Published Weekly by The Rural Publishing Co., 
333 W. 30t.h St., New York. Price One Dollar a Year. 
Entered as Second-Class Matter, June 26, 1370. at the Post 
Office at New York. .V Y.. under the Act of March 3. 1370. 
If the ripening of cream can be directed, w 
hy not the ripening, of silag,e 
r mMWM 
T HE FEED UNIT.—studying the results from 
feeding experiments with different, kinds of 
silage one comes to the conclusion that it is well- 
nigh unimportant, within reason, of course, what 
kind of plants or what kind of material that are 
put into the silo. The effect on the animals seems 
to depend more on the quality of the silage taken 
science with a number of unsolved problems; a 
science which, within the state of action and reac¬ 
tion in which every science ought to find itself, has 
only just precipitated a few practical results. With 
due respect, to. and sincere appreciation of, the 
work done by a number of prominent men in bac¬ 
teriology, I dare to express the belief that this 
to a very large extent by the ease and completeness 
with which bacteria and enzymes are able to break 
down or change the same. The quality and keeping 
capacity of silage depends partly upon the action of 
bacteria, which action, in every-day language, is 
described as the fermentation of the silage. When 
we understand better than we do today what this 
A. 4 «.• 
Scene in a New Jersey peach orchard. The crop is heavy this year, hut through lack of proper distribution prices arc very low, and much fine fruit will never be 
harvested. The children, like those in the picture, however, arc not troubled about that. They will have their troubles later. Let them have a "peach" of a 
time while they may. 
out of the silo than upon the kind of crops put in. 
Anyhow, the difference in feeding value between 
the ordinary kinds of silage made from corn, peas, 
oats, vetches, etc., is comparatively small, and in 
either case 7 lbs. of silage appears to have about 
the same feeding value as 1 lb. of mixed concen¬ 
trates. In other words, 7 lbs. of silage constitute 
one feed unit under average conditions. 
A YOUNG SCIENCE.—Bacteriology is a young 
important science is only in its infancy, at least as 
far as its application is concerned. The time will 
come, there is no doubt about it, when we shall 
understand more fully how to inoculate the soil, 
the plants and the feed, and by so doing achieve even 
more wonderful results than those already gained. 
BACTERIAL WORK. — Soli fertility is in no 
small measure a bacteriological questiou, and the 
palatability of a certain food material is determined 
fermentation means, i. e.. what actually happens in 
the fermentation process, then we shall have better 
silage, resulting in less spoilage and waste, be the 
silage made from corn, peas, oats, vetches, clover, 
rxe. or—sunflowers. 
CHANGES IN SILAGE.—In silage making the 
feed material is put through the cutter, passes from 
the blower into the silo, and is packed there as 
firmly as possible. If moisture be present, which is 
