GREEN FOOD IN SILOS. 179 



deep, and put the corn in this pit. On the edge of the pit, 

 so as to make them flush with the inside edge, I put up a 

 lot of old posts six feet apart ; and I boarded up the sides 

 five feet high, loosely, with hemlock boards. It took nearly 

 a thousand feet. As the fodder was cut when the dew was 

 off, I brought it to the pit and laid it in, butts all one way, 

 lapping the butts as one laps shingles, so as to make the 

 small tops lie with the butts ; and I carried that process out 

 the whole eighty-four feet. Not having quite as much as I 

 wanted, I carried down there five large tip-cart loads of fod- 

 der that was cut when the corn was, and from which the 

 corn had been husked, and put that on top of the green fod- 

 der, which raised it above the boarding : I put on top a little 

 thatch of eel-grass, and threw on fifteen or eighteen inches of 

 dirt. When the mass settled, the acid smell was scarcely 

 perceptible. You could put your hand in five days after the 

 first lot was put in, and the heat was not at all uncomforta- 

 ble. You could feel it was warm. 



Professor GoESSMANisr. I can but confirm your observa- 

 tion. The result depends entirely upon the composition of 

 the plant. Grass and clover will produce an ensilage quite 

 different from corn. A plant which has little sugar will act 

 quite differently from a plant that has a great deal of sugar. 

 There is no need of having an acid : it may be even alkaline. 

 The main question is to prevent the change from going be- 

 yond a certain point, and injuring the feeding value of the 

 material. Those plants which contain the largest amount of 

 sugar will produce the largest amount of acid : therefore corn 

 ensilage is usually sourer than that from clover or any other 

 plant. 



Dr. Faxon. The mass settled down so that it would 

 weigh fifty pounds to the cubic foot. It was a little mouldy 

 at one end for two or three inches ; and I shovelled off the 

 dirt, and cut that part out, and I found there was a great 

 deal more acid than there was in the bay of black grass. But 

 the cattle ate that fodder just as well as they did the other, 

 and the increase in milk was quite remarkable. I had been 

 feeding shorts, four quarts, cotton-seed meal and Indian-meal 

 a quart each, daily. I diminished the grain within two days 

 just one-half, and the milk increased one-eighth ; and I fed 

 with that about five pounds of hay to each cow per day. 



