News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-06-22
A CHEMIST ON ENSILAGE.
Some Popular Errors on the Sub
ject.

A CHEMIST ON ENSILAGE.
Some Popular Errors on the Sub
ject.
A great many new slos will be filed
for the first time this season. The value
of ensilage for fodder appears to have
been fairly proved, but the Boston
Journal of Chemistry points out that
there is considerable misrepresentation
among farmers as to just where the saw.
ing is made. In other words, it says
they believe that 100 pounds OF one
ton of good ensilaged corn fodder con-
.tains much more nutriment than the
same weight of green stalks, or1ts equiv
alent in the air-dried condition of the
fodder. In all our experiments in the
laboratory and observations in practical
trials in the barn, the conclusion has
been reached that the true value of silos
does not consist in any important in
crease of nutriment in fodder, but in
the saving of expense in storing and
feeding it. If there is no saving in this
direction if it costs as much in time
and labor to ensilage corn stalks as it
does to cut and dry them in the field,
and when in the barn to cut and crush
them SO that animals will eat them
readily, then there IS no advantage in
ensilage.
It is surprising fact that many, if
not most, farmers believe that some
thing valuable is lost in drying fodder;
they believe that important constituents
or rich plant-food goes off with the
water. This is all error. All the moist
ure in corn stalk2d docs not go off in
field drying, and air-dried plants
which hold 80 kper cent. of the
original water green state will
keep well VIII for winter use.
In drying u fodder the
uent, and as lateral, or nu-
TRENT portions only in suspen-
sion in the ilices, the water
evaporates, leaf1 ind the heavier
and more valuab articles. The dis
advantage which Ets when ensilaged
fodder corn is conSasted with the dry
fodder is only appaent, not real. Ami
mails will eat, digest, and assimilate,
and COWS will give as much milk, and
oxen and horses viii do as much work,
when dried corn fodder is fed to them
as when fed with the same ensilaged.
If the dry corn fodder is cut and crushed
and moistened witha little warm water,
animals will eat it up clean with as great
relish as they apparently do ensilage.
There is no advantage in ensilaging
corn or other kindsof fodder unless it
be in saving of expense, in time and
labor, and in convenience of feeding.
The conclusions which we have
reached from careful consideration of
this subject are supported by recent ex-
periments at the New Jersey experiment
stanton, conducted under the supervis-
ion of Prof. Cook. His results are of
great interest to farmers, and corrober-
ate the views upon ensilage so often ex-
pressed in the Journal and elsewhere.
Prof. Cooks experiments extend over a
period of nearly six months, and were
made with green fodder corn, air-dried
corn and ensilaged corn. The expert.
ments were conducted in the barn in
feeding COWS with the different forms OF
fodder, and in the laboratory in testing
results, and they are in the highest de-
gree trustworthy. He sums up the re-
suits as follows
First. When the green corn was dried
in stacks in the field the loss was less
than it was when the corn was packed
in q silo.
Second. When dried corn fodder was
cut and crushed, it was eaten by COWS
quite as readily and with as little waste
as ensilage.
Third. In three cases the yield of milk
was not increased when ensilage was
substituted forrdrsed corn. --------
Fourth. In the mixed milk for twenty
days of one herd of COWS, ensilage
caused no increase in the yield of total
solid matter in the milk, while in an
other herd it caused gain of only per
cent.
The opinions of those who have been
using ensilage in their farm barns dur
ing the past winters are as whole favor
able to the new form of fodder. We
have taken considerable pains to inves-
tigate the nature Of the contents of silos
and the effects upon stock of the food
drawn from them, and are prepared to
say that all questions regarding their
safety and high profit are not conclu-
sively settled. It i, probable that the
whole matter of elsilaging crops will
undergo a complete revolution in few
years. The present expensive silos may
be found not SO well adapted to the pur-
pose as others of cheaper construction.
1t is not probable that ensilaging will
fall into disuse, but that better methods
and cheaper structures will supplant
those now in use.