ENSILAGE. 405 



"kind of laboratory where it undergoes changes of a formative or 

 elaborative kind, so that after being for some months crushed up 

 in the dark, it is able to be brought out in a state more suitable 

 for the nourishment of cattle. There are some coarse kinds of 

 fodder, such as maize, whose hard tough tissues are not well 

 suited for cattle, nor much relished by them, and which when 

 put into a silo, and subjected to some fermentation, are rendered 

 softer and more palatable ; but that cannot be said of the clovers, 

 vetches, and sweet grasses that form the chief ensilage in this 

 country. It is difficult to imagine any fodder more suitable for 

 cattle than such crops as these when cut at their juiciest and 

 most vigorous stage. They are already the natural and choicest 

 food of cattle, and any change which they may undergo in a 

 silo cannot be of a constructive or elaborative kind, but rather of 

 a destructive or degenerative kind. Construction is the work 

 going on in the body of the living plant, the material out of 

 which its tissues are made are derived from outside of it, from 

 the soil and from the air, and the moving power which builds 

 these tissues up is the energy of the sun's rays. When the 

 plant is cut down and crushed into a dark pit, any changes 

 which can occur are not those of building up, but rather of 

 breaking down. Any elaboration that can go on as the result of 

 chemical or physiological changes must be at the expense of the 

 material stored there; it nmst result in a loss, and cannot produce 

 any gain of matter. If any part of the stored material is 

 rendered sweeter or more soluble, or acquires a certain alcoholic 

 odour or acid flavour which is agreeable to cattle, these properties 

 are not got for nothing ; they are got as the result of changes of 

 a destructive kind, whose gross effect is to diminish the total 

 amount of nutritive matter in the silo. It is for these reasons 

 that we must define perfect ensilage in this country, as green 

 fodder preserved without change. It is needless to say that this 

 is a standard that cannot be attained in a silo; but if ensilage is 

 to be a permanent institution in tlie country, I am confident 

 that in a short time we sliall attain to a measure of excellence in 

 the manufacture of it which will not fall far short of the perfect 

 standard. 



The means to be em])loyed for preserving green fodder will 

 be best understood if we fully appreciate the meaning of the 

 changes which green fodder undergoes when cut down, and 

 deprived of the sap and nourishment which flowed up continu- 

 ously from its roots. With the cessation of the flow of sap the 

 vigour of the plant ceases, and it is easily attacked by agencies 

 whijh during its growth it was able to resist. Chief amongst 

 these agencies are innumerable small microscropic organisms 

 which cluster upon all green crops, and which feed u})on their 

 tissues, and rapidly consume them whenever external conditions 



