162 



BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



degree of digestibility. The fodder produced in this way 

 had an odor and a taste similar to hay. Professor Yoelcker, 

 who speaks favorably of this mode of operation, obtained 

 the following anal^^tical results from the wheat-straw before 

 its treatment, and after its removal from the silo. 



BAW WUEAT-STRAW. TEKMENTED WHEAT-STRAW. 



These results show a remarkable increase in the soluble 

 and digestible matter of the straw, being raised from twenty- 

 three to twenty-four per cent, to that of from forty-five to 

 forty-six per cent, not speaking of other favorable alterations 

 in the original composition of the straw. 



Leaves and Tops of Beet-Hoots and Sugar-Bcet-Root Pulp 

 Ensilage. — The preservation of these refuse materials be- 

 comes a very important question wherever the agricultural 

 advantages arising from the introduction of the beet-sugar 

 industry enter into consideration. They form the basis of an 

 extensive system of stock-feeding for the meat-market and 

 the dairy, which is invariably connected with the beet-sugar 

 industry in Europe. Assuming for the refuse-beet mass — 

 leaves, tops, and pulp — the same amount of moisture which 

 is contained in the fresh beet-root (eighty-two to eighty-three 

 per cent), its quantity amounts in weight to nearly one-third 

 of the entire root-crop, or from five to six tons per acre 

 (leaves, two tons ; pressed pulp, three tons ; and tops, one 

 ton). As an illustration of the changes which the leaves 

 and tops undergo in silos, the following carefully conducted 

 experiments may serve : A ditch from seven to eight feet 

 deep, five feet long, and five feet wide, was filled with alter- 

 nate la3-ers of leaves and tops from the same lot of roots, 

 until the solid trampled mass reached the level of the sur- 

 rounding grounds. A layer of leaves, and subsequently a 

 mass of earth several feet in thickness, served as a final 



