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XVI. — On the Chemistry of Ensilage. By Dr. AUGUSTUS 
VOELCKER, F.R.S, 
Mk. Jenkins's admirable, exhaustive, and instructive "Report 
on the Practice of Ensilage at Home and Abroad," in the last 
* Journal ' of this Society (vol. xx. s.s. Part I.), the numerous 
contributions which have recently appeared in our Agricultural 
newspapers on the same subject, and the several special treatises 
on silos, and the preservation of green fodder crops, which have 
been issued during the last six or twelve months, relieve me of 
the task of describing the construction of different silos, the 
kinds of crop suitable for ensilage, the various plans of pre- 
paring the green food, of filling the silos, and the subsequent 
application of pressure. Further, I do not intend to enter into 
the questions of the cost of the construction of silos, and the 
comparative expense of making grass and other green produce 
into hay with that of preserving it in silos. Nor will it be 
expedient for me to refer to the experience of feeders of stock 
respecting the value of silage for fattening purposes, or the 
production of milk, or to touch upon other purely practical 
questions raised and criticised more or less fully in Mr. Jenkins's 
Report, and by the current Agricultural press. 
The object of the following pages is simply to supplement 
Mr. Jenkins's Report by a brief account of the chemical com- 
position of a number of illustrative specimens which have 
recently been submitted to analysis in the Society's Laboratory, 
and to some of which reference has been made in Mr. Jenkins's 
Report. As far as I am able, in the absence of further well- 
authenticated and definite information, I propose, in fact, to offer 
some observations on the " Chemistry of Ensilage." 
I feel compelled, however, to say at once that a careful and 
critical study of the literature of the subject, and an attentive 
perusal of most of the original publications on ensilage in 
England, America, and the Continent, have shown me how 
scanty and imperfect is our knowledge of the complicated 
processes of fermentation and of similar chemical and physical 
changes to which succulent green food is liable under various 
conditions of temperature, the total or partial exclusion of 
atmospheric air, or its free admission. 
Comparatively few experiments, conceived in a rational and 
philosophic spirit, and carried out with all the precision which 
is justl}- expected from an experienced scientific investigator, 
have as yet been made, in which any well-ascertained facts have 
been brought to light, or which can be used as the basis of a 
sound theory of the chemistry of ensilage. In fact, we do not 
