SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 27 



a liquid which could hardly be distinguished from hay- 

 tea. * * * By Mr. Jonas' plan straw-chaff is not 

 merely made more palatable, but, as it is mixed with a 

 little green food, it undergoes a slow cooking process, 

 and becomes more digestible, and permeated by a delicate 

 hay-flavour. 



" Thus the most is made both of the green stuff and of 

 the straw, and an excellent food is produced at a trifling 

 expense, greatly superior in feeding properties to treacled 

 ordinary straw-chaff, which costs more money. The 

 great simplicity of preparing and storing straw-chaff, 

 and the inexpensiveness of Mr. Jonas' plan, are further 

 advantages, which all who consume much straw for feed- 

 ing purposes may secure to themselves. 



"The more one looks into this subject, the more one 

 becomes impressed with the great practical value of Mr. 

 Jonas' plan of preparing a most useful and nutritious 

 auxiliary food; and it is much to be desired that this 

 extremely simple, inexpensive, and in all respects excel- 

 lent plan of dealing with straw for feeding purposes may 

 be spread throughout the length and breadth of the 

 country. " 



In this review of the rise and progress of the use of 

 fermented fodder, attention should here be called to the 

 system of feeding pulped roots with hay or straw-chaff, 

 which was extensively practiced in Great Britain from 

 about the year 1855, as it practically provided, for winter 

 feeding, a supply of succulent food which had many of 

 the advantages obtained in the modern system of ensi- 

 lage, and probably suggested to Mr. Jonas the method of 

 preserving and utilizing straw-chaff by the addition of 

 green clover and rye, which furnished the conditions 

 required for the melioration of the food by the process of 

 fermentation. 



At the suggestion of Mr. Charles Lawrence, the Eoyal 

 Agricultural Society of England offered a prize of three 



