124 PEEMANENT AND TEMPOEAEY PASTUEE8. 



use of the silo or silage stack will, in favourable seasons, be the 

 exception. Grass will continue to be turned into hay very much 

 as heretofore. Indications point to the subordination of ensilage 

 to hay. When a farmer can convert his grass into hay in 

 three genial days, it is improbable that he will consent to cart 

 nearly four times the weight of green fodder to the silo, with the 

 risk of failure in the end. 



Still, it has been clearly demonstrated that in wet summers 

 the silo or silage stack is an immense boon. In districts where 

 the average of seasons is unfavourable to haymaking, ensilage 

 has materially modified the conditions of profitable farming. 

 The reports of greatest success come from farms worked under 

 the alternate system of three or four years' leys. Prescriptions 

 of grasses, clovers, &c., specially adapted for growing suitable 

 herbage for the silo, have produced ensilage of the highest 

 feeding quahty. 



Lattermath grass may with advantage be sent to the silo 

 or silage stack on account of the difficulty of making hay in 

 autumn, and, as the late crop has the reputation of possessing 

 more 'proof than the summer cutting, it wiU be all the more 

 valuable for ensilage. 



The cost of labour in making ensilage is not generally 

 higher than the cost of haymaking in ordinary weather, and is 

 decidedly less than the outlay for haymaking in bad weather. 

 In wet seasons, too, the hay is not only more costly to make, but 

 when made is of low feeding quality ; so that ensilage in such 

 years will not only be cheaper but superior. 



Those who have tried ensilage as food for dairy cows are 

 practically unanimous in its favour, although there is some risk 

 in feeding it alone. In fattening bullocks, however, the Eotham- 

 stead experiments prove that for putting on flesh swedes and 

 mangels have a considerable advantage over grass or clover 

 ensilage, whether sweet or sour. 



Analyses show that in the process of conversion there is a 

 serious loss in the nutritive qualities of green provender after it is 



