Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 25.djvu/656

640 or woody fiber of which the rags are composed has the same composition as starch, and thus its conversion into sugar corresponds to the every-day proceedings described in No. 30. All that I have read and seen in connection with the recent ensilage experiments on cattle-fodder indicates that it is a process of slow vegetable cookery, a digesting or maceration of fibrous vegetables in their own juices which loosens the fiber, renders it softer and more digestible, and not only does this, but, to some extent, converts it into dextrin and sugar.

I hereby recommend those gentlemen who have ensilage-pits and are sufficiently enterprising to try bold experiments, to water the fodder, as it is being packed down, with dilute hydrochloric acid or acetic acid, which, if I am not deluded by plausible theory, will materially increase the sugar-forming action of the ensilage. The acid, if not over-supplied, will find ammonia and other bases with which to neutralize itself.

Such ensilage will correspond to that which occurs when we gather Jersey or other superlatively fine pears in autumn as soon as they are full grown. They are then hard, woody, and acid, quite unfit for food, but by simply storing them for a month, or two, or three, they become lusciously soft and sweet, the woody fibers are converted into sugar, the acid neutralized, and all this by simply fulfilling the conditions of ensilage, viz., close packing of the fiber, exclusion of air by the thick rind of the fruit, plus the other condition which I have just suggested, viz., the diffusion of acid among the well-packed fibers of the ensilage material.

In my experiments on the ensilage of human food I have encountered the same difficulty as that which has troubled graziers in their experiments, viz., that small-scale results do not fairly represent those obtained with large quantities. There is, besides this, another element of imperfection in my experiments respecting which I am bound to be candid to my readers, viz., that the idea of thus extending the principle was suggested in the course of writing this series, and, therefore, a sufficient time has not yet elapsed to enable me (with much other occupation) to do practical justice to the investigation.

I find that oatmeal-porridge is greatly improved by being made some days before it is required, then stored in a closed jar, brought forth and heated for use. The change effected is just that which theoretically may be expected, viz., a softening of the fibrous material, and a sweetening due to the formation of sugar. This sweetening I observed many years ago in some gruel that was partly eaten one night and left standing until next morning, when I thought it tasted sweeter, but, to be assured of this, I had it warmed again two nights afterward, so that it might be tasted under the same conditions of temperature, palate, etc., as at first. The sweetness was still more distinct, but the experiment was carried no further.

I have lately learned that my ensilage notion is not absolutely new.