38^ BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and the sweetest, yellow butter iu the dairy. The chemist 

 finds no difference between the grass and the hay made from 

 it, perhaps because he makes hay of it before his analysis, 

 although it is found to lack a proper proportion of protein 

 for a complete food ; that butter made from it is of indif- 

 ferent flavor and lacks color, and that it produces less 

 growth and less quantity of milk. The same difference in 

 results appears between the feeding of ensihige, and the 

 same material fed after being preserved by drying. 



Now, as these stubborn facts, that have been developed by 

 the feeding of ensilage during the past few years, will not 

 adapt themselves to the theory established by chemists in 

 the laboratory, would it not be well for the chemist to pause, 

 and endeavor to find reasons that will bear the test of chemi- 

 cal investigation, for these well established facts so much at 

 variance with the present development of the laboratory, 

 and promulgate a theory more in accordance therewith? 



No one can appreciate, more than the writer, the benefits 

 that agriculture has derived from chemistry during the last 

 fifty years, or is more anxious that this discrepancy should 

 be cleared up and explained. For farmers have learned to 

 look to the science of chemistry to unravel many mysteries, 

 and remove many obstacles that now block progress in 

 the art of farming. 



Below are given the analyses of two lots of corn at 

 the time they were cut green for ensilage, and again, two 

 months and a half after being put in the silo. The analyses 

 were made at the Massachusetts Agricultural Experiment 

 Station at Amherst. 



Lot No. I. was cut when in full tassel and ears just form- 

 ing, showing silk but no grain. 



Lot No. II. was cut before any tassels appeared. Both 

 lots were cut when in vigorous growth. 



