24 SILOS, ENSILAGE AtfD SILAGE. 



A pit ten feet square, when perfectly full of this fer- 

 mented grass, will contain nearly ten tons equal to 

 two or three tons of dry hay. 



"The grass, when thus fermented, has the appearance 

 of having been boiled, has a sharp acid taste, and is 

 greedily eaten by the cattle. The pits should be kept 

 covered for, at least, six weeks, after which they may be 

 opened successively as they are required, and may be 

 kept open till their contents are consumed by the cattle 

 without suffering any injury from the contact of the 

 atmospheric air. Of the feeding qualities of this salted 

 fodder, one experimenter says that, by giving only 

 twenty pounds a day of it along with chopped straw, he 

 kept his cows in condition during the whole winter. 

 His green crop was vetches, and the twenty pounds of 

 salted fodder were equal to, or would have made, less 

 than four pounds of vetch hay. 



"Another experimenter says that, on a daily allowance 

 of twenty-eight pounds of his salted fodder, his cows 

 gave a rich and well-tasted milk. 



" This method of salting and preserving green crops in 

 their moist state appears to afford an answer to the first 

 question which is naturally asked when we are told of 

 the difference in feeding value between the same grass 

 when first cut and when dried into hay. It is probable 

 that the fermentation which takes place in the pit may 

 in some degree diminish the nutritive value of the grass, 

 but the likelihood which exists that a very large propor- 

 tion of this value will be retained renders the method 

 of salting in this manner well worthy the attention of 

 our more skillful agriculturists. It would greatly ben- 

 efit both theory and practice also, were careful series of 

 experiments to be made in different localities, with the 

 view of determining the true relative value in feeding 

 stock of the grass of the same field when newly cut, and 



