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Ensilage. 



(GRASS.) 



The process of preserving green forage in an undried state is now 

 fairly before the public, and has taken considerable hold of the 

 popular imagination. The principle admits of, and has received, 

 very wide apphcation, but in this connection we are only con- 

 cerned with its relation to grass. I have taken great interest 

 in the question, and was the medium of first placing ensilage 

 obtained from France through Mr. Kains-Jackson before agri- 

 culturists at the Smithfield Cattle Show. 



I do not anticipate that ensilage will ever render haymaking 

 unnecessary, or that silos or silage stacks will supersede hayricks. 

 The economic advantage of the process has yet to be demon- 

 strated. It is clear that there is enormous loss in the nutritive 

 quahties of the green provender after being placed in the silo. 

 The idea that fermentation breaks down and digests the woody 

 fibre of the crop placed in the silo in any profitable degree is 

 practically exploded. The chemical experiments made under 

 the auspices of the Bath and West of England Agricultural 

 Society prove a loss of 16 or 17 per cent, of flesh and fat formers, 

 and the experiments in feeding animals, carried out by Sir John 

 B. Lawes, support this conclusion. Although the woody fibre 

 is rendered in a degree palatable to stock, it is proved that 

 the fibre passes through the animals unchanged. The fermenta- 

 tion also results in a considerable loss of nitrogen in a gaseous 

 state, for there appears to be a very distinct transformation of 

 valuable albuminoids suitable for assimilation by stock into 



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