EUROPEAN EXPERIMENTS IN ENSILAGE. 29 



tion in agriculture there is a vast scope for saving in both 

 labor and materials. Our method of feeding stock is very 

 wasteful ; the greater part of the fodder fed every winter 

 is expended in merely keeping the cattle alive. A loss of 

 weight or condition in all kinds of stock equal to from 

 ten to sixty per cent is suffered every winter. There is 

 no necessity for this ; stock may be kept increasing in 

 weight during the winter, if the fodder is of the right 

 kind and the stock is properly housed and protected. 

 The feeding of poor, unpalatable fodder is the chief 

 cause of this loss. The appetite needs to be stimulated 

 at the season when the greatest draft is made upon the 

 physical condition of the ani- 

 mal ; and to meet this need 

 there must not only be palata- 

 ble or enticing food, but there 

 must be plenty of it. Corn 

 fodder is largely depended upon 

 as food for stock over a great 

 extent of country, and its use 

 might be well nigh universal, 

 as no forage plant is so easily 

 grown as corn. Could it be pre- Fi ^ 6 - PIT BBFOBE COVERI - 

 served fresh and green for six months or more, instead of 

 curing it and using it dry, its value would be greatly in- 

 creased. That it may be so preserved has been shown by 

 experiment, and the process is claimed to be easy and 

 very profitable. Of late years a great number of French, 

 Belgian, and German farmers have adopted the plan, and 

 some extensive stock-feeders have used it largely, with 

 the most favorable results. Several communications by 

 prominent farmers and professors of agriculture in farm 

 schools have been made to the "Journal of Practical 

 Agriculture," of Paris, from which the following facts 

 have been condensed, and, by the aid of the illustrations, 

 the methods in use may be learned. In figures 6, 7, and 



