JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 309 
VEGETABLES. 
8. 
d. 
S. 
d. 
9. 
d. 
8. 
d 
Artichokes. 
rt ozp.n 
2 
0 
1 
8 to 2 
0 
Asparagus, English bundle 12 
0 
0 
0 
Mushrooms 
i 
0 
1 
6 
Asparagus, French bundle 25 
0 
30 
0 
Mustard* Cress .. punnet 
0 
2 
0 
3 
Beans,Kidney... 
100 
2 
0 
0 
0 
Onions. 
2 
6 
3 
6 
Beet, Red. 
dozen 
i 
0 
2 
0 
Parsley. 
doz. bunches 
6 
0 
8 
0 
Broccoli. 
bundle 
0 
9 
1 
6 
Parsnips .... 
1 
0 
2 
0 
Brussels Sprouts. 
$ sieve 
l 
6 
2 
0 
Peas . 
0 
0 
0 
0 
Cabbage . 
dozen 
0 
6 
1 
0 
Potatoes .... 
6 
0 
10 
0 
Capsicums. 
100 
1 
6 
2 
0 
Kidney.... 
6 
0 
10 
0 
Carrots . 
bunch 
0 
4 
0 
0 
Radishes.... 
doz. bunches 
1 
0 
0 
0 
Cauliflowers. 
dozen 
2 
0 
3 
0 
Rhubarb.... 
0 
4 
0 
0 
Celery. 
bundle 
1 
6 
2 
0 
Salsafv. 
1 
0 
0 
0 
Coleworts_doz. bunches 
2 
0 
4 
0 
Scorzonera 
1 
6 
0 
0 
Cucumbers. 
each 
0 
4 
0 
8 
1 
0 
2 
0 
Endive. 
dozen 
1 
0 
2 
u 
Shallots .... 
It). 
3 
0 
o 
Fennel. 
bunch 
0 
3 
0 
0 
Spinach .... 
5 
0 
6 
0 
Herbs . 
bunch 
2 
0 
0 
Tomatoes .. 
It). 
1 
6 
2 
o 
Leeks. 
. bunch 
0 
3 
0 
4 
Turnips .... 
0 
2 
0 
3 
POULTRY AND PIGEON CHRONICLE. 
ENSILAGE. 
{Continued from $>age 2SO.) 
In opening this subject we remarked that it was of ancient 
usage. Professor Thorold Rogers has, however, lately given infor¬ 
mation on the antiquity of the silo, and in an article in 
“ Macmillan’s Magazine,” says, “ It is plain that it was known 
five centuries before our era.” It is mentioned by the poet 
Euripides, and described by nearly all the Latin writers on agri¬ 
culture. There is no doubt the use of it was known to the Jews 
in the time of the prophet Jeremiah, or at any rate so far as it 
related to the storage of grain in pits. Coming down to our time 
Burnaby, in his celebrated “ Ride to Khiva,” mentions that the 
grass in the Steppes of Russia was preserved for winter use, being 
buried in the earth. As we have before stated, it is a general 
practice in America to reduce the forage of any kind into the 
state of chafE before putting into the silo, as it packs and may be 
trodden closer. Our own opinion, however, is that in this country 
it is really necessary only in the case of Indian Com, Sorgum, and 
one or two other coarse-stalked substances, for the extra cost of 
labour entailed will prove enormous ; and satisfactory results 
having been obtained in this country with whole grass and other 
haulm or forage without chaffing, we think it may be well to pro¬ 
ceed on that basis, and that our forage may also be placed in the 
silo in either a wet or dry state just as it may be cut and brought 
from the field ; for a gentleman who has recently read a paper 
at the Botley and South Hants Farmers’ Club, Mr. F. Willan, 
says, “ Pits were filled last year, either wholly or partially, with 
grass cut and carried in the rain. I have seen myself a pit which 
was so partially filled, and I could detect no difference in the 
ensilage.” 
There can be no doubt but ensilage in the chaff state will be 
more easily removed from the silo than compressed grass or other 
fodder in the uncut condition, and likewise be more easily mixed 
with other food ; but the whole ensilage can be readily cut down 
by the hay knife as required for use, and not disturb or expose the 
remaining portion as when in chaff. We must now refer to com¬ 
parative value of ensilage for feeding dairy cows, fatting cattle, 
horses, and sheep with dry food and fodder, or such as hay, meal, 
cake or bran, &c. We, however, anticipated that more beneficial 
results from the feeding of dairy cows than other stock, in accord¬ 
ance with our idea. We have before us a statement made by a 
gentleman on Lord Walsingham’s estate, who took for an experi¬ 
mental purpose five pedigree shorthorns which had been fed daily 
with 6 lbs. of crushed Oats and 3 lbs. of bran, mixed with chaff 
composed of two-thirds Barley straw and one-third hay. He says, 
“ The five animals yielded on December lO'.h sixty-eight quarts of 
milk, which the lactometer showed contained 12° of cream. We 
commenced feeding with ensilage on December 11th ; besides the 
ensilage and chaff the Oats and bran were given as before in each 
instance. It must now be observed that on December 14tb, three 
days after the ensilage was first given, the milk had increased by 
two quarts, with a rise of 1° of cream. This went on until the 
20th, On the 21st the cows gave seventy-one quarts of milk, with 
11° of cream—another rise of 1°. New year’s day brought us 
seventy-six quarts and 16° of cream. On the 5th and 6th the 
increase continued ; so that on January 10th, when the test ended, 
the record was the same as on the 8th, when eighty-two quarts of 
milk with 10° of cream were obtained. It will therefore be seen, 
that although in the middle of winter the month’s trial when con¬ 
cluded, the milk return had been raised by fourteen quarts per 
day and the quality of the cream to the remarkable extent of 4°. 
Another trial in America is reported from an American paper, 
The Cultivator and Country Gentleman. In November and 
December four milch cows were selected ; two of them were fed 
on ensilage for twenty-one days, and the other two were fed on 
dried fodder well cured, and both being the produce of the same 
field and part of the same crop. At the end of twenty-one days 
the cows were changed, and those fed on ensilage were now fed 
on fodder and vice versa. During this test each cow, whether on 
ensilage or dried fodder, received 1 lb. of Indian cornmeal, lib. of 
wheat bran, and 1£ lb. of oilmeal at each feed night and morning. 
Each cow had all the ensilage or dried fodder they would eat. The 
cows were fed, watered, and milked at the same hour each day. 
The results in milk and butter churned therefrom were :— 
Milk. Butter, 
fts. ozs. lbs. ozs. 
Ensilage and'meal produced . 1456 8 .... 50 8J 
Dried fodderjand meal ditto . 1822 15 .... 53 3J 
Increased produce from ensilage. 133 9 .... 6 5 
Most of our readers will think it important to ascertain the 
actual difference between ensilage and hay, and on this matter 
we find an excellent analysis by Mr. Francis Sutton, the analyst 
to the Norfolk Chamber of Agriculture, and was as follows : — 
Hay 
No. 1. 
Hay 
No. 2. 
Ensilage 
No. 1. 
Ensilage 
No. 2. 
Albumen. 
7.40 
10.62 
11.71 
10.43 
Sugar, gum, oil, and extractive matter 
11.15 
13.65 
20.86 
23.33 
Digestive fibre . 
26.73 
26.35 
32.24 
31.17 
Indigestible fibre. 
43.74 
40.25 
25.26 
27.14 
Inorganic and mineral matter. 
10.98 
9.13 
9.93 
7.93 
100.00 
100.00 
100.00 
100.00 
After commenting on the fact that the soluble albuminoids or 
flesh-formers are, together with the digestible fibre, so much more 
largely present in the ensilage than in the hay, he says : “ These 
facts are of great importance, and well worth attention by stock- 
feeders, as it is evident that the occurrence of these nutritious con¬ 
stituents in a really soluble form is so much labour of mastication 
and digestion saved to the animals that are fed on such food as 
compared with dry hay. It is abundantly evident, so far as these 
analyses can show, that the silo has produced a succulent easily 
digestible food, full of aroma and nutrition, from a very poor 
quality of grass. Several experiments show that fatting bullocks 
also prove the advantage of ensilage if a fair portion of dry food, 
such as crushed Oats, Barley, or bran, is given with it.” 
We have yet another valuable practical benefit to be derived 
from the feeding sheep with ensilage, but especially ewes, both 
before and immediately after lambing ; and when we come to 
consider that in the winter months how injurious root food often 
proves for feeding pregnant ewes, it is likely to prove in the 
future what we had always hoped for and desired in such cases, to 
find a vegetable food equally valuable, or nearly so, to succulent 
autumn grass. In accordance with these ideas we find Mr. H. 
Woods stating in a lecture given by him before the Way land Agri¬ 
cultural Association, that Mr. Thos. Gayford of Wrotham, near 
Thetford, carried out a trial of feeding with ensilage on ten in¬ 
lamb ewes, one of which had previously been a very bad milker, 
and says, “ I am glad to report the effect of the ensilage food 
on the milk of the ewes is most decided, and the ewes gave an 
abundance of rich milk, which was of a golden colour and as rich¬ 
looking as if it came from the udder of a fresh-calved Alderney 
cow. And it is particularly noteworthy that the ewe which had 
always given so little milk on her previous lambings improved so 
