On the Chemistry of Ensilage. 
485 
Immature green food, as a rule, does not keep well when put into 
silos ; and over-ripe stringy green food abounding in cellular 
fibre often keeps extremely well when submitted to the process 
of ensilage ; but it never makes really good nutritious silage, 
for the simple reason that the constituents upon which the 
nutritive qualities of the food mainly depend, and which are 
most liable to suffer changes by fermentation, are present only 
in small proportion, whilst the less perishable matters, such as 
cellular and woody fibre, form the bulk of the over-ripe green 
food. It may be said, with great truth, that the quality of the 
stuff which comes out of a silo varies much with that of the 
green food which is put into it. Good well-matured green 
food will make first-class silage if the process of ensilage is 
properly carried out, whilst innutritious immature or over-ripe 
woody grass or clover, or similar green food, by no kind of 
fermentation nor modification of the process of ensilage can be 
possibly converted into a really good food. Ensilage may 
render such food more palatable and improve its physical con- 
dition, in consequence of which it may become more digestible, 
but it can never change it into really good and nutritious 
provender. 
Besides this, the quality of silage is no doubt influenced by 
the conditions under which it is made, because the variable 
conditions must result in corresponding modifications of the 
process of fermentation. When the influence of these dif- 
ferences in the original composition of the green food, and of the 
varying conditions of filling the silo and applying pressure to 
the green food, has been more thoroughly understood than it is 
at present, I have no doubt that silage of a uniform and desired 
quality will be produced with certainty. As yet we have a great 
deal to learn before this desirable object can be accomplished, 
for the changes which green food undergoes by fermentation are 
admitted to involve much uncertainty, which can only be dis- 
pelled by careful observations and well-conducted experiments. 
Instead of pursuing further the inquiry into the chemical 
changes which take place in green food when preserved in 
silos, I proceed to direct attention to the composition and 
quality of a number of representative samples which I have 
recently analysed. 
1 and 2. Sweet Silage. — Two samples of " sweet silage " were 
sent to me for analysis on the 18th of January, 1884, by Mr. 
George Fry, of Chobham. One was made from clover and rye- 
grass mixed, the other from ordinary meadow-grass. Both 
were sweet to the taste, and had an agreeable fruity smell, 
similar to that of well-made hay. 
