Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1885-12-25
Farmers Column.
Give fools heir gold u knaves their power
Let fortunes bubbles rise and fail;
who sovs a field or trains flower,
Or plants a tree. Is more than all.
Ensilage for the Dairy.

Mr.. John Gould, OF Ohio, writes the
Country Gentleman as follows respect
ing the use Of ensilage as cheap, but
exceedingly valuable food for the pro
ductlon of milk. The cheapness b,
which it was put into the silos is sur
prising, and indicates that these Ohio
dairymen are demonstrating that en-
silage cannot only be grown abundant
ly, but preserved so cheaply that the
rough fodder for COW need not ex
coed mere nominal cost for the win
ter months. The letter says:
81 have been investigating to some
extentthe cost of filling the silos about
here, and l find that with differen
methods from those originally practic
ed, the cast is surprisingly small
Near me are three sllos holding not
far from 400 tons each, and these art
now filed and weighted ready fo'
winter. That of Mr.. Wing has $50
tons pitted, at cost Of ii cts per ton
Mr.. Blair, another neighbor, has 400
tons in the pits, at cost of Is cents
Mr.. Emory is counting on about 10
cents aud Mr.. Rice, with d small silo
will probably get off with an outlay OF
not far from 10 cts. per ton. Thest
filures do net include any compensa.
ton for the labor of the owner aud his
teams, but exactly what it costs foI
hired labor and breakage, the sam,
rule the farmer applies to cutting hay
or grain, Or other farm work holds
good.
The idea of slowly filling the siIo,
is the explanation Of the whole matter
The haste is avoided, aud in its plac
which means "a great army of extra
men and teams, at price far above
regular wages-one gets along with
the ordinary farm help, and an extra
man or two Tor three weeks, at regular
month wages. The employment of al
engine, which, if the farmer does not
own, and few do, is by slow filling I'M
necessary. and a single tread horse
power will put its twenty tons of fod
der into ''chop" quite as well. Then
if two teams are furnished. enc for
each man, and a fifth horse for the
tread, the matter Of filling goes ex-
peditiously forward. One of the
teams can early in the morning be
put on the reaper, and the days's "cut'
is soon down, and the drawing then
commences. During the week the
horses are changed about, so that each
one has his turn upon the power.
By building the silo with three
partitions, the filling can be alternated
to each day, and by the third day the
fodder in the first pit will be up to
nearly or quite 1250, and ready to re-
ceive its quota Of fresh cnt fodder.
By this means, hurry and worry are
wholly a~oided, sour ensiiage has no
part or lot in the question, and as in
the case of Mr.. Wing, or Mr.. Blair, the
employmentof not to exceed SIS worth
of labor each, has put the feed for each
sixty head Of cattle into the silos. If
three tons of eHsilage are worth tor
of good hay. then these men will feed
a coarse ration this winter, costing
them less than one cent, not counting
interest on land or owners labor. The
produce Of each of these silos grew
upon about twelve acres Of land, and
will each amply winter IS COWS, aside
from the grain, and their equivalent
in hay would have required at least
that on more than 200 acres of average
Ohio meadow land. As to the health
fulness of ensilage one has only to
look at the stock of Mr.. Rice, who has
fed it five winters, Mr.. Jos. Brock
four, and Mr.. Wing four, to decide
tkat it is good feed, as well as cheap,
and as the last two gentlemen are
largely engaged IN the production of
winter milk, their advocacy of it, en-
larging their boundaries, and increase
of stock. tell better than any other
argument in its favor"