134 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



long corn ensilage, as in long dry fodder, and there is next 

 to none in ensilage cut short. Of course, the ease of hand- 

 ling to feed, in the' case of short ensilage, is infinitely 

 greater. In a comparative trial, carefully made by ]\Ir. 

 Hazen of New Hampshire, all expenses being exactly deter- 

 mined, it was found to actually cost more per ton to put a 

 large quantity of corn ensilage into a silo uncut, in proper 

 shape, than to cut it short while storing ; the figures were 

 furnished to me to verify this statement. 



There is almost equal dispute as to the advisability of 

 filling the silo slowly, with intentional delays, and settling 

 to the work as one would for threshing several hundred 

 bushels of grain, pushing the job till done and getting all 

 the extra help needed. From its first introduction the 

 chief fault found with ensilage has been the acid character of 

 the material at the time it is fed to animals. This acidity 

 results from fermentation in the silo, caused by living organ- 

 isms, known as bacteria. Enthusiastic friends of this process 

 of preserving forage claimed, a few years ago, that they had 

 discovered a method of making " sweet ensilage." " Sweet 

 ensilage," it was claimed, was made in numerous places. The 

 way to do it was to fill the silo slowly, letting every lot of 

 chopped stuff put in heat up well before putting in more. For 

 example, our estimable friend. Captain Morton of Vermont, 

 in 1884, filled only a foot in depth at a time ; got the lowest 

 layer, by active fermentation, up to 140° F., and then kept 

 the heat moving up to the top. He maintained a teiuperature 

 of 122° F. or over, in certain parts of his silo, and he said, 

 '< often up to 150° F." When the top layer had reached 130° 

 F. he covered with tar paper and earth. The temperature held 

 at 130° F. for two weeks and then cooled down to 90° F. 

 within a month. The good captain adds that when he 

 opened the silo "the ensilage was honey-like." (Sweet 

 pickles?) The theory u})on which this method is based is 

 that the bacteria of the ensilage fermentation are destroyed 

 and the fermentation thus arrested by a certain degree of 

 temperature, placed variously at 120° to 140° F. The 

 little creatures are induced, as it were, by favorable condi- 

 tions, to work themselves into such a state of excitement as 

 to die of apoplexy from their own fervent heat. It is a very 



