50 Colcord^s System of 



EXPERIMENTS WITH ENSILAGE. 



At the annual meeting of the New York 

 State Agricultural Society, recently held at 

 Albany, Dr. E. L. Sturtevant, director of the 

 State Experimental Station at Geneva, read a 

 paper on ensilage, an abstract of which we give 

 herewith : 



In the experiments carried out last year at 

 the station, sweet food, purposely acidified 

 with a measured quantity of acetic acid in 

 about the same proportion as analysis showed 

 to exist in ensilage, gave better results in 

 milk and by live weight than Hid the same 

 food without the acid ; and the doubling of 

 the acid ration was followed by an increased 

 improvement in quantity of product. A care- 

 ful examination into the kinds of food fed 

 during the various periods showed that one 

 apparent effect .of the acid was to improve the 

 appetite of the cows and cause them to eat a 

 slightly larger ration than they had been using 

 previously. We are thus led to believe that, 

 so long as the acid fed is not in a proportion 

 beyond proper condimental relations, it is a 

 valuable adjunct to food. When we notice 

 that the use of ensilage as sole food has not 



