THE PREPARATION OF FARM PRODUCTS. 307 



Indeed, there seems to be no very marked difference between 

 the preparation of sour fodder and sweet ensilage. There is a 

 greater pressure used in the former preparation, and doubtless 

 a less free access of oxygen. The slow development of the 

 heat, and the older nature of the material used, renders it less 

 likely that much can be expected in the way of the respiration 

 of the plant cells. The large amount of volatile acids also 

 leads to a strong suspicion of the action of bacteria, rather 

 than of chemical changes in plant cells. But all of this must 

 be regarded as pure hypothesis until some one shall have 

 actually made a study of the phenomenon itself from a bac- 

 teriological standpoint. 



Both sour fodder and sweet ensilage are products of very 

 great use in agriculture. Any method which will enable the 

 farmer to make use of products which would otherwise be 

 wasted, must be regarded as decidedly valuable. Ensilage en- 

 ables a great utilization of a crop, for cattle, which could not 

 otherwise be carried through the winter, and the method of 

 preparing sour fodder makes it possible to utilize a consider- 

 able portion of many a waste product. While it is true that 

 there is a large waste in material as it is prepared for sour 

 fodder, it is a great saving on the whole, inasmuch as, without 

 this method, the whole product would be a waste. As it is, it 

 is converted into a food product, readily eaten by stock, and 

 of great assistance in providing them with the proper food for 

 the long winter. Agriculturists will be wise to develop these 

 processes in the future further than they have in the past, and 

 a more complete study of the actual changes going on in the 

 formation of a usable food out of so many waste products 

 might well deserve the closer attention of bacteriologists and 

 chemists. 



