196 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



rapid filling of the silo and putting on the cover than by any 

 other process ? 



Dr. Sturtevant. No, sir. I think the best conditions 

 are obtained by slow filling and allowing each .layer to 

 settle. 



Question. After all this work did you save any time or 

 money as compared with putting it into the barn? 



Dr. Sturtevant. I must answer that entirely from 

 belief, based upon experiment. I believe that ensilage has 

 great value when fed properly ; when fed improperly I do 

 not think it is any better than the material of which it is 

 composed would be if fed dry. The first effect of feeding 

 acid ensilage is to increase the appetite of the animals, and 

 they will eat more food. If milch cows, they will give more 

 milk on account of the more nutriment that they take ; and 

 if fatting animals they will take on more fat. I believe in 

 ensilage, and I believe, if fed judiciously, it can be used to 

 great advantage by any farmer. 



Mr. . At one of the farmers' meetings held in 



Boston one of the advocates of ensilage claimed that all food 

 turned acid before being digested, and that by feeding ensil- 

 age to our animals we saved their digestive organs a great 

 amount of work. I have tried feeding ensilage without any- 

 thing else, but sooner or later it has been a detriment to the 

 animals. I find, according to my own experience, that its 

 greatest value is in judiciously feeding it with other mater- 

 ials. I do not want to feed too much of it. 



Question. I would like to ask Dr. Sturtevant how 

 much ensilage he would feed ? 



Dr. Sturtevant. My own experience is that about four- 

 teen pounds to a cow weighing seven hundred pounds does 

 very well indeed. 



Mr. . My experience is that we can use forty 



pounds a day. 



Dr. Sturtevant. I have known even more than that to 

 be used for some time without ill effects on large animals ; 

 but toward the latter part of the season, the ill effects are 

 developed. 



QuESTion. What will be the ill effects then? 



Dr. Sturtevant. You will find that the hair will be a 



