St. Landry democrat., 1885-11-28
ENSlLAGE.


Agricultural Department..
The Commissioners have by nomeans
desired to exclude unfavorable evidences
on the contrary, they have endeavored
to induce some of those who were be.
lieved to be opposed to the system to
give them the benefit of their opinions
but they have SO far heard no express
sion of any decidedly unfavorable views.
The evidence rendered has been entirely
voluntarily, all witnesses attending at
their own expense. The evidence of all
those who have practically tested the
various methods of converting green
fodder crops into preserved food for AMI"
mails without putting them through any
process of drying, such as is necessary
in the making of hay, has, without ex..
ception, established their claims to q
considerable amount of success, and al.
though in some cases the results have
evidently been more satisfactory than in
others, the advantages of the different
operations, one and all, have claimed
for their systems seem to show that Q
nourishing and useful food for animals
can be preserved, Independently of any
drying process, with wide lines of di-
vergence in the details of the methods
adopted.
It has been conclusively shown that,
by different degrees of weighing and of
expulsion and exclusion of atmospheric
air from the material stacked or ensfled,
different degrees of heat and of conse-
quent chemical change are produced.
The degree to which such chemical
changes increase or diminish the feed
ing value in comparison to the green
crop, is, in the present state of knoWl-
edge, in great measure a matter of opin-
ion, and careful feeding experiments
conducted with a view to test the exact
effect of these changes will be highly
important to solution of this question.
Silage which has been covered in i'm
mediately after cutting, and not again
uncovered, has been shown to retain its
color and freshness, although develop
ing small quantities of certain acids in
dictatiVe of process of fermentation
without any considerable accession of
heat. Other silage which has been put
in at intervals, and from which the air
has not been Immediately or entirely
excluded, has undoubtedly developed
considerable heat, and in this case the
coloring matter of the leaves has been
less we'll preserved. Yet, in both cases,
a useful feeding material has been rem
dered available which, in unfavorable
weather, would have been practically
lost if any attempt had been made to
convert it into hay.
Bearing in mind the importance of
economy, the Commissioners have in
quired into the efficiency of various
systems of stacking unchaffed green
fodder crops without drying, by which
it has been commended that with proper
system of pressure the necessity for q
silo can be done away with. The Com
missioners are not at present prepared
TO express any opinion upon the econo-
my of any such system, or to compare
its advantages with those which are
claimed by the advocates of chaffed and
close-stored silage; but it seems to be
established that temperature sufficient
" high to involve danger of fire can be
controlled by a proper and efficient sys-
tenn of applying weight to the stack of
green fodder The different systems of
applying weight have greatly occupied
the attention of the Commissioners, but
as the quality of the silage does not APP
pear to be materially affected by the
question, it becomes simply one of
economy, and may safely, for the pres
ent, be left to each operator to decide
for himself according to the special
circumstances affecting the particular
locality in which his farm is situated
Some of the. best samples of chafed
silage have been produced with pressure
not exceeding seventy pounds per super
fetal foot, but the degree to which
weighing is necessary or desirable re-
mains to be decided upon the greatest
amount of evidence that may become
available to us. Good results are claimed
to have been obtained by means of
weights varying from seven pounds to
three hundred pounds per superficial
foot on the top of the silage.
The experience of dairy farmers does
not appear to justify the assertion which
has been more or less circulated that
dairy produce is, in any way. injuriously
affected by silage as food; on the con-
trary, much valuable evidence has been
received to show that feeding cows with
welLmade silage distinctly improves the
yield of milk and cream and the quality
of butter. Where complaints have
arisen of milk becoming tainted the
cause has been, in our opinion, to It's
having been in proximity With strong
smelling7 silage, or with persons who
have handled it, rather than to the use
of such material as food. The Commits.
sioners have already heard sufficient
evidence to justify them in encouraging
the development of the system of stor-
ing undried green fodder crops as a val
6, T..