SILO MADE AVAILABLE. 183 



we should do it. I make these preliminary remarks about 

 our method of making hay to show you that a system is one 

 thing ; a method, another. 



Now, tliere is presented to us a system of storing fodder, 

 which, some of its advocates claim, can be applied almost 

 universally as regards time and season, and kinds of fodder 

 to be acted upon by it. This system is not new to the world, 

 though it is new to America. It has been in operation in 

 Europe, to some limited extent, for a number of years, and 

 with plants well adapted to be acted on by the silo ; and 

 under certain circumstances it has, doubtless, many valuable 

 features. This system of storing or preserving fodder can in 

 no sense be called curing it ; for curing means preservation 

 in such a manner that no injury can result to the product 

 from changes within itself. The silo system preserves fodder 

 temporarily, but with all the possibilities of destruction from 

 internal changes retained. 



Still there is much that is desirable in this system of pre- 

 serving fodder, if it be rightly applied, the proper season of 

 the year selected to put it in operation, and the right kinds 

 of plants chosen for treatment. Green fodder can be kept for 

 a few months in a condition very suitable for animal food, in a 

 succulent condition too, and within a pit or out of it ; and* 

 the favor or disfavor the silo system will meet with depends 

 upon a proper understanding of the reason why it keeps. So 

 far as my own experiments extend, the results were as favor- 

 able as could have been expected. Our experiment with 

 black-grass from the salt-marsh gave a particularly sweet 

 and toothsome fodder. This was because the fodder was fed 

 out when the process of decomposition had reached the sac- 

 charine stage, and all the bitter gums or starchy compounds 

 were the most readily convertible into animal tissue or milk. 

 This species of grass could have been easily dried, cured; 

 but the product would not have been of equal value. The 

 second experiment was with branch-grass, also from salt- 

 marsh. This grass makes a good hay when dried ; and, 

 although it has some of the bitter properties of the black- 

 grass, yet it is preferable to black-grass as a dry fodder. This 

 lot was allowed to remain in the pit from August until the 

 March following: and, although the cattle ate it, I could per- 

 ceive no result attending its consumption, to convince me 



