1882.] ENSILAGE. 107 



weight, if necessary, or in the yield of milk, and also by 

 making a chemical analysis of the fodder before it enters the 

 animal and after it leaves the animal. Now, chemical 

 analysis applied in this way is, from a scientific point of view, 

 a very crude, rough thing, but it is the best thing we have got, 

 it is the only thing we have got which will give anything like 

 exact results, and tlierefore we have to use it ; but I have yet 

 to learn that there is any demonstration that such material 

 as corn fodder is improved in digestibility by any process of 

 souring, or siloing, or cooking, or anything else. I will not 

 say that it is not improved in digestibility, but I say it is not 

 improved in feeding effect, or, if it is in some cases slightly 

 improved, not enough to pay for the trouble. 1 hold that it 

 is unproved as yet ; it may be true, but I hold it as yet un- 

 proved, that there is any increase of digestibility. But what- 

 ever will make an animal eat with a relisli will naturally tend 

 to increase the digestive power of the animal. 



I want to make one explanation here in regard to the dif- 

 ference between the practical man and the scientific man. It 

 is a remarkable difference, and it is a very essential difference. 

 The practical man believes a thing to be true until it is proved 

 to be false ; the scientific man believes su thing to be false 

 until it is proved to be true ; and that is the necessary posi- 

 tion in which the practical man and the scientific man look 

 at questions. The practical man wants something that he 

 can use, and he knows perfectly well that it is veiy difificult 

 to find out what is actually true. If he waits to find out 

 what is true, he will wait until it is too late. Mr. Hurd could 

 not stop to have it demonstrated that ensilage is more or less 

 digestible than corn fodder before he went into it. He finds 

 something that he thinks is a good thing, he goes into that 

 thing, and, looking at the result, he finds sufficient reason to 

 believe that it is more digestible. The scientific man wants 

 to know if it is demonstrated. He cannot afford to take any- 

 thing that is not demonstrated to be true. For his purpose, 

 it is necessary to throw away all the evidence that does not 

 demonstrate the thing. He can take such evidence as Mr. 

 Hurd has given us in regard to that question ; he can use that 



