256 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



hay, and is there a practical farmer here who will not admit 

 that there will be greater results from the green grass than 

 from the same grass cured into rowen-hay ? I believe that 

 chemistry as applied to agriculture has done a great deal 

 for it, and I honor it, and heed the results that have been 

 given to us ; but I do believe that there is something in the 

 principle of life that is exhibited in the green grass that can- 

 not be analyzed — that cannot be reached by any chemical 

 analysis that we have at our command. We cannot measure 

 the value of it as applied to the animal system. That I be- 

 lieve ; and I think your experience as practical men will 

 sustain me in that belief. So that, when we hear of the 

 analysis of the different materials of the green grass as com 

 pared with the dried food, there is something that I call, if 

 you please, the spirit of life in that green grass that has not 

 been reached by that analysis ; and I think it will explain 

 in many instances the discrepancies that appear between the 

 investigations and the analyses of the scientists and the prac- 

 tical results that we see every day. 



Now, I claim, in advocating the silo and ensilage, that we 

 do preserve, to a certain extent (I do not know how much 

 or how little, but to a certain extent), that principle and 

 spirit of life that I have been speaking of. I know of a 

 great many instances of farmers who have changed the food 

 of their cows from ensilage to hay, and I do not know of a 

 sius'le instance where the cows did not shrink in their milk 

 after that change. Then, after feeding hay a while (and, 

 mind you, they were given the same quantity of grain in 

 both cases), they were changed back again from the hay to 

 the ensilage, and they increased in the quantity of milk ; 

 and this milk was not obtained at the expense of their flesh. 

 They still maintained their flesh, and increased the produc- 

 tion of milk also. So that, as far as I am concerned, if every 

 analysis that has ever yet been made tends to prove that 

 there is such a great loss in the process of ensilaging as to 

 make it useless, if my cows will come forward and say, in 

 the products at the pail, and by the touch of the hand, that 

 they are increasing the quantity of milk, that their flesh 

 is increasing, that their skin is soft and pliable, that their 

 hair lies smooth, and they look healthy, I will go with the 

 cows every time. 



