60 SILOS AND ENSILAGE. 



on some dairy farms in New England, it has been cul- 

 tivated to some extent. The chief merit claimed for it 

 is its abilty to furnish green fodder very early in spring 

 and late in the fall, and we enumerate it as one of those 

 plants that may possibly be of value in the sUo. 



CHAPTER Xn. 



THE NUTRITIVE VALUE OF ENSILAGE. 



BY J. M. MCBBTDE, KIOFESSOR OF AGKICtTLTUBE, ETC., tJHIVESSITT OP 



TENNESSEE. 



The success of Ensilage appears to be fairly established 

 by experiments in many different localities, and is there- 

 fore ho longer an open question. Concerning the nutri- 

 tive value of the new food, however, the views are many 

 and conflicting. We have enthusiastic farmers, on the 

 one hand, declaring that ensilage is almost equal, pound 

 for pound, to hay, that it is sufficient by, and of, itself 

 not only to sustain life, but to fatten, that it can hardly 

 be improved upon ; and, on the other hand, scientists 

 assert that its value is to be estimated by its percentage 

 of dry matter alone. The first refer you to the results of 

 experiments where estimated amounts of this and other 

 stuffs were roughly ffed to different farm animals of 

 various weights and ages ; the second to the results of 

 recent analyses, showing that it contains eighty per cent 

 and upwards of water. The last affirm : " Average 

 ensilage contains eighty-two and a half pounds of water 

 and seventeen and a half pounds of dry substance in one 

 hundred, and a ton of it, skillfully fed, will make twenty 

 pounds live weight of beef, which, at five and a half 



