15 
2,801 cubic feet. These data show that the practise of ensilage is increasing and that the small silo 
is coming into favour. 
In Britain, meadow grass, clover, trefoil, and aftermath have been principally used for silage. Oats, 
green barley and wheat, maize, buckwheat, sainfoin, rye vetches, lucerne, hop-bine, mangel and turnip 
tops, spurrey, peas and beans, and rough grasses have also been tried with success. 
The crop is put into the silo either chaffed or unchaffed. If chaffed it goes into less bulk and 
is likely to be more uniform in quality, but the expense is greater. 
The crop for ensilage should be taken somewhat earlier than for hay-making, at a time when the 
juices in the stems and leaves are most abundant. Some hours’ exposure to the atmosphere and sun 
is necessary if »sweet« silage is desired; when this is not attended to, »sour« silage results. After 
filling, time should be allowed for shrinkage, then additional herbage is added until the silo is quite 
full. The roof is now adjusted and weighted. 
All kinds of stock have been tried on silage and have done well. Sometimes they refuse it at 
first especially when it is sour, but soon they become ravenously fond of it. 
It is particularly suitable for dairy cows, as it supplies the place of fresh grass in winter. The 
silage increases the quantity of milk without injuring the colour or quality of the butter. 
Nutritive value. The nutritive value of a fodder depends upon the amount of nitrogenous 
and non-nitrogenous assimilable nutriment which it contains. The nutritive matter in plants is either 
nitrogenous or non-nitrogenous; according to the prevailing opinion, the nitrogenous nutriment is 
wbumin; and the non-nitrogenous, fat. woody fibre and extractive matters. It is sometimes considered 
that one part of assimilable albumin or of fat is equivalent in money value to 5 parts of assimilable 
woody-fibre or non-nitrogenous extractives. If the amount of assimilable nutriment contained in fodders 
is known, it is very easy to determine the relative money value on this scale. Suppose, for example, 
that 100 Ibs, of Perennial Rye grass hay contain: — 
Assimilable albumin ' ; D.1 lbs, & 5 == 25.5 units of value, 
do. fat : TS. 3 teh aay 0 do. 
do. carbohydrates (== extractives 
++ woody-fibre) pe ade Ore ne eet ce Bar do. 
; Total 64.8 units of value. 
Suppose 100 Ibs. (roughly 65 units of value) of this hay cost 3 shillings, 4 unit of value costs 
0.55 pence i.e. a little over '/2 d. Average meadow haycontains 73 units value; of if 100 Ibs. of this 
, BR s|d 
cost 3 shillings, Perennial rye-grass hay should cost only ee ee 28 
The total amount of nutriment contained in a fodder, is readily determined by chemical analysis, 
but the proportion which is assimijable is not so easy to find. Chemists have determined, for example, 
that 100 Ibs. of green dandelions (87 °/o water) contains 2.6 Ibs. of albumin, 0.5 Ib. of fat, 6.0 Ibs. 
of extractives and 1.9 Ibs. of woody fibre; but the amount of each of these constituents which is assi- 
milable, can only be found by experiments made upon animals fed with the dandelions. To find the 
amount of assimilable nutriment, the fodder used, and the solid excrements of the animal must be 
weighed and analysed; the difference represents the amount assimilated. Suppose that 2.6 Ibs. of albumin 
have been given to the animal, and that 1.3 lbs. are found in the excrements, then 2.6—1.3 — 1.3 lbs. 
of albumin are assimilable, or, the coefficient of assimilation for albumen is 50. The amount assimi- 
lated varies according to the species of plant which is used, its stage of development, etc. For example, 
a larger percentage of nutriment is assimilated from young grass than from the same grass when ripe. 
Well-got hay has the same advantage: the proportions of nutriment assimilated from it are much higher 
than those from hay deteriorated by rain. From dry fodder, on an average, 40—80°/o of the total 
albumin can be assimilated, and 30—60°/o of the fat. Non-nitrogenous extractive matters are considered 
