Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1881-05-18

no one can estimate its advantage to the
agriculturist."
A gentleman from Southboro. Mass.
who signs himself L. W. c.. and who sells
milk writes as follows:
We entered the wintrr with only our
usual supply of cows, but since we have
fed from the silo we have from fifteen to
twenty quarts left, and are selling more
than usual. The butter is Of good color,
and is what we call gilt edge. | put in
few tons of Hungarian, sample | send
you, having Just reached it to-day. Cows
will leave the best of hay, and take this.
NY men say they act like hungry boy
eating a piece of pie while eating anything
from the silo"
Mr.. Walcott of Peabody, Mass, reports
from his silo:
" Nineteen or twenty head of cattle
have been fed on this ensilage for two
months past. The cows never gave more
milk than now. Even old Jersey cows
give good quantities of milk by eating this
fodder. Sixty pounds of ensilage would
keep COW one day, and she would furnish
ms much milk as if she had all the English
hay she wanted A COW will eat twenty
i've to thirty pounds of English hay per
day. Fifty pounds of ensilsge day will
keep COW AS well as twenty five pounds
of hav day. The cows like the fodder
better than the hay"
Mr.. James S. Gray, Peterboro, N. H.,
is feeding from his two huudred-ton silo.
eleven cows, three horses and severa
swine and sheep; the cattle get about
forty pounds of the ensllage and two quarts
of shorts each, per day, and they are in
high flesh, hearty and apparently healthy"
Deacon Hayden. of the Onondaga club,
estimates the waste of corn fodder by ens-
Laying as twenty to thirty per cent less
than by the usual process Of preservation
and feeding. J. w. Sanborn, Esq, of the
New Hampshire agricultural college farm
says. silos will probably have place in
our farming, but only the modest place
that their merits will accord them"
Ex-Mayor Williams of Nashua, N. H.,
values ensilage so highly that he contem-
plates another sio, of two hundred tons
capacity, and Deacon Kent of Exeter, in
the same state, estimates four tons of this
new fodder as worth ton of hay, says
his one hundred and forty customers are
well pleased with the milk it makes. Ex-
Mayor Bookstaver of Syracuse, N. Y, is
! reported by the Journal of that city as
saying that his horse eats ensilage in pref
erence to the best of hay.
But about the most remarkable instance
of ensilage is told by w. C. Strong of
Brighton, Mass, as follows:
NY experiment with uncut Hungarian
grass was at my home in Newton, but |
also had twelve-acre lot in Brighton
sowed with this seed and designed for hay.
Immediately after sowing, the weather
was hot and dry, which checked the seed
in starting, but developed a prodigous
crop of ag-weed (AmbroSia drtemisig-
tOiin), As a consequence the grass was
largely choked out, the enormous growth
being at least sixty per cent of weeds.
What to do with this burden was the ques-
ton. Having a superseded watertank,
which was capital silo, all at hand, and,
being rather fond of experiment, deter
mined to see what the new process would
do for weeds. Of course we cut them
| fine, and man on horseback packed them
down solid. We averaged about two feet
in depth per day, and somewhat over one
hundred tons within the week of cutting.
The heat was so we'll driven out, as the
work proceeded, that there was not much
doubt that the stuff would keep. Its value
| hon rn1y hn
answered by tial.
If you say it is unreasonable to expect
to take out any better than you put in, |
will simply give facts in reply. Having
no cattle to feed, sold the ensilage to a
milk man at six dollars per ton. he doing
The carting for distance of four miles and
paying the fees. As the food is dripping
wet, it weighs well and turns out to be
worth good deal more than if it had been
pure Hungarian hay. The very strange
thing is this, that the COWS are wild to get
the fodder-lck up the last vestlge of it
give good flow of excellent milka nd
seem to be in extra good condition. The
COWS are emphatic in their agreement
with their owner and myself that the food
is better than when it went in. 1t keep,
several days without injury after taking
out, and is considered by the purchaser tC
be the cheapest food he can give his cows
Of course it is little notifying to MAKE
, public my first failure and second partial
success, but it is by these various trials
that we determine the true value of this
new process. With corn as the material,
and fine cut and solid pack to follow
} The result need not in any case be doubt
full"
From this testimony of competent ant
uninterested witnesses, we ust conclud,
that corn fodder can be so preserved rs t
be both paatable and nutritious to ami
, mails, and those who have built them ar,
able to keep more stock on the same land
ut some extra cost certainly; notably Gen
Grout, who is keeping twenty head more o
cattle and twenty head more sheep, or
| fifty tons less hay. 1t seems equally Ger
} tain. from the same testimony that we mus
t conclude that the feed gives no bad char.
acter to the milk or butter, or the health o
the animal for the length Of time fed here
l The question remains, whether fed year
aIter year 10 the same animal lJS use WOuI(
prove injurious to it. We believe Mr.
, Goffart has fed it more to fattening animals
| but he cites no case of any injurious effect
0 We can see no possible chance for bat
effects if the ensilase can be preserved a'
y Mr.. Goffart asserts his to be, i. e., infer
&, mented. Whether that could be expected
= of ensilage which had advanced to the &C.
, tive point of fermentation, longer expe
rience must determine. Such ensilage a.
{ last named has without doubt lost valuable
f food properties which the unfermenteC
} would possess. We believe it will pay te
= plant more fodder corn, whether one build
silo or not and if one concludes to buil'
it can be done at any time during tn
q summer. But the corn must be planted
t sooner. We have had some inquiry fol
= corn planters. The New York pillow com.
S pany advertise one and Everett & Small