f04 ANALYTICAL ASSOCIATIONS. 



It is a plant well adapted for a sewage farm, and would 

 produce very good results if grown on " areas of downward 

 filtration," such as are now becoming common in inland towns 

 as a useful and successful method of disposing of the sewage. 



[Edinhurgh, 8th Aug. 1883. 

 The Directors, at a meeting held on the 26th July, had broucrht under 

 their notice, by the Chemical Committee, the complaint of jNIr Ramsay, 

 Eden Bone Mills, Cupar-Fife, as to the publication, at page 246 in the 

 Transactions of 1883, of an analysis of a grass manure sold to Mr Mackie, 

 Invermay. After considering Mr Eamsay's statements and the explanations 

 furnished by Dr Aitken, the Directors resolved to express their regret that 

 particulars regarding this manure should have been published, as they are 

 satisfied there have been errors in sampling and in the statement of analysis. 



F. N. Menzies, Secretary.] 



ENSILAGE. 



By Dr A. P. Aitken. 



The rapidity with which the making of ensilage has come to 

 be regarded as an important addition to the resources of the 

 farm has perhaps not been equalled in the case of any other 

 great agricultural improvement. About two years ago there 

 were few farmers in the country who knew the meaning of 

 the word, or had even heard of the substance, and now exper 

 ments are being made with it in all directions, and the success 

 which has attended the making of ensilage has surpassed all 

 expectations. 



The experiments being conducted by Mr Mackenzie of Port- 

 more, under the auspices of the Highland and Agricultural 

 Society, are described in another part of this volume, and the 

 details of the process of making, filling, and emptying a silo are 

 practically explained. A few words regarding the principles 

 underlying the practice of ensiling, the kind of crops suitable for 

 the purpose, and the changes they undergo in the silo, may form 

 a useful supplement to that paper. 



The making of ensilage may be described in a word as " the 

 preservation of green fodder." Any change which the fodder 

 undergoes in the silo ought to be regarded as accidental, and so 

 far an interference with the main object in view, which is not to 

 improve the fodder, but to preserve it. If it could be brought 

 out of the silo exactly in the same condition in which it was 

 put in, that would be perfect ensilage, and the nearer we 

 approach that standard in our ensiling operations the greater is 

 our measure of success. It is not unnatural that some should 

 have formed a higher ideal of ensilage. Enthusiastic writers 

 describe the silo as not only a place for preserving fodder, but a 



