2% SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 



these animals would have been able fully to digest, and 

 to work up for its own sustenance, had the food been 

 presented to it in a less hard and solid state ! So it 

 must be, to a certain extent, with dried hay. What 

 was easily soluble and digestible in the green, has, with- 

 out undergoing any chemical change, become less solu- 

 ble and more tardily digestible in the dry, and hence a 

 second reason why the hay should afford less nourish- 

 ment than the grass from which it is made. 



" The knowledge of these two causes of deterioration 

 suggests the kind of inquiries which the practical farmer 

 ought to make, and the kind of practice he ought to 

 adopt, in order to retain as much as possible of the feed- 

 ing property of his grass and clover crops, and thus to 

 turn to the greatest advantage the annual produce of 

 his land. Thus he may ask Is it possible to preserve 

 these crops in their moist state ? Can I cut them down 

 and so preserve them undried, as to obtain from them, 

 for my cattle, an amount of food more nearly equal to 

 that which the fresh cut grass is capable of affording ? 

 A method has lately been tried in Germany, which, by 

 the aid of a little salt, seems in a great measure to attain 

 this object. 



" Pits are dug in the earth, from ten to twelve feet 

 square and as many deep ; these are lined with wood, 

 and puddled below and at the sides with clay. They 

 may obviously be made of any other suitable dimensions, 

 and may be lined with brick. 



" Into this pit the green crop of grass, clover, or 

 vetches, is put just as it is cut. Four or five cwts. are 

 introduced at a time, sprinkled with salt, at the rate of 

 one pound to each cwt., and, if the weather, and con- 

 sequently the crop, be dry, two or three quarts of water 

 to each cwt. should be sprinkled over every successive 

 layer. It is only when rain or a heavy dew has fallen 

 before mowing that, in East Prussia, this watering is 

 considered unnecessary. 



