•268 MISCELLANEOUS ENQUIRIES 



90 lb. uf mangels, quantities arranged to supply each lot with 

 equal amounts of dry matter. The experiment lasted 13 weeks, 

 and was immediately continued for another 6 weeks with 

 meadow-grass silage, a reduction being made in the chaff from 

 10 to 7 lb., because of the larger amounts of woody fibre intro- 

 duced by the grass silage. 



The results seemed to show that the cows on the clover 

 silage tended to fatten rather more than those on the mangels ; 

 though giving slightly less milk they gained in live weight, 

 while the mangel-fed cows lost slightly in weight. 



With meadow-grass silage, however, there was not the 

 same tendency to fatten, the cows losing weight ; the milk 

 yield was practically equal from the two lots of cows. When 

 analysed, the milk of the mangel-fed cows always showed a 

 higher percentage of both total solids and of butter fat than 

 that of the silage-fed cows. 



The general conclusions reached were, that good food would 

 make good silage without much more loss of dry matter than 

 usually takes place hi hay-making, etc. ; also, that good silage is 

 a useful food for both fattening oxen and cows in milk. It did 

 not seem likely, however, that it Avould pay farmers to grow 

 crops specially for silage rather than to grow roots. 



IV. — The Composition of Wheat Grain and its Mill 

 Products. 



The question of the food value of the various materials 

 grown on the expei'imental plots was one always before Lawes 

 and Gilbert. Particularly they were preoccupied with anything 

 relating to the production of wheat and its variations in 

 composition due to soil, season, or climate. The original plan 

 of their investigations included a study of the influence of 

 season and manuring upon the composition of the wheat grain, 

 and a further study of the varieties of wheat and their adapta- 

 tion to various climates and localities in the great range of the 

 earth's surface over which wheat is grown. 



