ENSILAGE AND FERMENTATION. 219 



sions, and changed into a gray, tough, elastic, and viscous or glutinous 

 substance, which has been compared to bird-lime, and has received the 

 appropriate name of gluten. When dried, it becomes a hard, horny, 

 transparent mass. It is insoluble in cold water, and partly soluble in 

 hot water. It is soluble in strong vinegar, and in weak solutions of 

 potash or soda. If the alkaline solution is neutralized by an acid, the 

 gluten is precipitated. 



If crude gluten obtained as above is subjected to the action of hot 

 alcohol it is separated into two distinct substances, one soluble and the 

 other insoluble. As the solution cools, a further separation takes place 

 of a substance soluble in hot alcohol, but not in cold, and another 

 soluble in either hot or cold alcohol. The first — viz., that insoluble in 

 either hot or cold alcohol — has been named gluten-fibrin ; that soluble in 

 hot alcohol, but not in cold, gluten-casein ; and that soluble in either 

 hot or cold alcohol, gluten, I give these names and explain them, as 

 my readers may be otherwise puzzled by meeting them in books where 

 they are used without explanation, especially as there is another sub- 

 stance, presently to be described, to which the name of vegetable casein 

 has also been applied. The gluten-fibrin is supposed to correspond 

 with blood-fibrin, gluten-casein with animal casein, and gluten with 

 albumen. — Knowledge, 



EI^SILAGE AISTD FERMENTATIOK 



By manly miles, M. D. 



THE preservation of green fodder in the form of ensilage is now 

 attracting so large a share of the attention of practical farmers, 

 that a brief sketch of the history of the process, and an outline of the 

 known facts in regard to fermentation, must be of interest to the gen- 

 eral reader, as well as the student who wishes to trace the laws of 

 evolution in the development of improved methods in agriculture. 



Kearly thirty years ago, Adolf Reihlen, who owned a sugar-factory 

 near Stuttgart, in Germany, preserved a crop of fodder-corn, which 

 had been injured by frost, by burying it in trenches or pits, and cov- 

 ering it with the soil thrown out to protect it from the atmosphere. 

 This method of preserving corn-fodder was suggested by the well- 

 known process of making " brown or sour hay " by packing newly-cut 

 grass in pits, which had been practiced for many years by farmers in 

 Europe. 



When the pits were opened, several months afterward, the fodder- 

 corn had a greenish color and a peculiar odor, but its value as cattle- 

 food was not apparently diminished. M. Reihlen was so well pleased 

 with the results of his experiment, that he made a practice of " pitting " 

 a quantity of fodder-corn every year, to obtain a supply of succulent 

 feed for his cattle during the winter. 



