The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1893-01-11

tDe hurplus goes lntO tnc milk phil, anu
here the value Of ensilaee m in.
Coming to the question as to which
method Of handling the corn involves
the greatest loss, the ensilage has the
best OF it. There is a loss, to be sure,
in putting corn into the silo; but there
10 a larger loss in stocking It. While 1t
is stocked, exactly the same processes
are going on that take place in the silo.
Experime nts at the station have proved
that If the corr was stocked and tied so
closely that il would shed rain, doing it
so carefully that the inside of the stock
would be as green in March as when it
was stocked, still the loss is much
greater than in the silo. There may
be individual cases to the contrary, but
the average shows the increase of feed
ing value by putting the corn into the
silo. You will have to handle your
stock of corn very carefully to lose less
than thirty per cent Of feeding value,
and under the ordinary way of handling
corn fodder it is nearer fifty per cent.
AS TO the work of handling the corn,
it is less labor TO put the corn in the
silo and feed il from there than it is to
stock it and feed it from the stock. If
you are going to get the largest feed
ing value of corn that is stocked, it
must be put in large stocks and the
fodder must be cut before it is given
to the cows. Then they will eat it just
about as clean as they will ensilage.
The ensilage has great advantage over
stock fodder for those who are running
a winter dairy. In the early winter
the dry fodder is just about as good,
but in March or April, while that in
the silo has lost nothing, the dry stalks
are hardly fit for corn fodder. The en-
silage keeps and can be fed right
through, whereas corn fodder does not.
Ensilage has taught us hat every
part of the corn stake, even the heavy
butts, have a feeding value, and en-
silage has done the missionary work TO
teach us that corn fodder has more
feeding value than we have given it
credit for. Probably the largest single
value of the sllo is that it enables the
farmer to keep a larger amour of stock
with than without it. Eighteen tons to
the acre of ensilaee is equal to five tons
of hay, and if every acre Of your farms
over which you run your moving
machines yielded you five tons of hay
your barns wouldn't hold it. Ensilage
will also allow you to turn some of your
poor mowings into pasture, or let it
grow up into wood; and then with en-
silage you can carry more stock than
you could on your whole farm before
you had your silo. The silo helps the
fertility of your land, and the fertility
helps the silo.
You will be surprised to see how en-
silage helps in the fertility of your land.
We have never put clover into the silo,
as we believe the losses in drying the
hay crops are less than when it is put
into The silo, and the same holds good
with barley, rye, green oats, or Hunga-
rian grass. They all make good ensi-
lage; but the crop is not large enough
to make it profitable. AT the station at
Burlington we have spread on rye
broadcast and narrowed it in after the
corn crop was cut, and III the spring we
get a good crop of rye before the land
is turned over again for corn.
My remarks thus far have been in
regard to corn for ensilage. The only
other ensilage crop hat is profitable is
pease and oats, as that crop can be
taken off by the first of July and put
in the silo, and barley can then be
sowed which can be fed green up TO
the time of the hard freezes of winter,
as a real hard frost will not injure
green barley. | believe thoroughly in
ensilage, aud believe that any kind of
green fodder would be better for going
through the silo.
Professor Cooke was then questioned
at some length as TO the methods in
use at the experiment station, as well
as to his OWL ideas in regard TO vari-
u experiments, 10 all of which he
gave intelligent and ineligible ans
: wers.
The audience at the session Wednes.
day evening was not large, but those
who were pre- sent enjoyed one of the
t best meetings of the two days. A select
choir, made up from the best vOcalists
of Mortified, rendered several selec-
lions, "Come, boys, l have something
/ to tell you," and "Hurrah for Old
New England" being received with
marked expressions of approval. Pro-
lessor J.. i. Hills, of the experiment
station at Burlington and a member OF
the Board Of Agriculture, was the
speaker of the evening, and he enter.
tanned his audience with a talk on "Ex-
pertinent Station Work" He said in
puits WANT W tdhC w tulS puuJtC'
not only in regard to Vermont, but
also to speak of it in other states and
| countries. In 1884 John Laws of Eng.
3 land began to make chemical expert
ments OF his farm, and ten years later
[ took in with him, as an associate, John
l.. Gilbert. But it was moi until 1855
that The first experiment station was es
tablished in Germany. The work has
increased so fast that to-day there arr
in France and Germany ITO experiment
5 stations. all doing good work. In Octo
Der, 1876, the first station on American
soil was established at M ddletowp
Conn. The late Orange Judd Offered
to give 81 900 for the purpose if thu
state would appropriate $4,000 to equiv
such a station. The proposition wal
accepted, and the station to-day is do
ing excellent work. In 1876 the sec
ond station was established in Califor
mia, and III 1886 the one at Burlington
. came into existence. The Hatch bill
so called, appropriates from the United
States treasury $4,000 annually to eacl