Report on the Experiments on Ensilage. 
483 
My thanks are due to Mr. Toope, V.S., Mr. W. Crossland 
(late of the Downton College of Agriculture), and P. Inch- 
bald, Esq., of Fulvvith Grange, Harrogate, for the assistance 
and encouragement they have given me in these investigations. 
If what I have written should be the means of inducing 
farmers to enquire into and make a note of all circumstances 
arising in connection with an attack of this or any kindred 
malady, one of my objects aimed at will have been attained. 
XVII. — Report on the Experiments on Ensilage conducted at 
Crawley Mill Farm, Wohurn, 1884-5, and 1885-86. By Dr. 
J. Augustus Voelcker, B.A., B.Sc, Consulting Chemist to 
the Society. 
The increasing attention given to the subject of ensilage and 
the absence until recently of any trustworthy records of properly 
conducted experiments to test the value of silage, both scienti- 
fically by chemical research and practically by feeding experi- 
ments, induced the Royal Agricultural Society of England to 
commence a series of investigations, of which the following is a 
record, so far as they have proceeded. 
Involving, as an inquiry of this kind would, the erection of 
silos, and many attending expenses, the cost at starting was very 
considerable ; and once more it is to the kindness of the Duke of 
Bedford, who bore the entire cost of erecting the silos, that the 
carrying out of the experiments is due. 
The experiments were begun in 1884 under my father's 
direction, and continued just after his death by a special Com- 
mittee of the Society, which was appointed for the purpose, and 
to which much assistance was rendered by Sir John Lawes. A 
large barn at Crawley Heath Farm was given by the Duke of 
Bedford for making the silos. The silos were erected on the 
brick flooring of the barn, and were thus entirely above ground. 
The barn was about 21 feet wide, and of considerable length. 
The right-hand end was divided by the raising of nine-inch 
brick walls into three silos, each 6 feet 2^ inches wide, 20 feet 
6 inches deep horizontally, and 16 feet high, reaching nearly to 
the roof; and the left-hand end by similar walls into two silos, 
each 9 feet 8 inches wide, 10 feet deep, and 8 feet 3 inches 
high. The bottom and sides were carefully lined with cement, 
and each had a doorway open down to the floor, about 4 feet 
wide, arranged to be closed with boards right up to the top. 
There was no special drain cut for any of the silos, but any 
liquid flowing from under the boarded doorway of silos 3, 4, 
