266 MISCELLANEOUS ENQUIRIES 



the food of a material rich in cytase may be expected indirectly 

 to aid tlie more ready dissolution and assimilation of the starch. 

 Such a material is malt, provided it has not been kiln-dried at 

 too high a temperature, for, during the process of germination to 

 which it has been subjected, there is a considerable production 

 of cytase in the grain. But the rations used in these experi- 

 ments were not rich in cellulose material, consequently there 

 was no real test of whether the extra cytase l)rought in by the 

 malt would have any beneficial effect. 



III. — Experiments upon Ensilage. 



During the early eighties in the last century, owing to a 

 succession of wet summers, the question of ensilage came 

 prominently before the agricultural public, and farmers were 

 urged to convert their grass and forage crops into silage instead 

 of running the risks of loss and of Avasted time incident to the 

 operation of hay-making. Silos were built on various prin- 

 ciples all over the country, but before the system had made any 

 real headway, the cycle of dry seasons, which began with 1887, 

 set in, and farmers no longer felt the want of the process. 

 Latterly, with the growth of forage maize in the drier districts 

 of the country, the making of silage has been re\dved some- 

 what, the idea being to utilise maize silage instead of roots, as 

 is so largely done in the eastern states of America. 



Experiments on silage were begun at Eothamsted in 1884 

 with the construction of two rectangular tanks calculated to hold 

 about 100 tons of silage each. These were filled — one with red 

 clover, l3oth first and second crop, and the other with meadow 

 grass ; the materials were chaffed and weighed as put in, and a 

 number of samples were taken from which to ascertain the 

 average composition of the mixtm^e entering the silo. The silos 

 were emptied between December and the following April, when 

 in the same way the material leaving each silo was weighed 

 and sampled. The analytical results were not wholly satis- 

 factory as far as the determination went of the loss of dry 

 matter during the making of the silage. Such material, both 



