HIE PREPARATION OF FARM PRODUCTS. 30 1 



drates, although there is also an appreciable loss of albumi- 

 noids. This is an actual loss of food material and one, of 

 course, which the agriculturist desires to avoid. Perfect ex- 

 clusion of air is evidently thus the best means of preventing 

 the loss. 



In a properly prepared silo the fermentative changes do not 

 extend beyond this, and the material will now remain sweet 

 for months. The superficial layers may sometimes become 

 decayed and ruined, but this does not extend into the mass. 

 After the feeding from the silage is commenced it must be used 

 up somewhat rapidly, for various undesirable fermentative 

 changes may set up in the superficial layers as they are suc- 

 cessively exposed to the air. The material is eagerly de- 

 voured by cattle, to whom the aromatic flavor appears very 

 agreeable, and thus the silo offers to the farmer a useful aid in 

 preserving succulent fodder for winter use. 



Silage Bacteria. The silo was an empirical discovery, 

 brought to its present state of perfection without any knowl- 

 edge of the actual phenomena occurring in the silage. Al- 

 though we know more about it to-day, we are still in ignor- 

 ance in regard to some of the essential phenomena. That the 

 process is similar to an ordinary fermentation is sure enough, 

 and when first called to the attention of bacteriologists it was 

 supposed to be a bacterial fermentation. The initial heating 

 of the mass was supposed to indicate a fermentative action of 

 bacteria- like organisms. It was suggested that the bacteria 

 first used all the oxygen which might be mixed with the mass, 

 and, as they grew, developed the heat which caused the rise in 

 temperature. This growth of aerobic bacteria continued until 

 the oxygen was used up, when the aerobic bacteria ceased to 

 grow and the anaerobic organisms began their activity. To the 

 growth of the latter was supposed to be due the chief changes 

 which occurred slowly in the silo, the chemical changes and 

 the development of flavors being due to their growth here as 



