SILOS AND ENSILAGE. 21 



weight of oil-cake-moal " — a statomont which no one will question. 

 The point, however, to ])e noted is that the oil-cake is required in 

 order to secure such results. Bailey says : " To receive the fullest 

 benefit there should he some nitrogenous food fed with the corn 

 ensilage." And again says : " The ensilage is by no means a per- 

 fect food ; it is deficient in albuminoids." So important does this 

 fact appear to him, that he has secured letters patent for mixing 

 concentrated feed with the corn in the silo. If any one, then, who 

 has built a silo wishes to make his ensilage corn suitable for stock 

 food b}' mixing bran, or cotton-seed-meal with it at time of packing, 

 he can do so b}- paying a royalty to that great discoverer and public 

 benefactor. So we learn b}' this that all the experience we have to 

 refer to in this matter, points to the fact that corn ensilage is the 

 same imperfect food that the corn has been heretofore found to be 

 b}- those who have extensively used it. Gotfart still further admits 

 this in a back-handed wa}- by saying: " My fodder of all kinds, 

 fed exclusivel}' to my animals, produces exacth' the same effects, 

 the same abundance of milk and butter, the same flavor and the 

 same color to the butter." Those of us who have tried to make 

 choice butter, and much of it, from fodder corn alone, can appreciate 

 the value of this statement. It is not a rich food. 



There now remains one point more to be considered : — Is the 

 nutritive value of fodder increased b}' the process of ensilage ? I 

 have here again to quote from the authorities so many times referred 

 to before. Goffart says, notwithstanding he has before said that he 

 obtained exactly the same results with the preserved as with the 

 green fodder — that " the nutritive power increases when it has been 

 softened hy lying several weeks in a silo." Dr. Bailey saj's : " From 

 m}- experience in. feeding, so far, I consider ensilage to be worth 

 one-half as much as the best timothy hay ;" a statement so wild that 

 it would not be quoted hero were it not for the purpose of showing 

 how unreliable statements maj' be when made b}' interested parties. 

 With his estimate of eighty tons of green corn to the acre, holding 

 good in fact, we should then have the equivalent of forty tons of 

 the best of timofhy hay to the acre. Compared with this modern 

 Don Quixote, his distinguished predecessor pales into insignificance. 

 Wouldn't this " revolutionize agriculture !" He further saj'S : "■ m}' 

 experiments thus far, satisf}' me that the value of corn-fodder is 

 doubled b}' the softening and fermentive process which it undergoes 

 in the silo." 



