238  Annual  Report  of  the  Consulting  Chemist  for  1882. 
times,  and  which  were  more  or  less  spoiled,  and  some  rendered 
quite  unfit  for  feeding  purposes,  I found  the  proportion  of 
moisture  much  higher  than  in  well-preserved  green  food.  Ac- 
cording to  my  experience,  green  food  cannot  be  well  preserved 
in  silo,  when  the  proportion  of  water  in  it  much  exceeds 
80  per  cent. 
Very  succulent  and  watery  green  food  often  contains  from  85 
to  90  per  cent,  of  water.  Such  food  must  be  cut  in  ^-inch  or 
1-inch  bits,  and  then  be  intimately  mixed  with  straw-chaff, 
varying  from  10  to  30  per  cent,  according  to  the  degree  of 
succulence  of  the  green  food  which  has  to  be  placed  into  the 
silos.  This  is  an  important  element  in  preserving  green  food 
by  ensilage.  If  green  rye  or  oats  are  allow  ed  to  remain  in  the 
field  until  the  grain  is  fully  formed,  but  the  kernel  is  still 
milky,  the  proportion  of  moisture  to  dry  matter  in  the  green 
rye  or  oats  will  not  be  so  large  as  in  green  maize  or  sewage- 
grass,  and  the  crop  will  not  require  the  admixture  of  straw*  chaff 
or  similar  dry  substance. 
Ordinary  grass-crops,  or  tares  and  vetches  intended  for 
ensilage,*  must  either  be  partially  made  into  hay,  or,  when  cut 
quite  green,  must  be  mixed  with  straw-chaff,  or  be  allowed  to 
become  somewhat  woody  before  being  put  into  silos. 
Another  element  in  successfully  preparing  green  food  by 
ensilage  is  the  exclusion  of  air  from  the  compressed  food.  In 
pressing  green  food,  a moderate  pressure  may  be  applied  at  first, 
but,  as  the  partially-compressed  green  food  settles  dowm,  the 
pressure  should  be  increased. 
Green  food,  when  well  made  in  silos,  has  always  a more  or 
less  acid  taste.  This  is  due  to  the  change  of  a portion  of  the 
sugar  of  the  food  into  lactic  acid,  an  acid  which  is  a good 
preserver  of  perishable  articles  of  food,  and  which  also  is  useful 
as  contributing  to  the  digestibility  of  coarse  vegetable  food. 
Properly  ensilaged,  green  food  does  not  enter  into  violent  fer- 
mentation, and  the  compressed  food  in  the  silos  does  not  heat 
to  any  considerable  extent,  nor  throw  off  visibly  carbonic  acid 
gas,  nor  lose  much  in  substance  by  fermentation. 
* I think  it  may  be  useful  to  draw  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  word 
“ ensilage  ” is  now  used  in  at  least  two  distinct  senses,  especially  by  American 
farmers.  In  Europe,  when  ensilage  is  spoken  of,  most  people  understand  that 
the  process  or  system  is  referred  to  : but  in  America,  and  in  American  writings, 
the  word  is  quite  as  often  used  to  designate  the  result  of  the  system  as  applied  to 
green  maize.  If  a question  arose  as  to  any  other  substance  having  been  preserved 
in  silos,  the  name  of  that  substance  would  be  prefixed,  e.g.,  Eye-ensilage,  Tri- 
folium-ensilage,  &c.  This  is  equivalent  to  our  practice  in  speaking  of  bread,  by 
which  we  mean  wheaten  bread,  or,  more  correctly,  bread  made  with  ordinary 
wheat-flour.  In  other  cases  we  should  say,  rye-bread,  whole-meal  bread,  &c. — 
Edit. 
