178 
Report on the Practice of Ensilage, 
course of work. We have found that the grass can be preserved, but we are 
only now testing its feeding and other properties. — February 20th, 1884. 
I have given the above details in full, because thej are the 
first step in a careful experiment, showing exactly what was put 
into the silo ; as will be seen in Mr. Smith's letter of March 12th, 
it corresponded exactly with the weight of silage taken out. 
Mr. Alfred Smethum (an old assistant of Dr. Voelcker) has 
been engaged in making analyses of the grass put in and of the 
silage taken out, and his report, given on p. 380, will aid greatly 
in throwing light on the chemistry of ensilage. 
Writing on March 8th, Mr. Smith stated : — 
" Our silage was perfectly good to within some nine inches of the bottom ; 
on arriving at this level we found it was heavily saturated with liquid, and 
when a small truss of this was lifted outside it was marvellous to see the 
rapidity with which the liquid ran away. It was of a very dark brown 
colour, and smelt like the odour you have from vinegar. Of course the 
silage you saw was very moist, but this at the bottom would not take in any 
more moisture than it had ; and I cannot help but think that the proper 
course is certainly to have some drain away from the silo, with a syphon 
attached from a small cesspool, which, of course, should be arranged so that 
no air could pass, and then I feel positive that the silage would be perfectly 
good on our system from the top to the bottom of the silo. I think you saw 
that our sides were good, and though this silage at the bottom, which is so 
saturated, is sound, yet 1 must say it is much too strong to give to animals." 
In reply, I discouraged Mr. Smith's idea of any drain or 
siphon. My idea of what a silo should be, put in homely 
language, is simply — an agricultural jampot ; without drainage, 
and perfectly impermeable to air and water at the bottom and 
sides, and with only sufficient vent above to allow of the escape 
of gases, while being practically protected from any accession 
of air or water from without. Wetness of silage is sometimes 
greatest at the bottom, sometimes at the top, and sometimes at 
varying points or strata in between. It is sometimes due to 
the nature of the crop (such as prickly comfrey), sometimes to 
its too saturated condition when pitted, sometimes to the effect 
of moisture being enhanced by an addition of salt, and some- 
times to infiltration of water into the silo from outside. In- 
vestigation in each case can alone determine the cause, and 
point to the proper remedy, which I do not believe ought to be 
the drainage of the silo in any case. 
Mr. Smith thereupon further wrote to me on March 12th as 
follows : — 
" I quite agree with you tliat the excessive moisture at the bottom of our 
silo is undoubtedly caused by the admixture of salt with the grass when it 
was ]nttcd ; and besides this, with the heavy weight on the silage, of course 
a large proportion of the moisture would settle at the bottom of the silo. 
With our IG tons of silage we put away not more than 2j cwt. of salt, so 
