IS ENSILAGE A SUCCESS? 141 



twenty hours before feeding, the time varied according to 

 ensilage and weather. A good plan is to remove from the 

 silo in the afternoon the ensilage for the next day ; spread 

 it on a floor and thoroughly mix in the grain food to be used 

 with it, leaving it in an even layer about a foot thick till 

 time for feeding. It will usually be found quite warm in a 

 few hours and remain so for a day, If the ensilage has been 

 put up uncut, cut it up as short as convenient, with hay-knife 

 or spade, or run it through a cutting box when taken from 

 the silo, and then prepare with the grain. 



Bio- baskets or wheeled trucks are the most convenient 

 means for carrying ensilage to the animals. But it must be 

 remembered that ensilage at its best is about three-fourths 

 water and too heavy a material to make it pleasant or 

 profitable to be carried far from the silo for feeding. Locate 

 the silo with reference to convenience both in filling it and 

 in feeding out its contents. 



VII. — Ensilage as Food for Farm Stock. 



Nearly all farm animals eat ensilage with a relish the first 

 time it is offered to them. Horses, mules, cattle of all 

 kinds, sheep, swine and poultry, show a decided fondness 

 for ensilage as a general rule. It is only now and then that 

 an animal of any one of these classes persistently refuses to 

 eat it. (I have known a few men to whom potatoes were 

 not only distasteful, but an active poison.) The acidity of 

 ensilage seems no objection to the animals. Although they 

 generally prefer its sharpness removed and its color bright- 

 ened by a few hours exposure to the air, I have seen ensilage 

 in its most acid stage eaten by cattle with avidity. AVhen 

 we think that fermentation is but an early stage of decompo- 

 sition, it certainly seems as if this liking for fermented food 

 showed an unnatural and perverted taste. But examples are 

 so numerous of bipeds of the genus homo evincing an extreme 

 fondness for food and drink in a fermented state, that we 

 ought not to be surprised at similar peculiarities on the part 

 of other and lower orders of the animal kingdom. 



That ensilage is very palatable to cattle is shown by the 

 fact that they will eat as great a weight of ensilage per day 

 as of the same plant in its growing state. Among the 



