50 //. ft. STEVENS ON ENSILAGE. 



after him Dr. Bailey) draws attention to the fact that a given weight 

 of grass, amply sufficient when green to fatten an animal, will hardly 

 suffice to keep him alive when it is cured up into even first-class hay ; 

 that grass fattens, while hay will not ; that grass gives rich milk and 

 golden butter, hay inferior milk and pale, insipid butter ; that the 

 odor of a new-mown meadow shows that the elements of nutrition are 

 escaping from the grass during the process of desiccation. 



Such observations, however, are neither new nor original. More 

 than thirty years ago Bousingault observed of the value of green 

 food, " Breeders have long suspected that green fodder is more 

 nutritious than dry ; that grass, clover, etc., lose nutritious matter by 

 being made into hay." 



That the thing is so, in fact, appears to have been demonstrated 

 by a skilful agriculturist, M. Perrault de Jotemps, who found that 

 nine pounds of green lucerne were quite equal in foddering sheep to 

 three and three-tenths pounds of the same forage made into hay ; 

 whilst he at the same time ascertained that nine pounds of greeii 

 lucerne would not, on an average, yield more than two and two- 

 hundredths pounds of hay. In allowing each sheep three and threev 

 tenths pounds of lucerne hay as its ration, consequently, it was as U 

 the animal had had fourteen and thirty- four hundredths, or more than 

 fourteen and one-fourth pounds of the green vegetable, for its allow^ 

 ance. These practical facts are obviously of great importance : thej 

 prove, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that the belief of agriculturist* 

 in general, as to the immense advantages of consuming clover anc\ 

 lucerne (and he might well add Indian corn), " as green meat, is well 

 founded." Green-corn forage is not a perfect or concentrated food, 

 si large amount being required to sustain life ; still, as experience 

 demonstrates, it is a very valuable one, and its cheapness allows of 

 its being fed in large quantities. Analysis, not always a safe guide, 

 supports the conclusions of practical men. In the following table the 

 first two analyses, of green corn and ensilage from the silo of Dr. 

 Bailey, are by Professor Goessman, of the Massachusetts Agricul- 

 tural College; the others, of French maize and ensilage, by M. 

 Grandeau, director of one of the leading experimental stations of 

 France : 



