184 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, 



that I had gained any thing ; in fact, I think there was a loss 

 in nutritive materials. My third experiment was with green 

 corn-fodder, planted in July, put into the pit in October, and 

 fed out from Dec. 1, 1880, to March 15, 1881. In all, a period 

 of five months elapsed while it was under ground. Although 

 considerable acidity was developed by the internal changes, 

 yet the results obtained from feeding it were such as to off- 

 set any loss experienced in the transformations that had 

 taken place in its primary constituents. 



These experiments were made with some of the poorer 

 kinds of fodder ; and, so far as I have been able to ascertain, 

 the results obtained from pitting, green, the grasses that are 

 rich in sugar, starch, or gums, have not been such as to war- 

 rant any one departing from the old system of curing grass. ■ 



If the silo is to come into general use, it must be as an 

 adjuvant to the systems we now employ, and not as a substi- 

 tute. It must be put in operation upon the right kind of 

 farm-products, and at the right season of the year. Of 

 coarse grasses, rushes, or other swamp products growing 

 wild, we do not now make, nor is it probable we shall ever 

 make, any use as fodder. If we do, the silo is particularly 

 well adapted to them. As regards all the grasses we now 

 *use for hay, our sunny skies enable us to cure even the 

 coarsest of them with all their feeding qualities unimpaired. 



To understand why fodder keeps in a condition suitable 

 for animal food in a silo, something must be understood of 

 the process of decomposition, or rotting, and one must also 

 have some knowledge of the composition of plants at different 

 periods of their growth. 



If we mow a lot of green grass, and put it in a heap, it 

 rapidly heats ; and after a few days it becomes sour, mouldy, 

 and soon rots into a homogeneous mass, in which the shape 

 and fibre of the grass is undistinguishable. To this rapid 

 rotting two agents are necessary, — air and moisture. The 

 less mature the grass, the more rapidly it rots when these 

 two agents have access to it; and, if a pile of grass is 

 loosely made, the plant contains moisture enough, and there 

 is enough air mechanically retained, to complete the process. 

 If we wait until the grass has nearly ripened its seed before 

 we cut it, quite a large pile can be made ; and, although air 

 has free access to the heap, rotting takes place slowly, for 



