By FREDK. JAS. LLOYD, F.C.S., Lecturer on Agriculture, King's
College.
The recently published number of the _Royal Agricultural Society's
Journal_ contains some information upon the subject of silage which
appears to me of considerable interest to those chemists who are at
present investigating the changes which take place in the conversion
of grass into silage. The data[1] are, so far as I know, unique, and
though the analytical work is not my own, yet it is that of an
agricultural chemist, Mr. A. Smetham, of Liverpool, whose work I know
from personal experience to be thoroughly careful and reliable. I have
therefore no hesitation in basing my remarks upon it.
[Footnote 1: _Royal Agricultural Society's Journal_, vol. xx.,
part i., pp. 175 and 380.]
We have here for the first time an accurate account of the quantity of
grass put into a silo, of the quantity of silage taken out, and of the
exact composition both of the grass and resulting silage. I desire
merely to place myself in the position of, so to speak, a "chemical
accountant."
The ensilage has been analyzed at three depths, or rather in three
layers, the first being 1 foot, the second 1 ft. to 1 ft. 6 in., and
the third 1 ft. 6 in. to 2 ft. from the bottom of the silo. By
doubling the figures of the bottom layer analysis, adding these to the
second and third layer analysis, and dividing by 4, we obtain a fair
representation of the average composition of the silage taken
throughout the silo, for by so doing we obtain the average of the
analyses of each 6-inch layer of silage.
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