128 SCIENTIFIC FEEDING OF ANIMALS 



acid bacteria can. The object in making silage is 

 to obtain conditions which are favourable to the 

 lactic acid bacteria. The chief fermentation is 

 usually over in six to eight weeks and the silage is 

 then ready for use. When prepared in this way 

 it has a sour smell and taste and resembles in its 

 physical properties cooked food. Care should be 

 taken when feeding silage to take only a day's 

 supply from the silo, for when it is exposed to the 

 air it easily decomposes and becomes dangerous as 

 a food. A special warning may also be given 

 against feeding silage that has undergone decom- 

 position in the silo (p. 119). 



Well-made silage is excellent for feeding grown 

 cattle ; fattening bullocks may be given up to 

 50 Ibs. per 1000 Ibs. live weight per day, whilst for 

 milking cows 30-40 Ibs. is enough, and for sheep 

 25-30 Ibs. Pigs also readily eat such food, and do 

 well on potatoes, mangels or beet, which have been 

 made into fodder in this way. On the other hand, 

 young or pregnant animals and also horses had 

 better not be given silage. The free acids in the 

 silage have a loosening tendency, and it is advisable 

 to add to each 100 Ibs. of silage about J Ib. of pre- 

 cipitated chalk. 



Unfortunately the losses which food-stuffs undergo 

 on being made into silage are very considerable. 

 Green maize which had been left in the silo twenty 

 weeks when taken out was found to have lost 17-5% 



