258 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK n. 



ensilage a maize crop was everything, because it cleaned the land at 

 the same moment. He preferred clover silage infinitely to the oat 

 silage. Sweet silage seems suddenly to go bad frequently ; but he had 

 never made any." 



One of the most careful farmers of our acquaintance has dropped 

 the system after several years' trial of it, and after forming a favourable 

 opinion of grass silage as a supplementary food for milk cows. Silage, 

 indeed, even when successfully made, can only be used as a subsidiary 

 food for stock, in the place of roots to some extent. Hay, and swedes, 

 or mangel, will be found preferable to hay and silage. To say that 

 silage is better, more nutritive, than the grass from which it is made, 

 is hardly compatible with common sense. In the silo there is 

 fermentation, sometimes a good deal of it, and where fermentation 

 occurs there is a loss of nutritive matter. Probably the succulency 

 of silage, as compared with hay, is its chief merit, and it is no doubt 

 useful where no roots are grown. Too much of it will injure the milk, 

 and it may be expected that cows fed extensively on it for two or three 

 years, will, as when fed continuously on brewers' grains, hardly be 

 improved in constitution. It is the writer's opinion that if farmers can 

 make good hay, and will moisten some of it not soak it for a few 

 hours, before feeding it to the cows, they will feel no need of silage. 

 All depends, in fact, on whether good hay can be made, and it must 

 be borne in mind that ensilage is not always a success. The subject 

 of ensilage is discussed more at length on page 842. 



It is maintained by the best breeders that the mixture of salt with 

 the food is beneficial to the health of stock. Some, indeed, have a lump 

 of rock-salt placed in the manger, at which the cattle may lick when 

 they feel inclined. This is a practice which we strongly recommend. 



CHAPTER III. 



OP THE SITUATION AND BUILDINGS PROPER FOR A DAIRY DAIRY 



UTENSILS. 



A DAIRY-HOUSE ought, if possible, to be so arranged that its 

 lattices may never front the south-east, south, south-west, or 

 west. A northern aspect is the best, and there should be openings at 

 each end of the building, in order to admit a free current of air. These 

 lattices, which are in every respect superior to glazed lights, may be 

 covered in summer with gauze wire, perforated sheet-zinc, or oiled 

 paper pasted on pack-thread stretched for that purpose, so as to admit 

 the light, whenever it may be necessary to exclude cold winds. A 

 perfect milk-room is one that is dry, clean, cool, well-ventilated, free 

 from atmospheric impurities, and uniform in temperature. 



