Ensilage

The economie valué of ensilage is attracting the attention of many farmers, and a congress of agricultural gentlemen who have been experimenting with it has recently been held in New York. Ensilage is a system for the preservation of green crops by depositing them in silos or pits, the object being sitnply to exclude the products from the air and thus prevent decomposition. Sonie goto considerable expense in lining their pits with sive stone walls lam in cement, otners build wooden lined cellars, while some store their green crops in wooden boxes above ground and place heavy weights upon them to compress the mass and exclude the air. There is no patent on the business and each farmer is at liberty to experiment as he chooses. The gentlemen assembled in New York passed a resolution to the effect "that ït has become a well-established fact, by six year's successful use in this country, and by the. jeoncurrent testimony of many intelligent farmers, tkat the ensilage system is Of great advantageto the farming interests as well as to all mankind." A mucli better ity oí' butter is produced frotn cows fed on ensilage fodder. Col. J. W. Wolcott gave the result of last year's experiment on his farm at Cantón, Mass. The total number of acres devoted to the raising of com fodder was nearly 83J. The total yield was 462 tons, showing an average of nearly 14 tons per acre. The total cost of the fodder in the field was f977.04, and its total cost in the silo was $1,179. The average cost per ton in the silo was, therefore, $2.55. Mr. "VVolcott has a farm of 500 acres, employs 25 men and keeps 80 cows. For his butter he stated Ihat he got from 60 to 65 cents per pound Wholesale.