing a partial system of soiling is 
 adopted to help out the pasturage during July, August, 
 and September. 
 
 To carry on this farm, even though the farmer be ever 
 so much of a worker, he will have to keep one good 
 hired man at least nine months of the year ; the entire 
 resources of the whole farm will have to be devoted to 
 the subsistence of the 10 or 15 cows ; all the other crops 
 vegetables, fruit, &c. will not bring in more cash 
 than the grain fed to the cows in addition to that raised 
 upon the farm will cost. Now, we will assume that each 
 of the 15 cows will produce 2,000 quarts of milk, besides 
 that used by the farmer's family : this, if sold for three 
 cents a quart, gives $60 as the gross income from each 
 cow ; that makes the total income from the 1 5 cows, 
 $900. This, I think, is as good a showing as our best 
 farmers can exhibit. 
 
 Against this income of $900, there must be charged 
 the interest and taxes upon the farm, and other expenses 
 as follows : 
 
 6 per cent on $5,000, value of farm $300 oo 
 
 Repairs on buildings, 2 J per cent on $2,000 . . . 50 oo 
 
 Taxes on farm, $40 ; taxes on stock, $10 . . . . 50 oo 
 
 Interest on stock and farming tools . . . . . 90 oo 
 
 Wages and board of hired man 9 months, at $30 . . . 270 oo 
 Depreciation on stock and farming tools, value $1,500, 10 per 
 
 cent 150 oo 
 
 Carried forward . . . . . . . $910 oo 
 
COST OF FARM-PRODUCE. 3 
 
 Brought forward ....... $910 oo 
 
 Wages of the farmer, besides house-rent, fuel, and produce 
 
 raised on the farm consumed by himself and family . . 400 oo 
 
 (This may seem high, but I would like to hire the man and 
 his family I am writing about for the same wages and other 
 consideration mentioned.) 
 
 Total expense ....... 
 
 Total income 
 
 Deficiency 
 
 In other words, the farmer who owns a 50- acre farm 
 worth $5,000, with stock and farming-tools worth $1,500, 
 who keeps 15 cows and sells $900 worth of milk from/ 
 them yearly, if he keep a correct account of expenses, 
 instead of receiving $400 for the services of himself and 
 family, actually works for nothing except house-rent and 
 fuel and vegetables, and pays $10 per year for the privi- 
 lege of doing so. 
 
 It must be confessed that this is not very encouraging ; 
 and it is no wonder that the boys want to leave the farm, 
 and the girls declare that " they won't marry a farmer." 
 
 If my figures are incorrect, I hope some enterprising 
 and industrious farmer will show how much better his 
 actual results are. Let us have all the items of both 
 expense and income. 
 
 Now, there is a chance to take a " new departure," 
 which will change all this ; and I propose in this and 
 subsequent letters to show how it can be done. Under 
 the new dispensation, which we will call the " Book of 
 Ensilage," Sylvester Idlenot starts with the same 5o-acre 
 farm, divided into 20 acres arable land, 20 acres pasture, 
 and 10 acres in wood, all well fenced, and valued at 
 $5,000. Time, March i. He has used plenty of muck 
 and road dust for absorbents, so that he will have two 
 cords of good manure for each animal, 32 cords in alL 
 
84 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 A few days ago I called on Sylvester, who is a neighbor 
 of mine, in whom I have taken a great deal of interest. 
 At first I was interested because I saw he was always at 
 work. His motto, like his name, was " Idlenot." From 
 his dropping the final t when pronouncing his name, I 
 think he is of French descent; probably a "Limerick 
 Frenchman." Upon further acquaintance I found he 
 had rare good sense. I found him studying over his 
 farm-account for the year past. From the expression 
 upon his countenance I saw he was not satisfied with 
 the results. " Good-morning, Sylvester," said I. "Ah ! 
 good morning to yoursilf. It's glad I am to see ye, 
 docther : 'tis puzzled intirely I am. Perhaps ye can 
 explain the botheration, so that Mary and mesilf can 
 see through it." "I'll try, Sylvester. What is it?" 
 I asked. 
 
 "Well, docther, 'tis just this: Me and Mary has been 
 married fifteen years this very blessed first day of March. 
 When we were married I had saved up $750, and Mary 
 had $250, just $1,000 betwixt us. Well, Mary, God 
 bless her, she kept right on at work, and she laid up a 
 little over $100 a year. I kept right on at work too, 
 and laid up me whole wages. (I received $300 a year 
 and me board.) I clothed mesilf with what I earned 
 doing extras and warrking nights for me master's neigh- 
 bors. This made our savings #400 a year. In tin years 
 we had saved up, with what we had when we married, 
 $5,000, and the interest made it some over $7,000. 
 Well, we got tired of working for other people, and 
 thought we would have a home of our own : so we 
 bought this farm, and the stock and the tools and all the 
 fixings were all paid for. We had a few hundred dollars 
 left. 
 
 "Well, now, I have just been figuring up the last year, 
 
COST OF FARM-PRODUCE. 85 
 
 and it stands this away : We have sold milk amounting 
 to $900. The fruit and vegetables and chickens and 
 eggs have come to just enough to balance the mate, the 
 grocery, and the grain bill. As the incomes and the out- 
 goes are of a bigness we'll let them go together, and say 
 no more about them. When I had got this far without 
 stopping to think, I said, ' Mary, the milk-money is all 
 clear gain ; ' Mary says to me, ' I don't see it : where is 
 the money ? ' I began to think again ; says I, " there is 
 the $7,000 in the farm. The year before we bought it 
 we got $420 inthrust, that we would have had if we had 
 had no farm, so that is no profit belonging to the farm ; 
 take that from the $900, and there is only $480 left: 
 Thin there was the wagis of one hired man, $15 a month 
 and board worth $10 a month, that for nine months is 
 $225, that laves only $255; thin there is the taxes, $60, 
 the insurance, $10, thin the depraciation in the stock 
 and farming-tools, tin per cent on $1,500, $150; thin 
 the repairs on the buildings, 2\ percent on $2,000, 
 $50, making $270. Taking that out of $255, all that 
 was left of the milk money, and I find mesilf in debt to 
 mesilf $15, and nary a cint of wagis for Mary or mesilf. 
 ' Mary,' says I, * we have been working hard as iver we 
 could work the whole year for our board, and have paid 
 $15 for the privilege, and clothed oursilves. All the 
 year we have been working hard arning our own in- 
 thrust money, and giving $15 for the right to do it.' Now, 
 docther, what I wants to know is this : ain't there no way 
 for a farmer to do, 'cepting to work for nothing and 
 clothe himself?" I was very much amused while Syl- 
 vester was explaining his figures, and wondered how 
 many farmers there are who have kept as accurate an 
 account as he has, and could tell whether they were 
 making any thing or were really working for nothing. 
 
86 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 I finally said, " Sylvester, I will tell you how to manage 
 your farm and stock so as to receive good wages for 
 yourself and also for Mary, and something as a profit. 
 How much ready money have you saved up now ? " 
 "Well," says he, " we have a bit over $2,000; we have 
 each year saved up just about what the interest would 
 be, and worked for our board ever since we bought the 
 farm, bad luck ! but it's a good farm too." 
 
 "Well, Sylvester, in the first place, you must buy 
 fifty cords of good manure, that will cost you at the rail- 
 road-station $6.50 per cord, $325 ; that will give you 
 82 cords of manure. Spread that as you haul it broad- 
 cast -upon 15 acres, that will be about 5^ cords to the 
 acre. After you have got it well spread, come up to my 
 place, and get my Thomas smoothing-harrow, and give 
 it two good harrowings, one each way. The 15 acres 
 will take your ten-acre meadow and the five-acre field 
 where you had potatoes and other vegetables last year : 
 the other five acres, which is the apple-orchard, you can 
 cut the hay early, and then use it as a hog-pasture. 
 
 " Now, immediately after harrowing the five-acre field, 
 sow it to spring rye to be fed out green in May. You 
 have now a lintel on one side of your barn which will 
 hold 1 6 cows ; you want to make one on the other side 
 36 feet long, that will accommodate 12 cows; the other 
 1 2 feet will allow for two horse-stalls and a pair of stairs 
 to go up to the granary, which you must move up stairs ; 
 this gives you room in your barn for 28 cows and two 
 horses. All the planting you want to do this year is one- 
 half acre of potatoes and a good big kitchen-garden." 
 " Never you mind telling me that," broke in Sylvester. 
 " Go on, docther : I'm listening wid both ears, and so is 
 Mary." 
 
 " Now, after you have your manure all out and spread, 
 
. COST OF FARM-PRODUCE. 87 
 
 the rye sowed, the garden made, and the potatoes plant- 
 ed, you dig a hole into that bank east of your bafn, 30 
 feet wide, and 45 feet long, and about four feet lower than 
 the sills to your barn ; wall it up all round, then plaster 
 the walls with concrete, run a wall through the centre, 
 cut off the corners, and carry these concrete walls up 
 above the top of the earth until they are 16 feet high on 
 the inside ; then get a carpenter to put a light roof over 
 them to keep the rain and snow out, and you have two 
 Silos which will hold 400 tons of Ensilage, two tons of 
 which is worth more than one ton of timothy hay. You 
 will have to hire some help to build these Silos ; and it 
 will take about 125 barrels of cement, besides the labor 
 of yourself and hired hand : you will have to pay out in 
 building them about $300. Early in May, as soon as 
 your spring rye is eighteen inches high, commence to cut 
 it, and feed it to your cows in the barn ; the last week in 
 May cut the grass in the ten-acre lot ; as soon as you 
 have got the hay off of it, turn it over, roll it, take my 
 Nishwitz harrow, and harrow it both ways, then plough 
 the rye-field, turning under the stubble and the green 
 second growth. Rye, if cut before heading, grows a 
 second crop. After harrowing that, the same as the sod- 
 land (and, Sylvester, let me right here repeat the old 
 Pennsylvania Dutchman's advice to his son about pre- 
 paring corn-land : * Shon ! you shust drag and drag and 
 drag until you have him shust right, and den you shust 
 drag him vonce more, and he vill do pretty veil ') , I will 
 let you take my Albany corn-planter, and with one horse 
 you can plant the whole 15 acres in three days, at the 
 same time distributing about 100 pounds of Stockbridge 
 corn -manure or some good reliable superphosphate in 
 the drills. I use an equal amount of plaster mixed with 
 the fertilizer. Make the drills about three and a half 
 
88 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 feet apart, using from one r half to one bushel of seed- 
 corn tb the acre, according to the size it grows. I have 
 a variety, the Mammoth Ensilage, which takes 
 only one-half bushel to the acre : the drills want to 
 be four feet apart. It will yield on good corn-land, 
 well manured, 40 to 75 tons of green-corn-fodder to 
 the acre : I guess I can furnish you with seed if you want 
 me to. As soon as the corn begins to prick through 
 the ground, you must harrow it all over with the 
 Thomas smoothing-harrow, and follow it up every week 
 or ten days until the corn is a foot high : each harrowing 
 will take one day. When it is about waist high, you 
 want to go through it once with Hussey's Centennial 
 Improved cultivator and horse-hoe ; after that the corn 
 will shade the ground so much that there will be no 
 more weeds ; when this is done, until your corn is ready 
 to cut, you and your man can change work with your 
 neighbors, helping them in their haying, they to pay 
 you back when you save your corn-fodder : having noth- 
 ing but the garden to attend to, you will have plenty of 
 time to pay in work for all the help you will need then. 
 About the ist of September your corn will be in full 
 tassel, which is the time to cut it. You will have to buy 
 you a cutter, which will cost about $100. You will have 
 to hire a small engine, three to five horse-power will 
 do, and a boy who understands how to run it : this will 
 cost about $25 to $40. It will take eight men besides 
 yourself to cut the corn-fodder and pack it in the Silos 
 to advantage. It will take about ten days to fill the two 
 Silos. I think you will have enough on your 1 5 acres to 
 fill them, and have several tons which you will have 
 to shock and cure by drying. When the Silos are filled, 
 you want to put six inches of rye-straw on top of the 
 Ensilage, then lay down on the straw a floor of one and 
 
COST OF FARM-PRODUCE. 89 
 
 one-fourth inch spruce plank : on top of this floor put a 
 layer of cobble-stones about a foot deep. As soon as 
 you have done this, plough your corn-land, and sow with 
 winter rye. Sow two bushels to the acre. I will loan 
 you my Cahoon Broadcast seed-sower to sow the rye : 
 with it you can sow the 1 5 acres in one day, and do it 
 far better than by hand. Harrow it in with the smooth- 
 ing-harrow, then roll. In the spring, harrow the rye as 
 soon as it begins to grow, and follow it up once a week 
 until it is eight or ten inches high. This harrowing 
 loosens the ground, kills the weeds, and causes the rye 
 to tiller more, thereby increasing the crop from 20 to 
 50 per cent." 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 SECOND IDLENOT PAPER. 
 
 ABOUT two months after my last interview with Sylves- 
 ter Idlenot, when I advised him to try Ensilage, I saw 
 him coming up the walk to my house, evidently in a 
 botheration. As he opened the office-door I said, 
 " Good-morning, Sylvester. Take a chair. How are 
 Mary and the boys ? " 
 
 "All well, God bless 'em, I thank ye; but it's in 
 throuble I am intirely ! " 
 
 " What is the matter, Sylvester? " I asked anxiously. 
 
 " Well, docther, 'tis just this. You know, last March 
 ye happened into my house just as I was figuring up the 
 account for the year, and we had made nothing but 
 shelter and our vittles. Shure, we always had a roof over 
 our heads, and plenty to ate, and comfortable clothes on 
 our backs, and laid up three and four hundred dollars each 
 year, and niver touched the bit of inthrust money our 
 savings was arning. After we bought the farm, and 
 since then, divil a cint have we laid up more'n the in- 
 thrust would have been. Well, you, docther, told me 
 what to do, and I'm a-doin' it; and now we're ruined 
 intirely ! " 
 
 This sounded rather ominous ; and I said, with more 
 
PRICE OF MILK. 91 
 
 anxiety than curiosity this time, " Sylvester, what is the 
 matter ? " 
 
 " Docther, I've been following your directions, for I 
 thought it was sinsible ; and besides, I'd seen how well 
 your own stock looked that was fed on the insilage ; and 
 ses I to Mary, it's thrying it we'll be after doing. So I 
 bought the manure, and I spread it broadcast on the tin- 
 acre field and five-acre lot : the grass 'tis just growing 
 splendid ! We- sowed the five acres to rye, and up to 
 me shoulder it is, and so thick ye can hardly make your 
 way through it. We are feeding it to the cows, and 
 have been for a while or two." 
 
 " Well, don't they do well, and give a good mess of 
 milk ? " I asked, interrupting him. 
 
 " Niver better, but that ain't the throuble," said he. 
 
 " Well, what is it? Tell me, what is the matter, Syl- 
 vester?" I asked. 
 
 " I'm coming to it, docther, directly. I'll tell ye im~ 
 mejitly. I was at warrk on me siloos. I've got 'em 
 more'n half done already. Day before yesterday, whin 
 I looked up, there right forninst me stood the con- 
 thractor ! * So you are going to thry the docther's new- 
 fangled feed, are ye, Sylvester ? ' ' Yes, indade I am,' I 
 said : * it is tired I am making milk, and selling it to the 
 likes of ye for less than it costs to make it/ 
 
 " ' I read all about it in the noosepapers,' said he : 
 ' ye's going to make it for a cint a quart. It's foine 
 business ye'll have making milk for a cint a quart and 
 selling it for three ; ' and he wunk a knowing kind of a 
 wink as he got on to his wagin, and druv away. Ses I 
 to myself, Fhat the divil is that conthractor winking like 
 that to me for ? and thin I thought about the noosepa- 
 pers telling all about the siloo and the insilage, and at 
 the head of the whole story was, ' How to projuce milk 
 
92 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 for one cint a quart ; ' and it sthruck me all of a suddint. 
 Ah, docther, ye's guv us away wid your noosepapers, 
 and ruined the whole business, bad luck to it ! I niver 
 did belave in book-farming, anyhow ! " 
 
 Sylvester wiped the perspiration from his brow, and 
 looked the personification of disgust. " Why, Sylves- 
 ter," I said, " how can that be ? What harm can there be 
 in writing down our conversation and the advice I gave 
 you, and printing it so that others may profit with us in 
 the advantages which the new system of Ensilage gives ? 
 Surely you are not so selfish that you do not want other 
 farmers to share with us the good times which the gen- 
 eral adoption of the new system will bring about?" 
 
 " No, no, docther : it isn't the farmers that I want to 
 kape in the darkness and throuble they are now in, by 
 any manes ; but the milk conthractors may the divil 
 fly away wid every mother's son of them ! As soon as 
 they foind out we can make a quart of milk for a cint, 
 not a farden more thin a cint will they pay us for our 
 milk. And that's what's the trouble altogether ! Fhat's 
 the use of all your exparimints? The conthractor 
 bad luck to the likes of 'im will get the oisther and 
 lave us the shells like he does now. Shure thim's the 
 b'ys f hat makes their foine living by the sweat of ither 
 men's brows ! " 
 
 I laughed at this, and proceeded to finish the advice 
 I gave Sylvester last March. " Sylvester," I said, " you 
 are keeping your cows now on rye. All right : continue 
 to feed the rye to them until the first of June, then turn 
 them into the pasture. By that time there will be plenty 
 of feed which will carry them till fall, with the help of a 
 little grain. In fact, keep them as you would if you 
 were not trying the Ensilage system. Finish your Silos. 
 When you have them filled with the corn Ensilage, put 
 
NO CHANGE REQUIRED. 93 
 
 a lintel on the other side of the barn, and in about a 
 month buy thirteen more cows, and keep them in the 
 barn, turning them out every day an hour or two in 
 the yard to exercise. Feed the Ensilage to them twice 
 a day, about a bushel (25 or 30 pounds) to a feed. The 
 two Silos will hold about four hundred tons ; that, with 
 the rye Ensilage, will be sufficient to keep fifty cows the 
 year through, if you give to each cow, in addition to the 
 Ensilage, about four pounds of bran or cotton-seed meal 
 daily while she is in milk." 
 
 " But, docther, won't the cows and sheep get tired of 
 the insilage, and need a change sometimes ? " asked Syl- 
 vester. 
 
 " I don't see that there will be any need of a change," 
 I replied ; " I have fed cattle upon it exclusively for sev- 
 eral months, and they like it better and eat it with 
 greater avidity than ever. It is almost the same as fresh 
 pasture grass when bran or cotton-seed meal is fed with 
 it, and is certainly as good as fresh pasture, as the 
 cattle can eat their fill without labor. When there is 
 plenty of food in the pastures, no one dreams of offer- 
 ing a change to stock. You will have but 28 cows, and 
 that is all I advise you to keep ; but, as you have the 
 feed for 22 more, you must build a shed on the south 
 side of the Silo, 24 feet wide and 47 feet long ; fence in 
 a yard of about one-quarter of an acre of that high, dry 
 ridge east and south of your Silos, and buy 100 breeding- 
 ewes, common merinos, such as I bought last fall, only 
 you need not bother about their breeding. If they are 
 grades they will answer just as well. 
 
 " As I am advising you what to do, I will .let you take 
 two of my Cotswold bucks to put with them. If they 
 turn out well, you can pay me for the use of them what 
 you think is right. Now you will want to buy six good 
 
94 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE, 
 
 brood- sows (any large breed), and a pure Berkshire 
 boar to use on them. You can keep the 28 cows, the 
 100 sheep, and the seven hogs on the Ensilage which you 
 will raise on the 1 5 acres. If the contractor tries to beat 
 down the price of milk, you can make butter, and have 
 the skimmed milk to feed to the pigs. If your cows 
 each give 2,000 quarts of milk per year, you can make 
 200 pounds at least of butter. The skim-milk, the run 
 of the five-acre orchard (you must ring the hogs when 
 you turn them out to pasture) , and Ensilage in the win- 
 ter, will make you at least 500 pounds of pork to each 
 cow. This will give you $20 for butter, if you have to sell 
 it at ten cents per pound. 500 pounds pork at three 
 cents per pound is $15. You will also raise a fine calf 
 worth at least $10 when a year old. This gives you for 
 each cow $45, or $1,260 for the 28 head. Your 100 
 sheep will shear you seven pounds of wool on an average 
 (my merinos average between nine and ten pounds), 
 worth unwashed at least 30 cents per pound, $2.10 a head, 
 or $210 on the whole flock. Then you will raise, by the 
 use of Cotswold bucks, 90 lambs or more, which will be 
 worth when four months old, at least $4 per head ; this 
 is $360 more. Now let us see : your income will be as 
 follows : 
 
 For butter, 5,600 pounds, at 10 cents . . $560 oo 
 
 For pork, 14,000 pounds, at 3 cents . . 420 oo 
 
 28 yearlings, at $10 apiece . . . . 280 oo 
 
 700 pounds wool at 30 cents . . . 210 oo 
 
 90 lambs (Cotswold merinos) at $4 . . 360 oo 
 
 Total ........ $1,830 oo 
 
 " You must in the future, as in the past, make the 
 sales of fruit, eggs, poultry, and vegetables pay the 
 butcher's and grocer's bills, so that there will be to 
 
PROFITS OF ENSILAGE. 95 
 
 come out of the $1,830 the following items of ex- 
 pense : 
 
 Interest on farm, value ..... $5,000 oo $300 oo 
 Interest on stock and depreciation on farming- 
 tools, value 1,500 oo 150 oo 
 
 Interest on 13 additional cows, value . . 520 oo 
 
 Interest on 100 sheep, " . . 400 oo 
 
 Interest on stock of manure bought, " . . 325 oo \ in 70 
 
 Interest on Silos, cash paid out, " . . 300 oo 
 
 Interest on sheep-shed, " . . 150 oo , 
 
 Total investment $8,195 
 
 Wages and board of one hired man six months, at $25 . . 150 oo 
 
 Repairs on buildings and fences . . . . . . 50 oo, 
 
 Taxes and insurance . . , ... . 80 oo 
 
 Bran and cotton-seed meal, four pounds daily to each cow when 
 
 in milk 280 oo 
 
 Grain for sheep and horses . . . . . . 150 oo 
 
 Total expense ' $1,271 70 
 
 "This leaves for you and Mary $558.30." 
 " Fhat ! $558 and 30 cints ! besides inthrust and all 
 expinses is it ? " asked Sylvester, who had been watching 
 me closely, " and no thanks to the conthractor ; wid but- 
 ther at tin cints a pound, and pork at three cints a pound, 
 wool at 30 cints a pound, and Cotswold Merriny lambs 
 at $4 apiece ! Shure, that is too low for the lambs any- 
 way. Your lambs, docther, of the same kind, weighed 
 over 100 pounds apiece whin only five months old ; for, 
 d'ye moind, I helped ye to weigh them meself." 
 
 " That's so," I replied: " they will be worth from $5 to 
 $7 each ; so will the butter be worth more than ten cents 
 a pound, and the pork be worth more than three cents a 
 pound. I have put the prices low, in order to show you 
 what can be done by the system of Ensilage. Now, Syl- 
 vester, you and Mary take hold of this as you do of 
 
g6 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 every thing you undertake ; and, my word for it, you 
 will think you have found the real ' philosopher's stone.' 
 After you have tried it one year, show me your account. 
 If it is not better than last year, I'll pay the difference 
 out of my own pocket." 
 
 " Ye'll not be called upon to do that, docther," said 
 Sylvester ; " and ye can depind upon Mary and me and 
 the b'ys to thry." 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 ANALYSIS OF ENSILAGE FROM THE " WINNING- FARM SILOS. 
 
 By C. A. Goessmattn, Ph.D., 
 
 Professor of Chemistry, Chemist to the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture 
 and State Inspector of Commercial Fertilizers. 
 
 THE sample of Silo corn (Ensilage) consists of: 
 
 PER CENT. 
 
 Moisture at 21 2-2 20 Fahrenheit . . . 80.70 
 Dry matter left . . . . . 19.30 
 
 100.00 
 
 This dry matter consists of: 
 
 PARTS. 
 
 Crude cellulose .; . ' . . % . . 6.43 
 
 Fat ether abstract . ' 0.62 
 
 Albuminoids . ' . V . . 1.56 
 
 Non-nitrogenous extract matter . V V 8.92 
 
 Ash (with traces of sand) . * ' . 1.77 
 
 19.30 
 
 Also an average analysis of the corn-plant in the 
 milk : 
 
 . PER CENT. 
 
 Moisture at 21 2-2 20 Fahrenheit . .. . 85.04 
 Dry matter . f f * 14.96 
 
 100.00 
 
 97 
 
98 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 PARTS. 
 
 Ash . . . . . . . 0.82 
 
 Albuminoids . 0.86 
 
 Fat 0.26 
 
 Crude cellulose 4.53 
 
 Non-nitrogenous extractive matter . . . 8.49 
 
 By comparing the two tables it will be seen that the 
 Ensilage contains over 29 per cent more dry matter than 
 the whole plant in the milk; over 41 per cent more of 
 crude cellulose ; over 138 per cent more of fat ; over 81 
 per cent more albuminoids ; over 5 per cent more of non- 
 nitrogenous extract matter ; over 1 1 5 per cent more ash 
 (or mineral constituents). 
 
 It will also be seen that the nutritive ratio of the 
 Ensilage is one part of albuminoids to 6^ parts of non- 
 nitrogenous extractive matter (digestible carbo-hydrates) . 
 This makes its nutritive ratio a little better than timothy 
 hay, which is, according to Dr. Wolff, i to 8yV> but not 
 quite as good as average clover hay, which is i to 5-^. 
 By this analysis Ensilage would seem to be much nearer 
 a perfect food than I have supposed. If the results of 
 careful experiments in feeding coincide with the above 
 analysis, the system of Ensilage is far more perfect and 
 important than I have even hoped. 
 
 I shall institute a series of experiments to test this 
 point ; for, however satisfactory a chemical analysis may 
 be, the real touchstone is the feeding value demon- 
 strated by careful and repeated experiments. 
 
 What farmers want to know is not what an article of 
 food is worth chemically, but how much it is worth to 
 feed to their stock. 
 
 My experiments thus far satisfy me that the value of 
 corn-fodder is doubled by the softening and fermentive 
 process which it undergoes in the Silos ; that two tons of 
 
ANALYSIS OF ENSILAGE. 99 
 
 it are worth more to feed than four tons of corn-fodder 
 fresh from the fields, or one ton of best timothy hay. 
 
 I received the above analysis the last of April, and at 
 once resolved to test it by experimentation. April 29 I 
 selected two thoroughbred two-year-old Jersey bulls, 
 and weighed them. " Rossmore " weighed 960 pounds, 
 " Hero " weighed 890 pounds. " Rossmore " was fed 
 40 pounds of Ensilage daily, and nothing else. " Hero " 
 was fed 40 pounds of Ensilage and three pounds of 
 wheat-bran daily, and nothing more. June 2 I weighed 
 them again, and found that " Rossmore " weighed 960 
 pounds, having neither gained nor lost ; showing, so far 
 as one experiment could, that 40 pounds of Ensilage 
 containing over 80 per cent of water was sufficient to 
 sustain in a healthy condition the functions of the 
 animal system, and replace the waste tissue. His hair 
 was smooth, he appeared to be satisfied, and Sylvester 
 thought he was gaining. "'Hero" at this time weighed 
 943 pounds, being a gain of 53 pounds in 34 days, or 
 I -55if pounds daily: as it took the 40 pounds of Ensi- 
 lage to sustain the animal, it follows, that 102 pounds of 
 wheat-bran, fed with the Ensilage, produced 53 pounds 
 of beef (live weight). 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 HOW TO PRESERVE GREEN CORN FOR THE TABLE. 
 
 DURING my visit at " Linden Grove," the home of T. 
 S. Cooper, the well-known importer of choice, high-class 
 Berkshires and Oxfordshire-down sheep (see portrait of 
 Frceland), upon my describing Ensilage to Mr. and 
 Mrs. Cooper one evening, I was surprised and pleased 
 to learn from Mrs. Cooper that she had been Ensilaging 
 green corn for a long time for her table. I asked her to 
 tell me how she prepared it, and she replied as follows : 
 " I take fresh ears of green sweet corn, cut the corn 
 from the cobs, pack it down solidly in a large stone jar, 
 cover it on the top with about two inches of salt, put a 
 follower on the salt, and weight it. Whenever I wish to 
 prepare some for the table, I soak it until fresh, or 
 change the water in which I boil it as often as necessary. 
 When it is cooked, I drain the water from it by letting it 
 stand in a colander a few minutes, then season to suit ; 
 or, after it is nearly done, the water may be drained off, 
 and nice rich milk added, in which let it simmer until 
 ready to serve." 
 
 100 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 MY EXPERIENCE WITH SUGAR-BEETS. COST OF RAISING ONE* 
 
 FOURTH OF AN ACRE, AND THE YIELD. 
 
 DEBIT. 
 
 Seed . . . . . . . . <-..;... . $i 50 
 
 12 bushels wood-ashes . i So 
 
 loo pounds salt 50 
 
 2\ cords manure at $6 per cord . . . . . 'V . 15 oo 
 
 Ploughing twice ..........200 
 
 Cultivating and harrowing . . . . -.. . . i oo 
 
 Raking the ground half a day . 50 
 
 Planting one-fourth day ......... 25 
 
 Weeding and thinning, 4 clays 4 oo 
 
 Harvesting, 2 days : . ' , '. 2 oo 
 
 Total . - ,. ' . . ' . 28 55 
 
 CREDIT. 
 
 252 bushels at 60 Ibs. to the bushel, 15,120 Ibs. at $4 per ton . . $30 24 
 One-half the value of the manure, salt, and ashes left in the ground 8 65 
 
 Total / . , . $38 89 
 
 Cost 28 55 
 
 Profit $10 34 
 
 The piece of land was broken up a year ago last spring, planted that 
 season with potatoes and beans, manured HgJitly in the hill. The beetles 
 ate the potato-vines all up, so that potatoes there were none : the beans 
 bore a very light crop. Before it was broken up, the land produced 
 perhaps half a ton of hay to the acre of fine June grass. This was the 
 first time I ever raised sugar-beets, and the result so well satisfied me 
 that if there were a beet-sugar factory near me I would raise five to 
 ten acres next year. The profit on an acre would be $41.36, which is 
 
102 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 more than any thing else has yielded, except land cultivated by our 
 market-gardeners. 
 
 I have no fears but what, by applying i J cords of manure to the same 
 piece, I could raise ten to twelve tons another time, for I learned some- 
 thing last season. I had them too thick : the rows were twenty-eight 
 inches apart, and as my men hated to pull up nice plants they left them 
 too close together. Next year I shall plant the rows three feet apart, 
 and thin to twelve inches. I shall not try this piece with i cords of 
 manure, however : I shall put on at least three cords. I raised 225 
 bushels of long red mangels on one-eighth of an acre, right alongside of 
 the sugar-beets, and on another eighth of an acre side of them 160 
 bushels of yellow globe mangels. All these pieces were manured alike 
 and cultivated the same. 
 
 Now, I want to inquire whether I had better spread about 200 loads 
 of manure on the land I intend to break up next spring, as I get it out 
 next week ; or put it in a pile, and spread it in the spring after plough- 
 ing, the ground being frozen. I cleaned my barn-cellar out in October. 
 The cellar is cemented on the bottom, and the walls pointed with cement. 
 I have made this manure since then. I have thirty-two head of cattle, 
 four horses in the barn and twenty-nine head of swine in the cellar. 
 
 I had no idea how much manure I was losing until I cemented the 
 cellar bottom. I have been constantly throwing in dry loam and muck 
 at the rate of one to two loads per day, besides bedding my cattle with 
 sand and the horses with meadow-hay ; and now, since the urine of all 
 the animals is saved, the pig-pens which extend under all the stalls and 
 lintels are so wet and soft that the hogs are unable to get from one end 
 to the other. 
 
 I feed one hundred pounds of cotton-seed meal, sixty pounds of corn 
 meal, fifty pounds of shorts, and twenty-four quarts of oats daily, besides 
 the food of the swine. I believe that dry muck or loam thoroughly sat- 
 urated with urine from animals fed as above, and worked up into a per- 
 fect mush, is as good to grow crops as the same bulk of solid excrement. 
 Am I right? I should like to know whether I had better spread my 
 manure on the ground, or pile it. 
 
 Yours respectfully, 
 
 JOHN M. BAILEY. 
 
 WINNING FARM, Nov. i, 1878. 
 
 From this experiment I am satisfied that sugar-beets 
 can be raised at a profit. The sugar-factories are now 
 
SUGAR-BEETS. 103 
 
 paying five dollars per ton, which would make the profit 
 on my quarter of an acre $17.90, or at the rate of $71.60 
 per acre ; but, in order to realize the greatest profit, the 
 pulp should be returned to the farm, and fed out to the 
 stock thereon. By the system of preserving cattle-food 
 in Silos, this can be done most economically. A small 
 Silo ten feet wide, twenty feet long, and ten feet deep, 
 will hold about sixty tons of pulp. By covering it with 
 a little straw, and upon that a flooring of plank, with 
 weights upon it, the same as in the Silos of corn Ensi- 
 lage, it may be kept for a long time. The beet-pulp, 
 containing as it does all the nutrition except a part of 
 the sugar, would be an excellent food to feed with the 
 corn Ensilage. It is also a very good article of food for 
 swine by itself. 1 
 
 In regard to the manure, I have demonstrated by 
 several careful experiments since the above was written, 
 that the best time and way to apply manure is when you 
 have time, and with a broadcast manure-spreader. 
 
 1 I have learned, since writing the above, that the best way to raise sugar-beets 
 is to have the rows eighteen inches apart, and to thin to nine inches. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 To sum up, I will say that large Silos 40 to 50 feet 
 long, 15 to 1 8 feet wide, and 1 6 to 24 feet deep, are the 
 cheapest : they will not cost more than one dollar for 
 each ton's capacity. As two tons of Ensilage are worth 
 more than one ton of English or timothy hay, the com- 
 parative economy of Ensilage is at once manifest. They 
 require no repairs, and if properly built will last for ages. 
 
 The cost, therefore, of storage-room for Ensilage is 
 about six cents per ton yearly. In order to store its 
 equivalent of hay as cheaply, a barn to store a hundred 
 tons of hay would have to be built for two hundred dollars. 
 My plans of building Silos are cheaper than to dig pits 
 in the ground. The small pits which are used in France, 
 and described by Charles L. Flint, Secretary State Board 
 of Agriculture, in his last report, would cost much more 
 to construct, the labor of filling and weighting them be 
 much greater. 
 
 Since the publication of the last State Agricultural Re- 
 port, I have had the pleasure of showing my system of 
 Ensilage to Secretary Flint. After critically examining 
 the Silos, the Ensilage, and the stock fed upon it, he de- 
 clared " that the system of Ensilage would work a per- 
 fect revolution in agricultural methods in this country." 
 The system of Ensilage reduces the comparative value 
 
 104 
 
ENSILAGE VS. HAY. 105 
 
 of good timothy hay to four dollars per ton, and of 
 hay-barns to two dollars for each ton's capacity. The 
 labor of feeding is lessened very materially ; the health, 
 condition, and appearance of the stock is immeasurably 
 improved. In short, it \vill bring about, upon its general 
 introduction and adoption, an agricultural millennium 
 almost. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 EFFECT OF ALCOHOLIC FERMENTATION IN ENSILAGE UPON 
 " GILT-EDGED BUTTER." 
 
 THE following letter was received from a gentleman 
 with whom I have had considerable correspondence 
 upon the subject of " Ensilage." 
 
 SODUS, WAYNE COUNTY, N.Y., April 16, 1880. 
 MR. JOHN M. BAILEY. 
 
 Dear Sir, Yesterday I received a visit from Professor L. B. Arnold, 
 the dairy-writer. The subject of " Ensilage " came up, and its effect on 
 " gilt-edged butter" &c. He is very strong of the opinion that the 
 alcoholic fermentation that is begun will injure the fine flavor and text- 
 ure that is desirable in my trade. I am very anxious to read your book 
 so as to clear up these points ; and, if there is any thing further that you 
 can say on the subject, I would be very glad to hear from you. 
 
 I haven't got that copy of the paper with your article, " How to pro- 
 duce milk for one cent a quart, butter for ten cents a pound, beef for 
 four cents a pound, and pork for three cents a pound," yet. 
 
 Respectfully, 
 
 A. J. RICE. 
 
 P. S. Just received and read it. 
 
 As Professor Arnold is so great an authority, as he is 
 supposed to know every thing concerning dairy matters, 
 it will doubtless be deemed presumptuous in me to say, 
 and attempt to prove, that the learned professor is mis- 
 taken. Let us consider through what organs, changes, 
 
 106 
 
ALCOHOL ON BUTTER, IO/ 
 
 and circumstances the small amount of alcohol (which is 
 found in the Ensilage) passes before it can reach the 
 butter. 
 
 In the first place, the alcohol is only an incident to the 
 great change which has been taking place in the Ensi- 
 laged forage. This change, which is so important and so 
 useful, is the conversion of the starch contained in the 
 plants into sugar. The formation of alcohol is only a 
 nutritive barometer which tells us that sugar has been 
 formed. The odor of alcohol is hardly perceptible until 
 after the Ensilage has been exposed to the action of the 
 oxygen of the atmosphere twelve to twenty-four hours. 
 
 Therefore, if the professor is correct, it is in the power 
 of the dairyman to prevent the formation of alcohol by 
 feeding direct from the Silo without allowing the alco- 
 holic fermentation to take place. Thus, if an evil, it is 
 easily avoided. 
 
 In the second place, the small amount of alcohol pres- 
 ent in the Ensilage (I have never seen any of my cows 
 intoxicated) is mixed with the saliva during the process 
 of mastication, and passes with the Ensilage into the 
 first stomach, or paunch, thence into the second stomach. 
 It is then re-masticated by chewing the cud, and passes 
 into the third stomach, thence into the fourth stomach, 
 where it is digested. 
 
 When cows are fed upon Ensilage, I have noticed 
 that their breath is particularly sweet, as if fed upon the 
 sweetest grasses. From the stomach it passes into the 
 intestines, from which that part of their contents neces- 
 sary for the nourishment of the animal economy is taken 
 up by two sets of vessels ; first, the blood-vessels of the 
 intestines, and passes through the portal vein to the 
 liver. There the portal vein is divided and subdivided 
 into an infinity of minute branches as they reach the lit- 
 
108 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 tie glandular lobules which compose the liver. Here 
 they break up into a plexus of microscopic vessels as 
 fine as those which originally absorbed from the intestines 
 the nutritive matter with which they are filled. These 
 minute vessels fill the entire substance of the liver with 
 a vascular net-work. Then these little vessels collect 
 together again, and unite into larger ones, until at last 
 they leave the liver as the hepatic vein, which conveys 
 the nutritive matter called chyle. Chyle is also absorbed 
 by the lacteal vessels, and conveyed by the thoracic duct 
 to the sub-clavian vein, and by both sets of vessels is 
 conveyed into and finally mingled with the venous blood 
 returning to the heart. By the contraction of the right 
 auricle it is forced into the right ventricle, which in turn 
 contracts, and forces the blood into the pulmonary artery, 
 which conveys the blood, chyle, and alcohol ? to 
 the lungs. There this artery divides into numberless 
 branches which penetrate and encircle all the minute 
 spaces between and about the air-vesicles. Here the 
 blood is subjected to the action of the air which is in- 
 haled by the lungs. Now, alcohol is very volatile ; and if 
 any of the alcohol has got thus far with the blood on its 
 way to the milk, there can be no doubt that it would all 
 be thrown off with the expiration of the breath. 
 
 But, having followed it thus far, let us go clear 
 through to the churn, whether the alcohol keeps up with 
 us or not 
 
 From the lungs the blood is returned to the heart, 
 which by the contraction of the left ventricle forces it all 
 through the system. A large amount of blood is carried 
 to the milk-glands. The milk-glands' office is to secrete 
 milk. They secrete nothing else which is in the blood 
 excepting those elements which constitute milk, pro- 
 viding the animal is in a healthy condition. 
 
ALCOHOL ON BUTTER. 109 
 
 But we will suppose, for the sake of the argument, that 
 the alcohol is secreted by the milk-glands, and is drawn 
 from the udder mingled with the milk. A portion of it 
 rises with the cream, and is churned. Of course a large 
 portion of this alcohol, which has got thus far, must 
 remain in the buttermilk : the remainder must be so 
 infinitesimally small that it could have no perceptible 
 effect upon the butter. 
 
 It is evident that the professor means, when he says 
 that the " fine flavor and texture " will be injured by the 
 alcohol, that this injury is accomplished by the bodily 
 presence of alcohol in such a quantity as to destroy the 
 integrity of the butter globules ; in other words, to 
 " cut" the butter as oil is " cut" when it is shaken in a 
 bottle with strong alcohol. 
 
 Now, this alcohol, which goes all the way through the 
 various organs of the cow until it is found in the butter, 
 be the amount greater or smaller, certainly cannot 
 be very high "proof ; " and dilute alcohol has no power 
 to disintegrate butter, for you cannot "cut" ever so 
 small an amount of any kind of oil with alcohol the 
 strength of which, at once small, grows beautifully less 
 by being subjected to unlimited dilution every time the 
 cow drinks, and to evaporation every time she breathes. 
 
 There are millions of excretory ducts, organs, and 
 glands, in the animal organism, whose office it is to 
 remove from the system the waste tissue and such use- 
 less substances (alcohol for instance) from the system 
 as may have been taken up by the absorbents. Does 
 Professor Arnold expect he can run alcohol through a 
 cow with these millions of leaks for it to escape by, and 
 catch it in the milk-pail strong enough to disintegrate 
 butter ? 
 
 But the milk-glands are not excretory, but secretory 
 
110 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 organs, whose office it is to secrete milk, not to remove 
 useless matters from the organism. Even if an infinitely 
 small amount of alcohol could get into the milk (which is 
 absurd), and if it had the power to disintegrate or " cut" 
 (in a measure) butter (which it would not) , I fail to see 
 how it could injure the flavor (and every thing but the 
 pure alcohol would be there anyway) . Why, alcohol is 
 the vehicle in which the most delicate flavors are pre- 
 served, while the sweetest odors of the roses of June are 
 saved by incorporating them into alcohol. 
 
 I think I have demonstrated, first, that if the pure 
 alcohol gets into the milk it could do no harm to the 
 flavor of the butter ; second, that it would be infinitely 
 diluted, so as to be powerless to affect the texture ; 
 third, that the amount would be infinitesimally small, 
 that it could not be detected ; and, fourth, that none 
 could get there at all. 
 
 Now, my friend Rice, let us prove this thing by actual 
 experiment. Give to each of your cows daily a table- 
 spoonful of alcohol (which is more than there is in a 
 cow's daily ration of Ensilage) ; sprinkle it upon their 
 food ; examine the butter critically which is made while 
 the alcohol is being administered : if it is injured in 
 flavor or texture in the least, the professor is right, 
 and I am wrong ; if, on the other hand, it is uninjured, 
 why, for once he is mistaken. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 MODEL DAIRY STABLE ADAPTED TO THE SYSTEM OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 FIG. No. i (see next page) shows the ground-plan 
 of a dairy establishment 76 feet wide, 127 feet long, 
 capable of accommodating 1 18 cows, the necessary young 
 cattle if dairy stock is to be raised, or, if cows are bought, 
 ample room for a flock of 100 sheep, together with their 
 year's supply of forage. There is an engine-room at the 
 right-hand corner, 12 X 18 feet ; next, a 12 X 14 feet milk 
 and butter room, small shaft enters to attach churn to. 
 Next, three box-stalls, 8x12 feet, opening out of a 
 passage-way six feet wide, which leads from the principal 
 feeding-floor to the milk and engine room. The milk 
 and butter room is sheathed up on the outside with well- 
 seasoned, planed, and matched lumber, and plastered on 
 the inside, with double doors to prevent any odors from 
 entering. The floor of the engine and butter rooms, and 
 of the entire establishment, is cement. 
 
 A, A, A, represent an elevated track, upon which a 
 box holding Ensilage enough to feed 25 cows is sus- 
 pended. This track is overhead in the centre of the 
 feed-floors. 
 
 The first floor into which the Silos open is 12 feet 
 wide ; next to this is a manger 2 feet wide ; next is the 
 lintel floor, four feet ten inches wide ; next, gutter, one 
 
112 
 
 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 '9,4* 
 
 If Kf9 
 
 V* 
 
 cx2 
 
 \ 
 
MODEL DAIRY STABLE. 
 
1 14 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 foot ; next, passage-way, four feet ; next, gutter, one foot ; 
 then another lintel, five feet ten inches ; next, a manger, 
 2\ feet (by mistake it is drawn as two feet : the lintel 
 floors are also drawn 5! feet wide, they should be 4 feet 
 10 inches to 5 feet wide) ; now comes feed-floor from 
 which two rows of cows are fed ; between this floor and 
 the next are two lintels, with mangers, gutters, and pas- 
 sage-way as above ; then comes the last passage-way or 
 feed-floor ; upon one side of this floor the lintel extends 
 clear across the structure. The space 18 X 56 feet on 
 the left of the Silos may be used as a sheep-shed, or be 
 subdivided to suit for the keeping of calves, &c. 
 
 Fig. 2 is an elevation of the same, showing the general 
 shape of the superstructure, also position and an end 
 view of the mangers, position of the gutters, which 
 should be about six inches deep ; also sloping floor upon 
 which the cows stand ; this floor should incline towards 
 the gutter, one inch at least to the foot. On this side 
 of the stable there should be three sliding doors, one at 
 the corner, the others in centres of the double lintels. 
 They should be nine feet wide, so that the manure can be 
 loaded upon a manure-spreader or cart, and be hauled 
 directly to the fields, and spread upon the land. 
 
 The dotted line at the left hand shows that portion 
 of the Silos which is under ground. This figure is 
 drawn with the posts 16 feet high, which is higher than 
 is necessary: 10 feet is ample. The Silos are 18 X 48 
 feet inside, and 23 feet deep: they will hold 1,000 tons 
 of Ensilage, which is sufficient to feed 100 cows one 
 year. The rye Ensilage, which can be raised upon the 
 same land as the i ,000 tons of corn Ensilage, will furnish 
 plenty of feed to keep the other 18 cows, the calves 
 and young stock, or 100 to 150 sheep. 
 
 Fig. 3 shows how the travelling feed-box may be 
 
MODEL DAIRY STABLE. 
 
 I I 
 
 constructed. The bottom is sloped up at the end ; 
 the head-boards can be taken out. A 12 to 16 tined 
 fork, such as is used to handle charcoal, may be used 
 to feed with. A little experience will enable the feeder 
 to measure upon the fork the necessary amount of 
 Ensilage to each cow. If the IMPROVED Ensilage is 
 
 FIG. 3. 
 
 used, it will not take one man more than one hour to 
 feed the whole 1 18 cows. If the grain be fed separately, 
 it will take at least an hour to feed the grain alone. 
 This feed-box is made four feet long, 23 feet wide, and 
 2j feet high. 
 
II 6 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 This dairy establishment can be built, Silos and all, 
 for less than one-half the cost of the necessary storage 
 and stable room, when the same amount of stock are 
 kept upon hay and grain. 
 
 The corn-fodder and green rye necessary to keep the 
 118 cows, calves, and yearlings or sheep, can be raised 
 upon 30 acres of good land, while upon a hay and grain 
 diet it would require at least 1 1 8 acres of the very best 
 land to keep the cows alone. 
 
 Ensilage will re-people and restore the old deserted 
 farms of New England. Thousands of these farms, with 
 comfortable buildings, can be bought for less than half 
 the improvements would cost. 
 
 The hitherto insurmountable difficulty has been to get 
 a stock of manure to begin with, there being none for 
 sale in the back counties, and the transportation from the 
 cities would make it cost too much. I propose to show 
 how that obstacle can be overcome. Let the purchaser 
 of one of these old farms commence operations in the 
 spring. He will require a pair of good strong horses, and 
 need a couple of cows, a dozen or two of fowls, and ought 
 to have four good breeding-sows and a Berkshire boar. 
 Turn the cows and the hogs out to pasture ; cut down 
 and burn the bushes upon the best of the old grass-fields ; 
 the last of May and the first of June break up 15 acres, 
 turning under the green growth ; if there is a good thick 
 sod, it would pay to sow broadcast 100 pounds of nitrate 
 of soda to the acre about the 2Oth of April : this will 
 stimulate the grass to grow, and give a much larger 
 green crop to turn under. After breaking, harrow twice 
 with the Randall disk-harrow, then with the smoothing- 
 harrow. Plant in drills four feet apart, using half a 
 bushel of Mammoth Ensilage seed-corn to the acre, 
 and distribute in the drills 200 to 300 pounds of Bradley's 
 
HOW TO RESTORE THE OLD FARM. 
 
 117 
 
 X L phosphate, or any other equally good and reliable 
 fertilizer, if you can obtain it. I have used the X L 
 phosphate for many years, and it has never disappointed 
 me. On land where there is but little grass to turn 
 under, better broadcast from 200 to 300 pounds of phos- 
 phate, and harrow it in before planting. The corn 
 comes up large and strong, with a dark, healthy green 
 color : it soon carries it out of the way of the cut-worm, 
 and is sufficient for its rapid growth until the rootlets 
 reach the mass of decaying vegetable matter turned 
 under, which is one of the best fertilizers to make an im- 
 mense growth of corn. The corn will be ten days earlier, 
 and twice as large, for the phosphate. In short, about 
 200 pounds of standard fertilizer to the acre in the drill 
 will pay, no matter how much stable-manure you may 
 have. The labor saved of preparing, composting, and 
 distributing the stable-manure will pay for and apply the 
 phosphate, so that whatever fertilizing material there is 
 in the phosphate actually costs nothing. 
 
 1 5 acres, planted and fertilized as above, will produce 
 at least 300 tons of corn-fodder. After planting is 
 finished, build two Silos after the plan on page 73, but 
 larger, say 15 feet wide, 12 or 15 feet high, and 30 to 35 
 feet long : they will cost about $80 to $100 for cement, 
 lumber, and extra labor in laying the wall, besides the 
 labor of the farmer and his team. Now the man who has 
 followed my plan thus far, and Ensilaged his corn-fodder, 
 will find himself, at the approach of winter, with ample 
 forage to keep 30 cows the year round, or to winter 60 
 head, or five cows and 250 to 300 sheep. If he has 
 money enough, and his wife is a strong and able help- 
 mate, and they fancy dairying, let him buy 25 good new- 
 milch cows, sell butter, and follow the advice given Syl- 
 vester with swine. 
 
Il8 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 If he has but little money, or does not like dairying, 
 let him take sheep to keep upon shares, saving the best 
 ewe lambs. The sale of wool and ram lambs will give 
 him a good revenue. In the spring, if he has used, as 
 he should, plenty of dry muck or loam for absorbents, he 
 will have a pile of manure which will make the old field 
 smile. Thereafter pursue the course laid down (see 
 page 37), sow winter rye (applying the stable-manure 
 broadcast during the fall and winter) , to cut and Ensilage 
 in May or the first of June, then plough at once, and drill 
 in the corn with phosphate. Every year will witness 
 increased fertility, more stock, larger crops, and greater 
 prosperity. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 CONCLUSION OF THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 IN conclusion, fellow- farmers, let me tell you why I 
 have written this book. In the first place, I am actuated 
 by an earnest desire to do all I can to improve the con- 
 dition of the American farmer. His life has been too 
 long a life of toil and drudgery. He has had little if 
 any time for social enjoyment or intellectual improve- 
 ment. Hard work continuously, accompanied by the 
 most parsimonious economy, has been the only way by 
 which he could hope to acquire a competence for his old 
 age. In this fierce struggle oftentimes the farmer's wife 
 has had the hardest lot of the two ; working from early 
 morn until late at night, the slave of a horde of hired 
 men the profit on whose labor, by the old systems, was 
 so slender that the expense of a hired girl would have 
 put the balance on the wrong side, till at last, weary and 
 worn, too often she lies down to her last sleep when but 
 half way on the journey of life ; leaving a family of 
 children to grow up as best they may, without any of 
 those tender and hallowed influences which ought to 
 surround every fireside, and make its bright and happy 
 memories in after life a golden shield of protection to 
 keep them from straying from the right way wherein 
 there is happiness, joy, and peace. 
 
 The boys grow up. They hate farming : they go to 
 
 119 
 
120 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 the city, and join the already crowded trades, professions, 
 or occupations ; and, in ninety cases out of one hundred, 
 their lives are failures. 
 
 The girls declare they "won't marry a farmer!" 
 (That is one reason why " the boys leave the farm.") 
 They go into the factories, shops, and to God knows 
 where ! let us hope he will watch over them, and guide 
 their footsteps to something better than that which 
 awaits too many who go to the city fresh and pure as 
 the air on their native hills, to meet disappointment and 
 privation, till at last they sink out of sight, ruined, 
 lost! 
 
 What is necessary to change all this, is larger crops, 
 more and better stock, and consequently greater profits. 
 This will give the necessary leisure for improvement, for 
 rest, and recreation. 
 
 By adopting the system of " Ensilage," the labor of a 
 farm can be so systemized that these opportunities can 
 be improved, and the farmer's life become in fact, what it 
 has always been in theory, and sometimes in practice, 
 the most independent and honorable of any class. 
 
 Secondly, Since I opened my Silo, and the papers all 
 gave more or less accurate and detailed accounts of my 
 success in preserving corn-fodder in its green state, I 
 have received an immense number of letters from all 
 parts of the country, asking me to " please give them a 
 little more information 'how* I did it," &c. Well, I 
 have answered several hundred ; I hated to refuse or 
 neglect so civil a request from so large a number of the 
 very men whom I most respect ; but it had come to this 
 pass, that I had got to employ an amanuensis, and devote 
 my whole time to diffusing information through the mails, 
 or refuse to answer nine-tenths of the inquiries. 
 
 Several hundred years ago they used to diffuse knowl- 
 
CONCLUSION OF THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 121 
 
 edge by the means of manuscript sent to parties desiring 
 it ; but it soon struck me that in this present enlightened 
 Ensil-age it was not exactly " up to the times ! " I have 
 therefore jotted down, as I have had leisure, what I know 
 about the system. I feel diffident in thus giving in- 
 struction how to proceed, for I know I have much yet to 
 learn ; but the farmer who carefully studies this book 
 will know a great deal better how to go to work than I 
 did when I began ; and my cattle and sheep all told me 
 to-day (May 25) that it " was the greatest kind of a suc- 
 cess ! " But then, my stock like me, and are doubtless 
 partial. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 LATEST RESULTS IN PRESERVING AND FEEDING. 
 
 SINCE the first edition of the " Book of Ensilage " was 
 published, I have learned several things connected with 
 the system, which I consider of importance. First, I have 
 learned that it is unwise to try to raise two crops upon the 
 same land in one season, unless that land is in a high state 
 of fertility; and even then I believe that it will be better 
 to raise one big crop, and devote the other to fertiliza- 
 tion. I shall therefore try the following plan this fall and 
 next season. As soon as my Ensilage corn is cleared 
 off of the ground, I shall drill in rye with a one-horse 
 grain-drill having five hoes, two of them on each side 
 being attached to wings like the side pieces of an ordi- 
 nary cultivator, so that the drills may be widened to 
 equally distribute the drills between the rows of corn 
 stubble, which are undisturbed whatever distance they 
 may be apart. At any time during the winter, while the 
 ground is frozen, a roller or drag will knock down and 
 break off the corn-stubble. In the spring, harrow with 
 a smoothing-harrow, or, what is better, with the " new 
 broad- cast grain and corn cultivator" 
 
 The latter part of May I shall turn under the green 
 rye, just as the heads are making their appearance, and 
 drill in " Mammoth Ensilage Corn," with 200 to 300 
 
LATEST RESULTS IN PRESERVING AND FEEDING. 123 
 
 pounds of best superphosphate to the acre. This green- 
 manuring, with the fertilizer to give the corn a start, will 
 bring a heavy crop of fodder. 
 
 Some of my best corn this year was raised upon an 
 inverted sod, with no manure save 250 pounds of phos- 
 phate in the drill. 
 
 Do not understand that I shall not use stable-manure. 
 I shall apply it broadcast during the fall, winter, and 
 early spring, upon the rye, using " Kemp's Broadcast 
 Manure Spreader." 
 
 I am in receipt of many inquiries as whether it will do 
 to put fodder which is partly dry into the Silo, or not. 
 My experience with rye answers this question perfectly. 
 Owing to delays, I did not get ready to ensilage my rye 
 this season until the I2th of June, at least two weeks 
 later than it should have been. The grain was two- 
 thirds formed in the heads, the straw was partly turned, 
 and altogether it was too ripe; -but, as an experiment, it is 
 much more valuable than it would have been had the 
 rye been in its most succulent stage (we all know it will 
 keep if ensilaged in that stage). The weather was 
 excessively hot and very dry. I cut the rye, and for two 
 days attempted to pack it in one of my Silos ; but it was 
 so dry it would not wilt enough to pack. I was satisfied 
 that the mass of Ensilage would contain so much oxygen 
 that it would mould and spoil if put in in that manner. 
 I therefore attached a hose to the stable water-pipe, and 
 run a spray of water upon the cut rye as it fell into the 
 Silo : this thorough wetting caused it to pack solidly. I 
 kept a horse constantly walking upon the rye, which, by 
 the way, is the most economical way of compacting in 
 Silos as large or larger than mine. I also mixed two 
 and a half acres of heavy clover and blue-grass with the 
 10 acres of rye. I did not open this rye and grass Ensi- 
 
124 THE B OOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 lage until I was ready to fill the balance of the silo with 
 corn Ensilage. 
 
 On Sept. 24, upon removing the weights and the plank 
 covering, there was found a layer of about an inch in 
 thickness of rye Ensilage, which was somewhat mouldy. 
 There was no unpleasant or musty smell, however, to 
 this layer ; and, when fed to the cows, they seemed to 
 relish it. Directly under this thin layer the Ensilage was 
 perfect, not the slightest mould, fresh, and with a 
 delightful odor, excepting that it was somewhat too 
 strong of alcohol. A large basket of it was taken to 
 the cows, which had been at pasture all day, had been 
 fed with all the cut green-corn fodder they would eat, 
 and had received their evening grain-ration ; no sooner 
 was it within their reach than they grabbed the Ensilage 
 as if they were famished, and swallowed it as if it were 
 the sweetest morsel, never stopping an instant until it 
 was all gone. The next morning we commenced filling 
 in the corn on top of the rye. Thus, from a threatened 
 failure, we gain a valuable lesson ; and that is, to wet the 
 forage if it is not green and succulent. 
 
 The first edition of 2,000 copies of " The Book 
 of Ensilage" is sold (or this new one of 5,000 copies 
 would not have made its appearance), and has received 
 a most favorable reception from the press of the 
 country and the public generally. I am not troubled 
 that a very few scientific men have attempted to in- 
 directly criticise it, saying : First, " We have known 
 all this matter before this Bailey tried it." Second, 
 " It is absurd to suppose that the process of Ensilage 
 improves the forage." Third, " It is doubtful whether it 
 has any advantages over drying. And between the lines 
 they plainly say, "WE had nothing to do with demon- 
 strating the practical utility of this system in America, 
 
LATEST RESULTS IN PRESERVING AND FEEDING. 125 
 
 THEREFORE there is nothing in it worthy of notice. We 
 have been trying this 30 years to effect something by 
 preaching * deep ploughing,' underdraining, beet-sugar, 
 and many other things " (all of which have fallen still- 
 born upon the general agricultural mind), "and the 
 only monuments we have to point to thus far, are the 
 1 beat ' sugar companies." 
 
 To the first criticism people say, " If this is so, why 
 have you hidden your light under a bushel all these 
 years, while we were groping in the darkness ? " 
 
 To the second criticism, I will only ask my scientific 
 friend if he has ever thought of the difference between 
 leavened and unleavened bread, and if the leavening 
 does not add to its food value, whether it increases its 
 intrinsic food elements, or not ? 
 
 In reply to the third, I will take the liberty of quoting 
 Professor Knapp of the Iowa State Agricultural College, 
 in a recent article : 
 
 " In this climate the forage-plants of most luxuriant growth are coarse 
 and succulent, not easily cured, and when dry contain much woody 
 fibre. In their green state they are an excellent food for stock, with little 
 waste ; in their dry state a considerable proportion is indigestible, which, 
 with the parts animals reject, constitutes about 40 per cent of the whole. 
 The proportion of innutritious parts depends much upon the kind, 
 coarseness, time of cutting, manner of curing, storing, &c. ; but it is 
 safe to place the range at from 15 to 50 per cent. To this should be 
 added liability to damage by wet weather, owing to the long time 
 required to cure such crops in the field. I emphasize the forage-crops, 
 because in my judgment the future progressive agriculture largely 
 depends upon the utilization of them. A ton of green-corn fodder can 
 be grown ready for cutting for ten cents, not including interest on land, 
 On rich land it can be grown for six cents per ton. This includes ear 
 and stalk as it stands in the field ready for the cutter. The experiment 
 by Wolff has shown, that, when cut green early in August, the amount of 
 crude fibre is less than five per cent. Could it be cut fine, and pre- 
 served in this condition, the practical saving of material would be over 
 30 per cent, not estimating for damage in curing by reason of storms. 
 
126 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 Another important consideration, impossible to estimate by percentage, 
 is the higher health of animals having rations of green food. 
 
 "The consumption of a large amount of dry corn-fodder, or even 
 enough for daily subsistence, has not proven conducive to health. If 
 we consider economy of food and health of animal solely, the balancing 
 of considerations must largely favor Ensilage." 
 
 Green grass and other forage-crops contain over 80 
 per cent of water ; in the process of curing by drying, 
 about 70 per cent is evaporated. Now, this 70 per cent 
 of water carries with it a large amount of valuable nutri- 
 tion. That which passes off is just what makes the 
 difference between June butter and winter butter. If it 
 does not lose by drying the first time, how does it hap- 
 pen that it loses so much by drying the second time, 
 after being wet ? The wetting does not injure the forage, 
 else cut feed would be injured by being sprinkled, and 
 steaming fodder would be utter ruin. It is the drying, 
 after the wetting, that robs the forage of its value. The 
 water which is dried out of the forage leaves it in 
 the shape of hay-tea, and the first "drawing" is the 
 strongest. 
 
 Do not be alarmed if the cut fodder heats as you are 
 filling the Silo. Mr. Potter allows his Ensilage to " heat" 
 before he attempts to compact it. Sufficient moisture 
 and pressure will stop the fermentation at any time. Do 
 not think it is not preserved, with all its nutritive ele- 
 ments not only unimpaired, but improved, because it 
 does not look as freshly green as when waving in the 
 fields. There are some persons who are so difficult to 
 suit, that they are not satisfied unless they can find under 
 the lid of each can of preserved fruit a button-hole bou- 
 quet of fresh peach and apple blossoms. 
 
 The true test is, will the cattle eat it, and do they 
 thrive upon it ? Mr. Potter's clover Ensilage comes out 
 
LATEST RESULTS IN PRESERVING AND FEEDING. 127 
 
 of his Silo in the form of a putty-like substance : never- 
 theless his stock thrives better upon it than upon clover 
 fresh from the fields. 
 
 Ensilage has no tendency to bloat or scour animals. 
 
 M. H. Simpson, President of the Roxbury Carpet 
 Company, at his farm in Saxonville, Mass., has built Silos 
 after my plan, and has ensilaged several acres of Mam- 
 moth Ensilage Corn, the stalks from 30 acres of field 
 corn, and 35 acres of heavy rowen. He has opened his 
 Silo, and is feeding his ensilaged rowen to his cows and 
 his horses, and they eat it with a keener relish than any 
 other food. I have not raised the 75 tons of corn-fodder 
 upon an acre yet ; but from my experience this season I 
 am more than ever convinced that it can be raised, and 
 I still confidently expect to accomplish it before many 
 seasons. Encouraged by the distinguished approbation 
 of my fellow-citizens and fellow- farmers, I shall continue 
 to experiment. He needs be a bold man who ventures 
 to say, in this day of improvement and progress, that 
 such and such things cannot be accomplished by intelli- 
 gent and persevering effort. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 FATTENING STEERS, FEEDING SWINE, METHOD OF FEEDING, 
 WARM WATER FOR STOCK, ETC. 
 
 IN the fall of 1879 I had three yearling- steers come 
 down from New Hampshire, where they had been at 
 pasture, " spring poor," as the saying is. One was 
 a Jersey ; the second, half Ayreshire, the first calf of a 
 Jersey heifer less than two years old ; and the third one, a 
 native. They were very thin, so reduced in flesh that I 
 thought it very doubtful about their living through the 
 winter. From their return, Oct. 15 until Dec. 3, I 
 tried, with the best of hay, roots, and grain, to make 
 them gain, but with no perceptible success. On the 3d 
 of December I opened my Silo of Ensilaged corn-fodder, 
 and commenced to feed them with Ensilage and a small 
 quantity of wheat- shorts and oil-meal. I gradually in- 
 creased the ration, feeding no more than they would eat 
 up clean. They soon began to gain ; their hair looked 
 better ; they handled better. The improvement, at first 
 slow, rapidly increased until, on the ninth day of March, 
 I sold them for beef. Upon being slaughtered the next 
 day, they dressed 1,486 pounds (meat, hides, and tal- 
 low). 
 
 On the 1 2th of October, 1880, I opened my Silo, 
 which was filled the preceding month. The Ensilage 
 was found to be perfectly preserved, in color a much 
 darker green than my Ensilage of the previous year, 
 owing to the corn being cut and packed in the Silo in a 
 younger and more succulent stage. I am more than ever 
 
 satisfied that the proper time to cut the corn-fodder is 
 128 
 
FATTENING STEERS, ETC. 129 
 
 when it is in blossom. Professor Goessmann writes, that 
 the " corn-plant contains the greatest amount of nutri- 
 ment just before the tassel appears." He may be right if 
 the forage is to be fed directly from the field. I cannot 
 but think, however, that there would be a loss in cutting 
 it so early for preservation by Ensilage. I do not think 
 there can be much loss even if some of the most forward 
 stalks have ears formed, and the kernels in the milk. The 
 yield will certainly be greater, as at that time there are 
 many smaller stalks and suckers which are still growing. 
 
 My method of feeding is as follows : I remove from 
 the Silo 50 pounds of Ensilage (about one cubic foot) 
 for each grown animal daily, mixing one pound of oil- 
 meal or wheat-bran to every 10 pounds of Ensilage. 
 I have a large box standing upon the barn-floor, in 
 which I mix it and let it stand about twenty-four hours 
 before feeding. By that time it is quite warm : the 
 grain addition has had time to become soft, and its 
 digestibility is undoubtedly increased to a great degree. 
 There is in every 50 pounds of Ensilage about 40 
 pounds of water, nearly all the animal requires. It is 
 a great advantage to have this amount of water warm 
 when taken into the stomach. There has been no labor 
 or fuel expended in warming it, which is quite an item. 
 When animals are allowed to drink ice-cold water in 
 winter, there is quite a large percentage of the food 
 which would produce fat consumed in raising the tem- 
 perature of the water they drink from freezing cold to 
 blood heat. 
 
 When I opened my Silo Oct. 12, 1880, I weighed 20 
 head of stock, and commenced to feed them upon the 
 Ensilaged corn. They were all quite thin, having been 
 upon a very poor pasture all summer. They could by 
 no means be called a thrifty lot of cattle, or a lot from 
 
1 3 o 
 
 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 which much gain could be expected from their condi- 
 tion, age, or breed. f 
 
 Nov. 15,' I weighed them again. During this time 
 they were fed i ,000 pounds of Ensilage daily ; and dur- 
 ing the first 1 8 days, 100 pounds of cotton-seed meal 
 daily. During the last 15 days they were fed 100 
 pounds of Brewer's sprouts in lieu of the cotton-seed 
 meal. I should have fed more sprouts ; but 100 pounds 
 were all they would eat. 
 
 Their breeding, condition, age, and weights are given 
 in the following table : 
 
 No. 
 
 DESCRIPTION. 
 
 AGE. 
 
 WEIGHT 
 IN POUNDS. 
 
 WEIGHT 
 IN POUNDS. 
 
 I 
 2 
 
 Grade Jersey, in milk, fair condition . 
 Registered Jersey, in calf 7 months, 
 fair condition . 
 
 14 yrs. 
 ic. " 
 
 Oct. 12. 
 1,0474 
 
 QA C 
 
 Nov. 15. 
 I,052| 
 
 0674 
 
 3 
 
 Jersey cow, calved Oct. 24 (calf 
 weighed 65 Ibs.), since which she 
 has given 12 to 14 qts. of milk daily ; 
 fair condition ... . 
 
 4 " 
 
 VT- 3 
 
 I.OOO 
 
 875 
 
 4 
 
 1 
 
 Grade Hereford heifer, thin condition, 
 Native heifer, fair condition .... 
 Native cow, due in February, very thin 
 
 2 " 
 2 
 
 15 " 
 
 790 
 925 
 
 QOO 
 
 890 
 
 9 2 7i 
 02 1; 
 
 7 
 
 Jersey bull thin condition . . . 
 
 4 " 
 
 1,20? 
 
 I,2C,O 
 
 8 
 9 
 
 Jersey heifer, fair condition .... 
 Jersey cow, in milk, thin condition, due 
 in January 
 
 lomos 
 4vrs. 
 
 345 
 7 co 
 
 375 
 780 
 
 10 
 
 Jersey and Ayrshire heifer, in milk, 
 
 2 " 
 
 71? 
 
 73 
 
 ii 
 
 12 
 
 Grade Jersey heifer, very thin condition, 
 Native heifer, due in March, fair con- 
 dition . . . . 
 
 2 " 
 2 " 
 
 > 
 
 620 
 
 QOO 
 
 6824 
 
 0224 
 
 13 
 14 
 
 :* 
 
 17 
 
 18 
 
 IQ 
 
 Jersey heifer, thin condition .... 
 Grade Jersey heifer, fair condition . . 
 Grade Jersey heifer, very thin condition, 
 Grade Ayrshire, very thin condition . 
 Jersey bull, very thin condition . . . 
 Jersey bull, very thin condition . . . 
 Jersey bull thin condition . . 
 
 it" 
 
 6mos 
 2 yrs. 
 
 ;*: 
 
 2 " 
 
 6mos 
 
 490 
 280 
 550 
 
 570 
 950 
 880 
 
 IQO 
 
 520 
 300 
 
 6124 
 640 
 1,005 
 960 
 2IO 
 
 *!* 
 
 20 
 21 
 
 Native heifer, in milk, thin condition . 
 Jersey calf, dam No. 3, born Oct. 24, 
 
 2 yrs 
 
 730 
 
 745 
 oo 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 14,8474 
 
 15,585 
 
 
 
 
 
 
FATTENING STEERS, ETC. 131 
 
 Total gain 737^ Jbs. 
 
 Gain per head 35.12 " 
 
 Gain per day, per head 1.06 " 
 
 Greatest gain per day, No. 4 3 " 
 
 The gain in weight, however satisfactory under the 
 circumstances, does not convey an accurate idea of their 
 real improvement. It is a well-known fact that there is 
 a much larger proportion of water in a poor animal than 
 in a fat one. The first change which takes place when 
 fattening begins is a decrease in the amount of water 
 contained in the tissues of the animal ; and the increase 
 in fat, however considerable, does not always make up 
 for this loss of weight. 
 
 It is the opinion of all who inspected the above ani- 
 mals at the beginning of the experiment, as well as since 
 Nov. 15, that the increase in weight does not equal the 
 improvement in the quality of the beef. It should also 
 be borne in mind that the season is the most unfavor- 
 able for gain, being at the commencement of cold 
 weather, "between hay and grass," when cattle 
 generally shrink in weight. 
 
 I am feeding my store hogs upon about 10 pounds of 
 Ensilage and one pound of wheat-bran to each animal 
 weighing over 250 pounds. They are doing well, and the 
 cost does not exceed two cents per day. Clover pre- 
 served by Ensilage would be excellent, and require no 
 grain added to it. Young pigs are exceedingly fond of 
 the Ensilage. 
 
 I feed it occasionally to my work and driving horses. 
 It has as good an effect as an occasional feed of carrots 
 or other roots. 
 
 In taking the Ensilage out of the Silo, much labor will 
 be saved by taking it out in vertical slices from the top 
 down to the bottom of the door, removing the weights and 
 
132 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 I 
 
 plank covering as fast as necessary. Place the plank on 
 the undisturbed mass in the lower half of the Silo as 
 they are removed from the top, thereby making a floor 
 to stand upon, and to run a car or wheelbarrow upon. 
 When the end of the Silo farthest from the door is 
 reached, commence at that end, dig down to the bottom, 
 throwing the Ensilage with a large fork upon the plank 
 floor, and, by taking out vertical slices, gradually work 
 back towards the door. This floor, which is laid upon 
 the lower half, need not be weighted. There is no ne- 
 cessity for protecting the Ensilage from the air while it 
 is being fed out, as a fresh surface is exposed to the 
 atmosphere each day ; and it is so compact, that, if left 
 untouched for three or four days even in warm weather, 
 no injurious fermentation can, or does, take place. It 
 will be warm only on the outer two or three inches. 
 The finer it is cut or shredded, the closer it will pack ; 
 and consequently less space will be lost by settling. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 ILLUSTRATING THE NUTRITIVE VALUE OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 THAT it is a highly nutritious food is proven by the 
 fact that my cows, fed upon it during the winter, brought 
 me very fine, large, strong calves, upon their feet and 
 sucking almost as soon as dropped. My Vermont Me- 
 rino ewes sheared upon an average 9 pounds of wool, 
 which I sold for 30 cents a pound at home. They also 
 brought fine, strong, vigorous lambs. The lambs were 
 sired, part of them, by a pure Cotswold ram, and the 
 balance by a pure Oxford down ram. They weighed, 
 when born, from 6 to 12^ pounds each. Some of the 
 Merino ewes bore twins weighing 17^ pounds. My 
 Cotswold ewes did equally well, bringing lambs weigh- 
 ing from 10 to 15^ pounds each when born. 
 
 Some of my Cotswold ewes sheared as high as 16 
 pounds of wool. The whole flock averaged 1 1 pounds 
 7 ounces. 
 
 My Oxford downs averaged over 12 pounds of wool 
 each. The weight of lambs and of fleeces given above 
 proves that no food could be better for sheep. I have 
 never seen young cattle and calves grow as rapidly in 
 summer upon good pasture as they do in winter in a 
 warm stable and fed upon Ensilage and oil-meal. The 
 mixture is easy to digest ; the animal does not have to 
 
 133 
 
134 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 work for it ; there are no flies to annoy ; there is noth- 
 ing to do but to grow. 
 
 I believe colts can be brought forward to maturity in 
 less than two-thirds of the time required to raise them 
 upon summer pasture and the usual winter food. 
 
 One thing I wish to impress upon those who contem- 
 plate building, and it is this : build strongly and sub- 
 stantially. Silos are not expensive when properly built. 
 They should be built to last. The lateral pressure while 
 settling under the weight is very great. A side-hill should 
 always be selected as a site when convenient to the sta- 
 bles. Let the end opposite the door extend into the hill 
 so that the earth will come as near as possible to the top 
 of the wall. It will be more convenient in putting the 
 weights on and removing them. If the side- walls are 
 banked or terraced up on the outside nearly or quite to 
 the top of the walls, all the better. 
 
 It will not be necessary for every farmer to buy an 
 engine, or even a cutter. One set of machinery, if suffi- 
 ciently powerful, will answer for three or four neighbor- 
 ing farmers. Parties who have engines or horse-power 
 for threshing can get a powerful cutter, and add to their 
 season's business by cutting the Ensilage crops, as well 
 as threshing the grain for the farmers of a neighbor- 
 hood. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 CHEMISTRY OF THE SILO. 
 
 THAT important chemical changes take place during 
 the curing of green forage plants by the system of Ensi- 
 lage cannot be doubted. I believe there is a formation 
 of acetic acid to a greater or less extent in all cases, and 
 that the acetic fermentation is the first change which 
 takes place. There can be no saccharine fermentation 
 until after acetic fermentation takes place. I doubt its 
 being a saccharine fermentation at all : it is rather a trans- 
 formation. 
 
 I understand the changes to take place as follows : 
 the oxygen of the air in the mass acting upon the sugar 
 in the plant converts that sugar (in corn about 1 1 per 
 cent) into acetic acid ; the acid acts upon the starch (in 
 corn about 56 per cent), and converts it into grape- 
 sugar, or glucose, in much the same manner as sulphuric 
 acid acts upon the corn in the manufacture of glucose. 
 The next stage of fermentation is the conversion of 
 the grape-sugar, or glucose, into alcohol, which, being 
 very volatile, passes off into the atmosphere. Then, and 
 not until then, does real putrid fermentation or decay 
 begin. The previous stages are metamorphoses or 
 changes from one form to another of the elements of 
 nutrition. 
 
 '35 
 
136 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 If the above is correct, the presence of acetic acid, or 
 sourness, so far from being 1 an injury, is a positive bene- 
 fit ; for without the acid the starch, which is hard to di- 
 gest, could not be converted into sugar, which is easy to 
 digest. 
 
 In alluding to the manufacture of glucose, I am 
 brought to consider the relative value of different varie- 
 ties of corn. As it matters but little whether the corn 
 at the time it is cut contains sugar or starch (chemi- 
 cally they are almost identical), as the sugar which 
 exists in the plant is converted into acetic acid, while the 
 starch is converted into sugar, it follows that the variety 
 which will produce the greatest amount of sugar and 
 starch to the acre is the best ; that sweet corn (which 
 has been so highly extolled as a forage crop, and justly, 
 perhaps, if fed fresh from the field) does not produce 
 as much sugar and starch or ultimate sugar, is proven by 
 the fact that the managers of glucose factories do not 
 recommend the planting of sweet corn. Were it other- 
 wise, they would be as particular about the variety of 
 seed-corn planted that it should be sweet corn, as the 
 managers of beet- sugar factories are that the farmers 
 who raise sugar-beets for them procure the seed from 
 them. 
 
 As a general rule, that variety of corn which grows the 
 largest, which produces the greatest number of tons to 
 the acre, is the best. In some of the Southern States 
 pearl millet may prove superior to corn. In Ensilaging 
 it, I think, it would be well to cut it just before it heads. 
 In the whole Southern region the field-pea should not be 
 overlooked. It has an excellent effect upon the soil, and 
 upon good land will yield an enormous crop. It is a 
 plant which draws much of its nourishment from the 
 atmosphere. 
 
CHEMISTRY OF THE SILO. 137 
 
 Rape, I am inclined to think, might prove a valuable 
 forage crop, especially winter rape. It might be sown 
 before the corn is cut, and would doubtless make a heavy 
 growth before the hard frosts. It would shade and pro- 
 tect the ground from washing, and furnish good pastur- 
 age in the fall for sheep. In the spring it could be cut 
 and packed in the Silo, or turned under as a green ma- 
 nure. The expense for seed would be much less than 
 for winter rye or oats. 
 
 In many sections the heavy crops of weeds which 
 grow upon fallow lands might be mowed before they 
 become too hard, and packed in Silo. They would make 
 an excellent food for sheep at least a portion of the time. 
 If cut when very green and succulent, they might be 
 mixed with oat or even wheat straw, and thereby convert 
 the straw into a very good quality of forage. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 HOW TO RAISE THE MAXIMUM CROP OF FODDER CORN. 
 
 A GREAT amount of labor is lost by sowing fodder corn 
 too thick, as well as a large amount of seed wasted. 
 Many sow three bushels to the acre ; some sow but two 
 bushels ; and a few sow but one. I sow but one-half 
 bushel, and my corn is always too thick. The man who 
 has raised the largest crop the past season sowed but 12 
 quarts of seed to the acre. Make the drills at least four 
 feet apart, and sow one-half bushel of Mammoth Ensilage 
 seed-corn to the acre ; then, when it is about a foot high, 
 thin it to 6 and 8 inches between stalks, and I can as- 
 sure you, with a good corn season, if the land is suit- 
 able for corn, is well manured and given frequent culti- 
 vation, a crop weighing from 40 to 75 tons to the acre. 
 When corn is planted too thick, those plants which 
 do not attain their full growth are nothing more than 
 weeds. As dirt is only matter out of place, so a weed is 
 only a plant out of place. No plant is so far out of 
 place as when it is crowded by other plants of the same 
 kind so that its growth is impaired : it then becomes a 
 mere weed, and only serves to injure the growth of the 
 proper number of plants in the hill or drill. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 NEW FORAGE PLANTS AND NEW USES FOR ENSILAGE. 
 
 IN concluding this new edition, let me urge all enter- 
 prising farmers to try experiments in raising the various 
 forage plants ; especially let us seek for a plant which 
 will grow during the fall and spring months, and yield a 
 crop approximating the yield of corn. There are many 
 weeds, biennials, which make their principal growth in 
 the fall months of the first season and the early months 
 of the second season, reaching their full growth in sea- 
 son to grow corn. They might become very valuable to 
 grow upon light lands which suffer severely by the 
 drought in the summer months. Why may not hybridi- 
 zation do as much to improve our forage plants as it has 
 to improve our vegetables and small fruits, and to clothe 
 with new beauties the common garden flowers of half a 
 century ago ? 
 
 I believe that we are upon the eve of an entire change 
 in preserving not only forage plants for our domestic 
 animals, but that the true way to preserve herbs is to 
 gather them fresh, and press them into tight jars or cans, 
 and hermetically seal them ; also that tea might and will 
 be preserved in small sealed cans with all its delicate 
 flavors and aroma unimpaired by exposure to the atmos- 
 phere during the process of curing by drying. To cure 
 
 '39 
 
140 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 tea properly is by far the most expensive item in tea- 
 culture. It can only be profitably raised where labor is 
 very cheap. The tea-plant grows well and flourishes in 
 California, and in many localities of the South ; but we 
 cannot compete with Asiatic labor at 4 to 6 cents per 
 day in curing it. If it can be preserved in jars or cans 
 in its green state, so compacted as to expel all the air, 
 and sealed so as to prevent evaporation and fermenta- 
 tion or change, it is very possible that the culture of tea 
 in our own country may become a profitable pursuit : 
 the product, too, may be superior. Herb-tea is much 
 better made with the freshly gathered plant than when 
 the dried herb is used. I trust that those who are 
 experimenting with the tea-plant in the South and on 
 the Pacific coast will test the preservation of tea by Ensi- 
 lage. 
 
ANY ADDITIONAL INFORMATION WHICH MAY RESULT FROM MY EXPERI- 
 MENTS, AS TO THE BEST METHODS OR MACHINERY FOR ENSILAGING, WILL 
 BE CHEERFULLY FURNISHED UPON REQUEST, ENCLOSING STAMP. 
 
 Bailey's Patent Practical Tree Trimmer. 
 
 ~ 
 
 By the use of this new pruning implement, fruit trees of all kinds can be carefully and 
 symmetrically p/uned without leaving the ground. The operator can see what he is doing, 
 and prune three trees with less labor and in less time than one can be trimmed with other 
 pruning implements which require ladders and necessitate climbing. Limbs of any size up 
 to two or three inches cut with a few blows of the sliding hammer, which the operator 
 grasps in one hand. Price, S-2.5O. 
 
 Manufactured by the Remmiugton Agricultural Company, Ilion N. Y., and for 
 sale by all dealers in Agricultural Implements, and by 
 
 JOHN M, BAILEY, "Winning Farm," Billerica, Mass. 
 
"MAMMOTH KNSILAGE" 
 
 (JOHN M. BAILEY'S TRADE MARK.) 
 
 JSIEIEID oozEfcnvr 
 
 Will yield from 40 to 75 tons to the acre; is more succulent; contains more 
 sugar, and has more luxuriant foliage than any other variety. 
 
 J. G. Walcott, of Peabody, had Mammoth Ensilage fodder corn the past 
 season, from seed bought of me, which yielded at the rate of 72 tons to the 
 acre. Some of the stalks were 19 feet 6 inches tall, and weighed over 12 pounds 
 each. 
 
 Only one-half bushel required to plant an acre. All report the yield much 
 greater than with any other kind of seed. 
 
 A large quantity of MAMMOTH ENSILAGE SEED CORN, expressly for ensi- 
 lage, price by mail 50 cents per pound, three pounds $1.00; by freight or express, 
 $1.25 per half peck, $2.00 per peck, $3.00 per half bushel, $5.00 per bushel; 
 $4.00 per bushel in lots of two bushels or more. No charge for bags. Plant 
 from May 20 to July 10, in drills 4 feet apart. Manure heavily. 
 
 I sold over 200 bushels of Mammoth Ensilage Seed Corn last year, and al- 
 though I have raised the past season over 500 bushels, those who want Mam- 
 moth Ensilage will do well to order soon, for at the rate orders are coming in it 
 will all be taken before planting time. 
 
 I raised more from one acre planted with Mammoth Ensilage than from three acres of 
 Southern White all manured and cultivated alike. 
 
 B. C. PLATT. Suffield, Conn. 
 
 Our Fodder Corn from your Mammoth Ensilage seed yielded a much greater weight 
 than other kinds. 
 
 J. C. POOR, North Andover, Mass. 
 
 The Mammoth Ensilage is far superior to any other kind. 
 
 H. R. BARKER, Lowell, Mass. 
 
 The above are selected from a large number of testimonials. Send for cir- 
 cular and catalogue. 
 
 JOHN M. BAILEY, 
 
 11 Winning Farm," Billerica, Mass. 
 
 OR 
 
 ** Virginia Stock Farm," Waver ly, Sussex Co., Va. 
 
JOHN M. BAILEY, 
 
 4 
 
 BREEDER OF 
 
 Shorthorn and Jersey Cattle, Cotswold, Oxfordshire Down, 
 
 Vermont Merino, Cotswold Merino, and 
 
 Oxford Merino Sheep. 
 
 The " Winning " flock of Cotswolds was formed by selecting all the best sheep in the 
 Mapleshade flock, belonging to Joseph Harris, Rochester, N. Y. (6 first premiums at New 
 England Fair, 1880.) 
 
 The Oxfordshire Downs are from the flocks of John Treadwell and A. J. Milton, Druce, 
 England. 
 
 The "Winning" Merinos are from the best flocks of Vermont. 
 
 In the Cotswold and Oxford Merino there is to be found the most profitable sheep for 
 mutton and wool in the world. For full description and history of these crosses send for 
 illustrated catalogue. Mailed to all enquirers. 
 
 A SPECIALTY MADE OF HIGH CLASS BERKSHIRES. 
 
 
 "WINNING BELLADONNA," 
 
 (IMPORTED.) 
 Winner of the First Prize at Hew England Fair, 1880. 
 
 The " Winning " Berkshires are all from imported stock, which was bred by the cele- 
 brated English breeders, Swanwick, Humfrey, Stewart, and Bailey. 
 
 Pigs of all ages, with perfect pedigrees, from $5.00 upwards. Boars fit for service and 
 Sows with pig, at reasonable prices. 
 
 Send for Illustrated Circular and Catalogue. 
 
 P. O. ADDRESS : 
 
 "WINNINGS FARM," BILLERICA, MASS. 
 
 "Virginia Stock Parm," Waverlv, Sussex County, Va, 
 
Joseph Breck & Sons 
 
 Are making a Specialty of all MACHINES, IMPLEMENTS and SEEDS 
 that are especially adapted to the requirements of the Ensilagist, and solicit 
 correspondence on the subject. 
 
 The following articles are almost indispensable : 
 
 Is invaluable 
 Cor cultivation of all 
 
 Garden 
 and Field crops. 
 
 - ALSO, - 
 
 The "Advance" Chilled Flow ad Thomas' Pulverizing and Smoothing Harrow, 
 
 For Preparing the Land; 
 
 Pearce's Improved Broad-Cast Seed Sower, Albany Corn and Seed Planter, 
 
 For Sowing the Seed; 
 
 Whitman's Improved Railway Horse Power, 
 
 For operating the Ensilage Cutter; 
 
 The Lightning Hay and Ensilage Knife, 
 
 For cutting down Ensilage in the silo. 
 
 We shall be happy to mail descriptive circulars and quote prices on any of the 
 foregoing articles. Also, our catalogues of Garden, Grass and Field Seed, and of 
 Machines and Implements, are valuable as text books, and we furnish them free on 
 application. 
 
 Joseph. Breck c& Sons, 
 
 51, 5S and, 53 JVorth Jdcur'ket Street, 
 
 BOSTON, MASS. 
 
The Bullard Hay Tedder, 
 
 
 The BULLARD TEDDER has outlived scores of experimental 
 machines, and is to-day better appreciated than ever before. Many 
 different devices have been brought forward for turning grass, but 
 nothing else has stood the test of practical farming but the crank 
 motion and the movement of the forks that almost exactly reproduces 
 the plunging swing of the fork in the hands of a brisk man. A glance 
 at the cut will show that this movement in the BULLARD TEDDER is 
 done at the rear of the machine, the end forks being outside the 
 wheels. Thus the wheels never run over the tedded hay. Every par- 
 ticle of the grass is lifted, tossed and shaken out from the bottom 
 and left light and open to air and sun. It will do the work of from 
 six to eight men, is very light draft, and is strong and durable. 
 
 MANUFACTURED J)Y 
 
 THE BJCHAIIDSOIT MFG. CO. 
 
 WORCESTER, MASS. 
 
THE STANDARD 
 
 New Model Buckeye, 
 
 The BUCKEYE has stood the test of twenty-five years, and main- 
 tains the place it has earned as the Standard Machine of 
 America. These many seasons of use have established it as 
 the best in its principle, and the strongest and most durable in con- 
 struction. It has been kept up with the times to meet every demand 
 of the hay field, and constantly improved in the direction of greater 
 simplicity. 
 
 The New Model TSuckeye is so simple in its mechanism 
 that the most unskilled can use and keep it in order. While these 
 improvements have greatly lightened and simplified the BUCKEYE, the 
 old reliable features of strength and durability still. remain. 
 
 MANUFACTURED BY THE 
 
 RICHARDSON MANUFACTURING Co. 
 
 AVOItOESTEIfc, 
 
KEMP'S PATENT 
 
 MANURE SPREADER 
 
 This Machine is the most valuable invention ever offered to the 
 farmer, as it saves labor, does its work better than it can possibly 
 be done by hand, and can be used the season through for any 
 purpose where a farm wagon is used. 
 
 It will spread all kinds of Manure, from the roughest and 
 toughest down to the finest, including ashes, in all conditions, wet or 
 dry, and the time required to spread a load is from one and a half to 
 two minutes, without manual labor. 
 
 It is regulated to spread different quantities to the acre, so that 
 the farmer knows just what amount of Manure he is using per acre. 
 
 It has been fairly demonstrated in the past two seasons, from 
 experiments made by parties owning these carts, that its use 
 increases the crop from 20 to 30 per cent, and that 
 Manure spread by this cart is worth One Dollar per Cord 
 more, owing to its fine and even distribution. 
 
 It can be attached to the Fore Wheels of an ordinary Farm 
 Wagon. 
 
 MANUFACTURED BY THE 
 
 Richardson Manufacturing Co., 
 
 WORCESTER, MASS. 
 
Fairbanks' Stuiari Seal 
 
 R. 
 
 Absolute Accuracy, Unvarying Accuracy, Sensi- 
 tive Action, Durability, 
 
 Are the necessities of a perfect Weighing Machine. 
 ALL THESE REQUISITES ARE TO BE FOUND ONLY IN 
 
 t 
 
 They are made in every variety, adapted to all uses, and with 
 
 EVERY IMPROVEMENT 
 
 which the skill and experience of a half-century in the business can suggest 
 MANUFACTURED ONLY BY 
 
 E. & T. FAIRBANKS & CO. 
 
 ST. JOHNSBURY, VT. 
 
 ALSO, 
 
 Miles' Alarm Tills, or Safety Money Drawers, 
 
 Store Trucks, Coffee Mills, The Type 
 
 Writer and Lawn Mowers, 
 
 Mi SCALES TOR EARNS, OR THE YARD, ALSO TOR DAIRY USE. 
 
 WAREHOUSES : 
 
 83 Milk Street, Boston, FAIRBANKS, BROWN & CO. 
 311 Broadway, New York, FAIRBANKS & CO, 
 
STOCKBEIDGE 
 
 MANURES. 
 
 SEND FOE NEW PAMPHLET. MAILED FEEE. 
 
 Seven years ago the Stockbridge Manures were only known to a few farmers 
 in the Connecticut Valley. Now they are so extensively used in the Atlantic 
 States as to require two large factories, one in Boston and one in New York, to 
 manufacture them. This increase shows what farmers think of good ferti- 
 lizers, and is not only due to the fact that they are reliable, well-made, and 
 high-grade manures, bat also to the fact that farmers have found them 
 
 PROFITABLE TO USE. 
 
 And now that corn and other farm produce is bringing good prices, such as 
 were seldom realized during the war, considering they are now on a gold basis, 
 farmers will therefore find these manures still more profitable to use. 
 
 ALSO, MANUFACTURERS OF 
 
 IDTUB'S " 
 
 The Best and Cheapest Sold 
 
 ALSO FOR SALE, 
 
 Agricultural Chemicals, Ground Bone, &c. 
 
 BOWEER FERTILIZER CO., 
 
 43 Chatham Street, Boston, or 
 
 3 Park Place, New York. 
 
WHEELER'S "ECLIPSE" WIND-MILL. 
 
 
 
 First Self Regulat- 
 ing Solid Wheel 
 Mill invented. Im- 
 proved upon for 13 
 years. Over 8000 in 
 use, and seen all 
 over the Union. 
 Adopted exclusive- 
 ly by over CO lead- 
 ing Railroads. Ex- 
 port returns show 
 more Eclipse Mills 
 sent abroad than 
 all other Mills com- 
 bineil. Received 
 the highest honors 
 at Philadelphiaand 
 Paris. Obtained the 
 first premium at 
 the New England 
 Fair in Portland, 
 1877, and in Worces- 
 ter, 1878 and 1879. 
 
 This Mill is per- 
 fectly noiseless 
 when in operation, 
 and as nrm against 
 a storm as a solid 
 building. Can be 
 made as ornamen- 
 tal as desired. With 
 each Mill full guar- 
 antee of satisfac- 
 tion is furnished; if 
 it fails to satisfy, 
 the amount paid 
 will be refunded. 
 We build 19 differ- 
 ent sizes, according 
 to the various pur- 
 poses and the 
 amount of work to 
 be accomplished. 
 
 View of the Eclipse Wind-Mil of James Vick, Esq., whose letter we gire below. 
 
 Mr. L. H. WHEELER, 40 Oliver Street, Boston: ROCHESTER, N. Y., April, 1879. 
 
 Dear Sir, Having had in use one of your 16-foot Wind Engines since 1875, 1 can certify 
 to its power and efficiency. During this time it has never been out of repair, and is 
 
 to-day in as good working order as when first erected. 
 
 While many mills of other makes in this vicinity have been wrecked by gales, I find the 
 Eclipse perfectly self controlling, and it does not suffer the slightest injury from our se- 
 verest winds. It furnishes a full supply of water for five Greenhouses, House, Stable, and 
 for irrigating purposes for about fifteen acres, through which runs several thousand feet of 
 distributing pipe. With medium wind we raise twenty to thirty barrels per hour, twenty- 
 five feet lift. In short, the working of the mill is so satisfactory that no change is desired. 
 A smaller mill would do our work, or the one we have would run two such pumps as we are 
 using. JAS. VICK. 
 
 Our geared wind-mills are meeting the wants of many who need some power for running 
 machinery, sawing wood, grinding grain, and cutting fodder for ensilage. Prices range 
 from $70 to $1500. 
 
 Below we give the names of a few of our patrons who are well known to the public: 
 
 Dr. Dio LKWIS, Arlington Heights. 
 C. H. FJJSK, Stony Brook. 
 
 Dr. CHARLES CULLIS, Walpole. 
 
 W. HKUSTIS, Belmont. 
 
 W. CHKNERY, 
 C. FAIRCHILD, 
 
 H. SAWYER, Concord. 
 
 BATES ESTATE, Watertown. 
 
 JOHN CASSJDY, 
 
 LAMON & SONS, Nantasket. 
 
 FRANK JONES, Portsmouth. 
 
 E. II. WlNCHKSTKR, 
 
 PIERCK ESTATE, 
 
 Saxouville. 
 
 STATE NORMAL SCHOOL, Framingham. 
 
 JORDAN, MARSH & Co 
 
 RICHARD NELSON, 
 
 W. S. PHELPS, 
 
 WM. H. WRIGHT, 
 
 W. H. SIMPSON, 
 
 LUTHER FULLER, 
 
 LEE HAMMOND, 
 
 HARVEY D. PARKER, 
 
 WM. E. BAKER, 
 
 G. W. HOLLIS. 
 
 A. D. PHILBIUCK, 
 
 J. H. CLAPP, 
 
 J. M. BRANT, 
 
 JOHN LANE, 
 
 JAMES ALLEN, 
 
 JAMES S. EDWARDS, 
 
 Wellesley. 
 
 Grantville. 
 
 Newton. 
 
 Weymouth. 
 
 Bridge water. 
 
 Quincy. 
 
 T)r. PlLLSBURY, Lowell. 
 
 R. H. BARKER, 
 
 J. WARKKN MERRILL, Boston. 
 
 G. D. OILMAN, 
 
 We have given the above names for reference, There are hundreds of these Mills in New England. 
 
 For full particulars and Circulars, apply to L, H. WHEELER, 40 Oliver St., Boston, Mass. 
 
American Sin Mainfg Co, 
 
 Manufacturers of Power and Hand 
 
 HORSE CLIPPING MACHINES, 
 
 , IV. 
 
 ALSO, THK 
 
 ONLY RELIABLE AND SUCCESSFUL 
 
 Sheep Shearing Machine 
 
 That has ever been put upon the market. 
 
 NO ROYALTY. 
 
 The Centennial Award was given at Phila- 
 delphia Exposition, 
 
 AND AT 
 
 State Fairs when Exhibited. 
 
 No. 5 Hand Iloree Clipper. 
 
 oooijinrsr 
 
 Gold Medal, Paris, 1879. Butter made by this process 
 awarded Sweepstakes at International Dairy Fair, 1878, and Gold 
 Medal and First Premium at the same fair, 1879 ; First Premium 
 at Royal Agricultural Exhibition, London, 1879. 
 
 It requires no milk-room; it raises all of cream between milkings; 
 it affords better ventilation; it requires less labor; it is more thor- 
 oughly made; it is cheaper, and gives better satisfaction than any 
 other way of setting milk. The Butter made by this system is unex- 
 celled in its keeping qualities. 
 
 Over eight thousand of these Creamers are now in use, and give 
 the best of satisfaction. The best dairymen of the country use and 
 recommend them, including Ogden Farm, Newport, R. I., Echo 
 Farm, Litchfield, Conn., Winning Farm, Billerica, Mass., Lawrence 
 Farm, ftroton, Mass., T. S. Cooper, Coopersburg, Penn., Hiram 
 Smith, Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin, Holley Grove Farm, Plaiufield, N. J., and many others. 
 
 DAVIS SWING CHURN. 
 
 Aivarded first Prmiiuin over all competitors at only prac- 
 tical test ever held at International Dairy Fair. The box contains 
 no floats or inside gear, which mash the butter-globules; no corners 
 in which the cream can lodge to be washed into the buttermilk and 
 lost when the butter separates. The butter gathers in beautiful 
 granules, in the best possible condition for washing in the churn 
 with cold water and brine. This Churn needs only to be seen to be 
 appreciated. Is easiest to work; easiest to clean. Sales are increas- 
 ing fast where they have been introduced. 
 
 MANUFACTURED BY 
 
 THE VERMONT FARM MACHINE CO., Bellows Falls, Vt. 
 
 Illustrated Circulars sent on application. 
 
I C r .I? O 
 
 GR4IN DRILL. 
 
 For Sowing Wheat, Rye, Oats, Barley or Peas in 
 Fallow Ground or between Standing Corn. 
 
 [anufactured by EWALD OVER, Indianapolis, Ind, 
 
 PRICE, $25.00 
 
 It sows five drills at the same time. The two outer hoes on each side are 
 placed on two swinging wings of the frame, which, by means of the lever 
 between the handles, can be expanded and contracted to suit the different 
 widths wanted. The distance between outer teeth at greatest contraction is 
 27 inches, and at greatest expansion, 34 inches. 
 
 This implement ought to be in the hands of every fanner in the land. 
 Although owners of large tracts of land may be compelled to use the two-horse 
 drills, still they can use it for sowing wheat or rye in standing corn. Fanners 
 who have but few acres to sow, can use this implement and save thereby the- 
 expense of a two-horse drill, and get all the advantages of drilling over broad- 
 casting. Extra cups furnished to sow peas, beans or corn, if desired. Its weight 
 is only 125 pounds, making it an easy draft for one horse. By closing up the- 
 intermediate holes you can sow three drills from 13^ to 17 inches apart. From 
 
 1 to 1$ bushels of seed sowed to the acre, and as good a stand secured as when 
 
 2 bushels are sowed by hand. 37 to 50 per cent, in amount of seed saved, which 
 will pay for the machine every 20 or 25 acres sowed, a better crop secured, and 
 much labor saved. Orders from parties in New England may be addressed to 
 
 JOHN B. BAILEY, 
 
 They will receive prompt attention, and save freight charges. 
 
IMPROVED BALDWIN'S 
 
 Fodder Cutter, 
 
 Especially adapted for Ensilage, 
 
 With a one or two horse tread power, or a small 
 engine to drive it, 25 to 50 tons green corn fodder, or 
 50 to 100 tons Hungarian, Rye, or similar green forage 
 crop, can be easily cut of suitable length for the pur- 
 pose of ensilage in. one day. 
 
 The above cut represents one of the smaller sizes of the Improved Baldwin Fodder Cutter. 
 Before the great demand was created for ensilage cutters in 1880, this machine was known for 
 many years as the best cutter in the world for cutting hay, dry corn fodder, paper, rags, etc., 
 and our claim that it would prove the best ensilage cutter has been thoroughly sustained by 
 the entire satisfaction it has given the hundreds of persons who have used these machines 
 forlhis purpose. Wo give below a few of the many testimonials we have received from 
 parties using them for cutting ensilage. 
 
 WEYMOUTH, MASS., October 15, 1880. 
 
 The " Baldwin Hay Cutter, " No. 15, purchased of you, is all that I could wish. I used it 
 in cutting heavy corn fodder for ensilage: it performed the work well and rapidly, cutting 
 two tons per hour, so fast that it required two men to feed it. I can recommend it to any 
 one desirous of having a good cutter. Very truly yours, F. E. LOUD. 
 
 HALLO-WELL, ME., October 15, 1880. 
 
 The Baldwin Fodder Cutter gives me entire satisfaction. I believe it is the best fodder 
 cutter in use. Yours truly, J. R. BOD WELL. 
 
 These machines are built of the best materials, and in the most thorough manner, and 
 are of great strength, simplicity and durability. Each cutter that is arranged for power ia 
 supplied with the patent safety fly wheel, by which entire safety is secured to operators and 
 machine when in operation. Descriptive circulars mailed on application. 
 
 Manufactured for and for sale by 
 
 JOSEFS BE.EC2S <ft SONS, 
 
 51, 52, and 53 North Market St., - - - - Boston, Mass. 
 
Joseph Breck & Sons 
 
 Are making a Specialty of all MACHINES, IMPLEMENTS and SEEDS 
 that are especially adapted to the requirements of the Ensilagist, and solicit 
 correspondence on the subject. 
 
 The following articles are almost indispensable : 
 
 Is invaluable 
 for cultivation of all 
 
 Oarden 
 and Field crops. 
 
 ALSO, 
 
 The "Advance" Chilled Flow and Thomas' Pulverizing and Smoothing Harrow, 
 
 For Preparing the Land; 
 
 Pearce's Improved Broad-Cast Seed Sower, Albany Corn and Seed Planter, 
 
 For Sowing the Seed; 
 
 Whitman's Improved Railway Horse Power, 
 
 For operating the Ensilage Cutter; 
 
 The Lightning Hay and Ensilage Knife, 
 
 For cutting down Ensilage in the silo. 
 
 We shall be happy to mail descriptive circulars and quote prices on any of the 
 foregoing articles. Also, our catalogues of Garden, Grass and Field Seed, and of 
 Machines and Implements, are valuable as text books, and we furnish them free on 
 application. 
 
 Joseph. Breck & Sons, 
 
 51, 5 cLnd 53 JVorth JWcurket Street, 
 BOSTON, MASS. 
 
Ensilage Cutter. 
 
 ( Trade Mark of the N. T. Plow Company. ) 
 
 Combines great rapidity with strength, durability and simplicity of parts. 
 It has four spiral knives of heavy cast steel. The length of cut is easily 
 changed. The two rollers open both parallel and obliquely, and cannot be 
 clogged. The cylinder revolves without jar, and cuts with exactness. The 
 mouthpiece is of hard steel, with its cutting edge planed, and the knives cut 
 upward, which is essential to safety. It has tight and loose belt pulleys and 
 babbitted boxes. 
 
 We have made a special study of Cutters for Ensilage, and claim to know 
 about them. 
 
 No. 1. Length of knives, 12 inches. Length of cut, 4-10, 8-10 in. 
 
 Price, $75.00 
 
 No. 2. Length of knives, 15 inches. Length of cut, 3-10, 4-10, 5-10, 
 7-10 in. Diam. pulleys, 22 in. Weight of balance wheel 
 150 Ibs. Will cut 2 tons dry or 4 tons green stalks per hour. 
 Price, 125.00 
 
 No 3. Length of knives, 18 inches. Length of cut, 2-10, 4-10, 6-10, 
 8-10, 1 2-10 in. Weight of balance wheel, 400 Ibs. Diam. 
 pulleys, 26 in. Will cut 4 tons dry or 8 tons green stalks 
 per hour. This cutter is now in use by the largest ensilagist 
 in the United States. Price, 250.00 
 
 Extra for Elevator, 15.00 
 
 Smaller Cutters for power, $25.00 and 60.00 
 
 " " " hand, :... .$7.00, $9.00, $15.00, $20.00 and 35.00 
 
 MANUFACTURED BY 
 
 THE NEW YORK PLOW COMPANY 
 
 55 Beekman St., New York. 
 
 WE ALSO MANUFACTURE 
 
 Adamant (Hard Metal) Plows, and all other kinds of New 
 
 York and Boston Plows, and repairs for same, Strong 
 
 Sub-Soil Plows, Corn and Cabbage Plows, Hilling 
 
 Cultivators, Disk Harrows, Corn Planters, Field 
 
 and Oarden Rollers, Corn Stalk Mowers and 
 
 Droppers, Corn Sliellers, Root Cutters, Cider 
 
 Mills, Copper Strip Feed Cutters, Lawn 
 
 Mowers, Press Screws and 
 
 Manure Spreaders. 
 
 CIRCULARS FREE AND CORRESPONDENCE SOLICITED. 
 
T. B. HTJSSEY, 
 
 MANUFACTURER OF 
 
 AND 
 
 CULTIVATING I 
 
 T. B. HUSSEY, 
 
 Manufacturer of 
 
 Agricultural Implements 
 No. Berwick, Me. 
 
 HUSSEY'S NEW HORSE HOB 
 
 AND 
 
 CULTIVATOR COMBINED. 
 
 THE 
 CENTENNIAL IMPROVED. 
 
 WITH 
 
 Five Steel Teeth, 
 
 AND 
 
 Two Steel Mould- 
 boardo. 
 
 The Economizer Portable Engine. 
 
 IB the most com- 
 plete, simple, dura- 
 ble, and economical 
 Steam Engine, for 
 Farm and Agricultu- 
 ral purposes, known. 
 
 Over rix hundred 
 now in use. 
 
 All its parts aro ac- 
 cessible for cleaning. 
 Its boiler has no dan- 
 gerous crown-sheet, 
 therefore can be op- 
 erated with inexperi- 
 enced help. 
 
 Send for illustrated 
 circular and prices. 
 
 S. L. HOLT & CO., 
 
 No. 67 Sndbiary Street, Boston. 
 
GENERAL LIBRARY 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY 
 
 RETURN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below, or on the 
 
 date to which renewed. 
 Renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 OCT 3 1955 
 
 
 21-100m-l,'54(1887sl6)476