FOOD 231 



bowels become tolerant of this gas-producing food, there 

 should be a limit to the amount allowed. 



The hay made from these plants is very nutritious. It is 

 seldom well saved, and is consequently frequently found 

 musty. The amount allowed should be carefully regulated, 

 bearing in mind it contains from 12 per cent, to 14 per cent, 

 of proteid. It is best to give it mixed with ordinary hay 

 rather than by itself. 



Ensilage. 



It is convenient here to consider a method of saving 

 green food, known from time immemorial, but only within 

 recent years utilized by the agriculturist. 



If grass or any of the cereal crops in a green state are 

 dealt with in such a way that air cannot get at them, they 

 may be preserved indefinitely. The process is termed 

 ensilage, the mechanism which holds the fodder is known 

 as a silo, while the product is spoken of either as ensilage 

 or silage. 



It is obvious what an advantage this method is in wet 

 seasons, but there is no necessity to confine its use to this, 

 it may be most successfully employed for the saving of 

 green crops like maize, lucerne, and clover, which are only 

 made into hay with difficulty. 



By the use of this process, hay which has been damaged 

 by rain and consequently lost its flavour, may be rendered 

 more palatable by converting it into silage ; but in making 

 this statement it is well to bear in mind, that valuable as 

 the silo is in improving the flavour of damaged green 

 crops, yet whatever is put into the silo is taken out. It 

 does not convert rubbish into feeding material, but it aids 

 in preventing good feeding material from being converted 

 into rubbish. 



Satisfactory silos, whether in the form of pits or stacks, 

 can only be formed when certain definite conditions are 

 followed out, of which the chief is compression, so that 

 the air is excluded. A certain amount of air is im- 

 prisoned with the mass when it is being built up, no matter 



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