'

• - ' ' '•

EDWIN C. VOORHIES

COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE
DAVIS, CALIFORNIA

SlOliroathvny

A PRACTICAL TREATISE

ON THE

ENSILAGE OF FODDER CORN.

MANLY MILES, M. D., F. R. M. S

NEW YOBK :

ORAJSTGE JUDD COMPANY,

1895.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA

LIBRARY

COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE
DAViS

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1889, by

ORANGE JUDD CO.,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.

PEEFACE.

The literature of ensilage consists, in the main, of
the experience of individuals under a great variety of
conditions, and the inferences or impressions derived
from a limited range of observation, as recorded in Ag-
ricultural reports and papers.

In experiments relating to the chemistry of ensilage,
the factors of dominant interest, so far as the cause of
the changes taking place in the fodder are concerned,
have been almost entirely neglected, and but little real
progress has been made in our knowledge of the econo-
mies of the silo.

From a practical standpoint it seems desirable, at the
present time, to collate the well known facts in regard
to the practice of ensilage and bring them into some
consistent relation with definite principles, in harmony
with the latest developments of science.

This will not only aid the farmer in deciding upon the
best methods of practice, but it will clear the way for
needed scientific investigations, by suggesting and defin-
ing the lines of research that may be profitably followed
to obtain a consistent explanation of the complex changes
taking place in the ensilage of fodder.

, Michigan, June, 1889.

72715

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.
FIRST PRINCIPLES Page 7

CHAPTER II.
HISTORICAL. SILOS FOR STORING GRAIN 9

CHAPTER III.

HISTORICAL. SILOS FOR PRESERVING GREEN FODDER 18

CHAPTER IV.

FERMENTATION 39

CHAPTER V.
THE SILO 62

CHAPTER VI.
How TO BUILD A SILO 67

CHAPTER VII.
FODDER CROPS FOR ENSILAGE 77

CHAPTER VIII.
FILLING THE SILO 85

CHAPTER IX.
ENSILAGE AND FARM ECONOMY 92

(5)

SILOS, ENSILAGE AXD SILAGE.

CHAPTEE I.

FIRST PRINCIPLES.

The preservation of green fodder for winter feeding
has for many years engaged the attention of practical
men as a matter of great economic interest, and the
results obtained in the many attempts to solve the prob-
lem mark a gradual process of development which must
be recognized as a phase of the law of evolution, which is
now generally accepted as an essential factor of human
progress.

In his " History of the Inductive Sciences," Whewell
emphasizes the fact that " in all cases the arts are prior
to the related sciences," and that "powers of practical
skill" — "prepare the way for theoretical views and sci-
entific discoveries."

The history of the development of the best practice ki
the preservation of green fodder furnishes a good illus-
tration of the correctness of Whewell's views in regard
to the relations of Art and Science, as we find that the
progress of practical discovery has always been in ad-
vance of the theoretical or scientific explanation of the
results obtained, and, moreover, it must even be admit-
ted that the indiscreet application of theories in science,
based on imperfect data and hasty generalizations, have
a tendency to retard the real progress of practical meth-
ods, by directing attention to unimportant details.

For at least half a century green fodder has been suc-
cessfully preserved in silos, and yet we knew nothing of
the causes of fermentation until Pasteur established the
true theory of the process by his masterly investigations,
from 1857 to 1869, and proved conclusively that living
organisms were the active and essential factors of fer-

8 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

mentation and putrefaction, and even then the new the-
ory was reluctantly adopted by chemists.

It has been difficult to obtain a general recognition of
the fact that the changes taking place in green fodder,
when preserved in silos, are essentially, and perhaps
almost exclusively, the result of biological processes, and
that the observed chemical transformations are but inci-
dents of physiological activities and therefore to a greater
or less extent independent of the ordinary laws of com-
bination which obtain in inorganic chemistry.

From what is now known of the phenomena of fer-
mentation it is evident that biological lines of investiga-
tion must be followed to place the science of ensilage
fully abreast of the best practice.

The terms "silo" and "ensilage" were familiarly
used in the French agricultural papers as early as 1870,
while the English papers of the same date referred to
the French experiments as the "pitting" or "potting"
of green fodder. In a communication to the "Country
Gentleman" of October 5th, 1876, giving an outline of
the discovery and progress of ensilage in France, and of
my own experiments in 1875, I made use of the word
silo, and suggested the adoption of the word ensilage, in
the absence of any English equivalent. Since that time
these terms have been in common use in this country,
but as the word ensilage is used in a double sense, one of
its meanings may be best expressed by the word silage,
which has been introduced in England with advantage
within the past four or five years.

For the convenience of those not familiar with these
terms, the following definitions may be given as repre-
senting the present nomenclature of the subject.

Silo: a closed pit, or reservoir, in which either dry
grain, or green fodder is preserved.

Silage: the green fodder preserved in a silo.

Ensilage: the process of preserving green fodder in
silos.

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 9

Any green crops may be preserved in silos; in Eng-
land, meadow grass, clover, tares, rye, oats, and rye-
grass, are the leading crops ensilaged, while in this
country, the ensilage of fodder corn has received a larger
share of attention.

In studying the history of ensilage it will be necessary
to keep in mind the two leading purposes to which silos
are adapted. Among the ancients they were only used
for storing and preserving dry grain; while in modern
practice they are used almost exclusively for preserving
green fodder.

CHAPTER II.

HISTORICAL. — SILOS FOE STORING GRAIN.

From the earliest times of which we have any record,
silos have been used for the storage of grain, either
threshed, or in the ear. According to the best author-
ity, the word silo is derived from the Greek, and intro-
duced to France from Spain.*

Pliny says, "the best plan, however, of preserving
grain, is to lay it up in trenches, called ' Siri/ as they do
in Cappadocia, Thracia, Spain, and at in Af-
rica. Particular care is taked to dig these trenches in a
dry soil, and a layer of chaff is then placed at the bot-
tom; the grain, too, is always stored in the ear. In this
case, if no air is allowed to penetrate to the corn, we may
rest assured that no noxious insects will ever breed in it.
Varro says, that wheat, if thus stored, will keep as long

*E. Littre, " Dictionnaire de la langue Francaise." La Chatre, " Noveau Dic-
tionnaire Universal." See also Jenkins' "Practice of Ensilage," Jour. Roy. Ag.
Soc. 1884, pp. 127-8.

10

SILOS, EXSILAGE AKD SILAGE.

as fifty years, and millet a hundred; and he assures us
that beans and other leguminous grain, if put away in
oil jars with a covering of ashes, will keep for a great
length of time. He makes a statement, also, to the
effect that some beans were preserved in a cavern in

B IB IB I G IB I Q IB

FIG. 1.

JSeni Hassan.

Ambracia, from the time of King Pyrrhus until the
piratical war of Pompeius Magnus, a period of about
two hundred and twenty years."*

a b c

FIG. 2. Thebes.

In ancient Egypt, according to Wilkinson, "The
granaries were also apart from the house, and were en-

*Nat. Hist. Vol. IV, p. 106. Bohn's Classical Library. Foure Bookes of Hus-
bandrie, by Conradus Heresbachius, 1586, p. 48.

SILOS, E.NSILAGE AHD SILAGE. 11

closed with a separate wall ; and some of the rooms in
which they housed the grain appear to have had vaulted
roofs. These were filled through an aperture near the
top, to which the men ascended by steps, and the grain
when wanted was taken out from a door at the base."*

These storage rooms were, in fact, silos of masonry
above ground, and a marked improvement on the rude
trenches mentioned by Pliny.

In an interesting article on Ensilage by Mr. H. W.
Jenkins, Secretary of the Royal Agricultural Society of
England, it is stated that the practice of storing grain in
silos was brought by the Moors into Spain ; but the state-
ment of Pliny given above, in connection with other his-
torical data, would lead to the more probable supposi-
tion that the Eomans introduced the system into Spain,
as well as other grain-growing provinces of the Empire,
and that if the Moors brought silos into notice for the
preservation of grain, it was but a revival of an old
Roman practice, f

From the many valuable suggestions in regard to the
storing of grain contained in the paper by Mr. Jenkins,
we quote as follows: " In France, the system of ensilage
was originally imported from Spain, with a view to the
preservation of cereals from years of plenty to years of
scarcity. It is recorded by Mons. L. Doye*re, that the
proprietor of the estate of Palerne, in the Puy de Dome,
put his corn, harvested in 1820 and 1821, in silos con-
structed for the purpose, and kept the grain in them
until the end of 1828, when, prices having risen to

*"The Ancient Egyptians," by Wilkinson, Vol. 1, pp. 31-32, from which Figs.
1 and 2 are copied.

tin a foot-note to Mr. Jenkins' paper (1. c. p. 128), a quotation is given from a
French work published in 1804, as follows: "In 1707 there was discovered in
the citadel of Metz a large quantity of corn (grain) , placed there in 1528, in one
of the underground rooms, where it was so well preserved that the bread which
was made from it, two centuries after it had been placed there was found very
good. There exists now (1804), at Ardres, department of the Pas de Calais, one
of these underground places made by the Romans."

12 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

double their figure of seven years before, he opened the
silos and found the grain practically uninjured. It is
true that a small layer at the top, immediately under
the straw which separated the grain from the hermet-
ically sealed cover, was a little mouldy, and the silo con-
tained a quantity of carbonic-acid gas when first opened.
But the bulk of the grain was perfectly preserved, and
the proprietor of the estate was so satisfied with his suc-
cess that he gave instructions for other silos to be built.
"Unfortunately, his death shortly afterwards put an end
to his projects.

"So far as I can judge, the first Frenchman to call
attention to this method of preserving corn was
Count de Lasteyrie, who published a work on the sub-
ject in 1819. Then a trial of the system was made by
M. Ternaux, at Saint Ouen, and the 'Societe royal et
centrale d? Agriculture de France' appointed a commis-
sion to report on the experiment. This report, pre-
sented in December, 1826, was eminently unfavorable,
and for a considerable time prevented any further at-
tempts at the ensilage of corn. M. Doy&re explains that
the conditions under which the experiment was made
were so extremely unfavorable, that failure was a fore-
gone conclusion. He mentions specially a very porous
sub-soil close to the Seine, and subject to infiltrations
of water from it, no attempt to render the walls of the
silo water-tight, and so forth. Therefore one need not
wonder that the corn was not well preserved.

"After the publication of M. Doyere's report on the
Alucite of wheat, he was commissioned by the French
government to investigate more closely the question of
the preservation of cereals in silos, more especially in
Spain. His report was presented to the French Acad-
emy of Sciences at the end of 1855, and published the
following year as a pamphlet. Without stopping to
analyze this report, I think it desirable to give the fol-

SILOS, EHSILAGE AND SILAGE. 13

lowing translation of an article from a French Encyclo-
pedia,* which embodies most of M. Doy&re's con-
clusions".

" The Preservation of Cereals. This question inter-
ests in the highest degree every civilized country. It is
important for the welfare of nations that, when the har-
vest is superabundant and the corn at a low price, a part
of the produce in excess should be preserved, so as to
circulate the same when a bad harvest arrives unexpect-
edly, and the price of corn tends to rise above the ordi-
nary value. But two natural obstacles exist to the pres-
ervation of corn. They are (1) the dampness, which
causes it to ferment, and (2) the insects which destroy
considerable quantities of it.

"In Egypt, where it never rains, and in other coun-
tries where rains are rare, the problem is easily solved by
the employment of the 'silo.' The 'silo' is simply an
excavation, the sides of which are lined with masonry,
then relined, as also is the bottom, with a layer of very
dry straw. After the pit or silo has been filled, the
grain is covered with straw, and the silo is closed by
means of an arch in masonry, in which is placed an
opening with a movable lid, so that one can take out the
grain from it as needed.

"The grain is preserved in the silo, without injury,
for an indefinite time. But in France, as in all northern
countries, the ensilage of the grain has not succeeded,
and this is attributed to the humidity of the soil, which
penetrates to the interior of even the best-constructed
silos. Then it has been observed that corn, properly
ventilated, is less liable to become heated in the gran-
aries, than that left alone. It was believed that the
problem had been solved by the airing and ventilation
of the grain.

* Dictionnalre Francaise illustr** et ency'l. Universelle, par B. Duplney de Vore-
pierre, Paris: Michael-Levy fr£res, 1867, T. 1, p. 503,

14 SILOS, EHSILAGE AtfD SILAGE.

" Moving granaries, and granaries with ventilators,
were suggested, but they are all extremely expensive, and
they do not safely prevent fermentation. They also pre-
sent no obstable to the development of insects. The
success that has been obtained by using these means
appears to be simply due to the dryness of the wheat.
But, as Doyere has asserted, dry grain can be preserved
for a certain time by any means. But it is not the same
with wet grain, — that is to say, grain containing more
than 16 per cent, of water, as the greater part of French
corn does. ' I found/ says Doyere, ' that corn containing
21 per cent, of water, furnishes, at 68° Fahr. (20° cen-
tigrade), 120 milligrammes of carbonic acid per day and
per kilogramme (about 2 1-2 Ibs. English), in a state of
rest ; and about 17 milligrammes per hour under the
influence of a constant current of air, which latter
amount would make 408 milligrammes per day. Ven-
tilation, therefore, trebles the amount of decomposition,
of which carbonic acid is one of the products.

" The last of these losses is enormous, for it represents
not less than 2 1-2 per cent, of dry matter destroyed
each month, owing to alcoholic fermentation. It is
probable that it would not be continued indefinitely to
the same extent as it hiippens for several hours ; but it
is renewed with the same energy during the whole time
of an intermittent ventilation. Otherwise, the loss of
120 milligrammes of carbonic acid per day, which hardly
requires any renewal of air, suffices to repel the hope of
a preservation of long duration, for it represents a de-
struction of dry matter amounting to 7 per 1000 per
month.

" ' This is not only the loss in weight, for the loss in
quality which results from the formation of sour and
rank products is incomparably more to be feared. Fi-
nally, as the loss takes place in a temperature relatively
low, that of 68° Fahr., it would not only increase with

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 15

the temperature, but even much more rapidly. There-
fore when the grain is wet, the airing produces an effect
very much opposed to that which is commonly looked
for.' The results of the experiences of Doyere show that,
in the grain containing less than 16 per cent, of water,
there is only produced an alcoholic fermentation, exces-
sively weak, without developing odor or taste, and only
to be perceived by the most delicate processes of chem-
istry.

" In other cases even this fermentation is stopped in
closed vessels. After the oxygen of the air, which is its
primitive cause, has completely disappeared, no other
acid but carbonic acid is formed ; the starch and gluten
undergo no change. Towards 16 per cent, of humidity,
or a little beyond it, the alteration in the grain begins
to show itself, in the course of time, in the closed ves-
sels. Its relative activity in corn of various degrees of
humidity, increases with the proportion of water, but
much more rapidly than the humidity itself. It is due
to fermentation, called by the chemists lactic, butyric,
and gaseous. Consequently, whatever may be the means
employed, it is impossible to preserve grain wet, as it
generally is in France. The excessive humidity of corn
in our country ought not, however, to be attributed
only to the climate, and climatic influences, in which
the grain has been harvested. Agricultural customs
have much to do with ifc. In the greater part of France
the wheat is cut half green, and is hastily put into the
granary, or made into ricks, where it immediately begins
to ferment. If, as we think, the observations of Doyere
are correct, it is evident that the corn intended to be
preserved must be dried, in the first instance, if it con-
tains 16 per cent, of humidity, or more. As to the
place where it is best to keep it, the silo appears to us
infinitely preferable to the granary, for the latter is open
to the outer air, and exposed to all variations of tem-
perature.

16 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

"Now, air introduces a means of fermentation of the
grain, as well as a means of life for insects, while varia-
tions of temperature favor the chemical phenomena of
which the grain becomes the seat.

" The underground silo in masonry offers this great
advantage over the granary : that of preserving a low and
constant temperature ; but it is nob completely inacces-
sible to the air, and it is impossible to render it imper-
vious to humidity. As a set-off to these two last incon-
veniences, Doyere proposed employing metals. His
system of construction consisted of some very thin sheets
of iron, preserved exteriorly from oxydation by an im-
permeable covering, and enveloped in concrete, which
sustains the whole weight. The sheet of iron, he says,
only plays the part of an impervious and indestructible
varnish. It offers, besides, the advantage of supplying
holes which can be shut up hermetically. Finally, a
silo of 500 hectolitres (1376 bu.), constructed according
to this system, at Paris, with a sheet of iron of a mean
thickness of 3 millimetres, and made at a cost of 2 1. the
cwt. (1 fr. per kilo), has only cost, including the as-
phalte covering, 2250 francs (90 1.), or 4 fr. 50c. per
hectolitre (1 s. 4 d. per bushel). Therefore it is seen
that, instead of being led into error by ruinous experi-
ments on the faith of theories, either preconceived, or
else deduced from facts wrongly interpreted, it is simply
a question of appropriating for our climate the means
consecrated by the experience of centuries in all warm
countries." *

Notwithstanding the defective theoretical views, which
were in accord with the science of the time, these rec-
ords of investigations, made more than thirty years ago,
are of interest as showing the value of exact experi-
mental methods in their relations to practice. As an
outcome of these studies of the essential conditions for

* Jour. Roy. AKT'I. Soc. 1884 pp. 120-132.

SILOS, EKSILAGE AND SILAGE. 17

the preservation of grain, silos are used on an extensive
scale, for the storage of grain, by the Paris Omnibus
Company, "some silos being below ground and some
above.1' *

In the evolution of the silo, for storing grain, from
the rude trenches mentioned by Pliny, to the permanent
structures of masonry of the Egyptians, and the more
perfect construction required in the comparatively hu-
mid climate of France, there was undoubtedly a great
variety of forms developed by experience to adapt the
details of practice to the conditions of each locality;
and it is probable that the system had a wider geograph-
ical range than our imperfect history of agricultural
practice seems to indicate. At the time of the discov-
ery of America by Columbus, Indian corn was stored
in pits by the natives, and the tribes beyond the Missis-
sippi still continue the practice.

It is, perhaps, reasonable to assume that it was a com-
mon method of storing grain, among savage and migra-
tory tribes, to conceal it from their enemies and to pro-
vide against seasons of scarcity.

* Jenkins, 1. c. p. 129, who refers to a " Report by M Muntz, ' Etudes sur la con-
servation des grains,' published in the 'Annals de 1'Institut National Agrono-
mique ' No. 4 of 1878-79, published in 1881."

2

18 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

CHAPTER III.

HISTORICAL. — SILOS FOB PRESERVING GREEN FODDER.

The preservation of green fodder in closed chambers
or pits was practiced in Europe previous to the begin-
ning of the present century, but the early history of the
process is involved in obscurity.

In his "Observations made in Italy on the use of
leaves in feeding cattle/' published in 1786, Prof. John
Symonds, of the University of Cambridge, says :
"Among the various kinds of winter food provided for
cattle in Italy, the use of leaves is not the least consider-
able. * * * To preserve the freshness and verdure
of the leaves requires a great deal of attention. To
effect this they gather them about the end of September,
or the beginning of October, at the time of day when
the heats are most piercing ; and spread them very thin
upon a pavement abroad, where they suffer them to lie
three or four -hours; after which they put them into
wooden casks, and press them down as closely as possi-
ble, and cover them entirely with sand. The very
moment after they have taken out the quantity which is
wanted, they stop up the casks, lest the leaves should
be exposed to the air ; by which method they are ena-
bled to keep them both fresh and tender during the
whole winter. It is customary for the peasants in some
parts of Italy to bury them in a pit, and to cover them
with straw, upon which they lay either clay or sand ;
and both are equally calculated to answer the purpose." *

Green fodder was preserved in silos quite a number of
years ago in Germany and Hungary, in the form of
"sour," or "brown" hay, but we have no record of the

* Young's Annals of Agriculture (1786), Vol. 1, pp. 207-9.

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 19

origin of the process, or of the conditions which led to
its development. Although frequently mentioned by
writers on continental agriculture, the first detailed
description of the process, by an English author, so far
as I can learn, was given by Prof. J. F. W. Johnston,
in a paper " On the Feeding Qualities of the Natural
and Artificial Grasses in different states of dryness,"
published in the " Transactions of the Highland and
Agricultural Society of Scotland," for 1843-45.*

As Prof. Johnston's paper contains matter of general
interest, that is not accessible to many of our readers,
we make the following extended quotation. The first
paragraph, as will be seen, may well be applied to our
present knowledge of the economy of green feed.

" Much knowledge remains yet to be acquired in ref-
erence to the most economical mode of using green crops
as food for cattle. It is true that there exists much val-
uable information floating among intelligent practical
men, but when the unprejudiced inquirer begins to col-
lect, with the view of fixing this floating knowledge, he
meets with opinions so contradictory, even from men of
equal intelligence and skill, that he must be well ac-
quainted with those causes which affect the results of
agricultural operations in different localities, before he
can hope to approach the truth, or to extract anything
like general principles from the testimony of practical
men alone.

* From a foot note to Prof. Johnston's paper it appears that the original source
of information, in part, at least, was " Verhandlung des Baltischen Veieins fur
Forderung des Landwirthschaft. Greifswald, 1842, p. 38." An abstract of Prof.
Johnston's description of the sour hay process was published in Stephens'
" Book of the farm," 1844, Vol. 3, p. 978. In H. R. Stevens' book on " Ensilage,"
1881, p. 20, Prof. J. M. M'Bryde, in a notice of the sour hay of Germany says,
"This process is fully described by Grieswald (1842); and a translation of the
passage is given in Stevens' (sic.) large work, 'The Farmer's Guide,' which
appeared in 1851," and "the extract in full" then follows. The extract here
given is a reprint of the abstract of Prof. Johnston's article as printed in
Stephens' Book of the Farm, above noticed, and Greifswald is a small town
near the Baltic, in the province of Pomcrania, where the " Transactions of the
Baltic Society for the promotion of Agriculture," the original authority, were
published.

20 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

" The opinions of practical agriculturists are derived in
general from their own experience, and from that of
their neighbors, in a limited district only. In distant
parts of the country, we know that these opinions are
often quite opposed to each other ; yet the phenomena
from which the cultivators of each province have deduced
their opposite opinions, are the natural results of the
same general laws. It is these laws which the philo-
sophical agriculturist seeks to discover.

" The above observations apply, among other topics, to
the opinions held in different localities in regard to the
relative feeding properties of the natural and artificial
grasses in their green and dry states, — their relative
value when made into hay after one or another method,
and when used at one or another season of the year.
* * * But it is also said, — and I believe, as a gen-
eral principle, is also conceded, — that the same weight
of the same grass will go further in the green state than
when it is made into hay.

"But there appears to be a great, and so far as I am
capable of judging, a well-founded difference in regard
to the amount of nourishment lost by the act of drying.
By some it is stated to amount to one-half ; a ton of
green rye-grass or clover going as far as two tons when
made into hay. This proportion cannot be general ;,
but since differences so great may exist, according to the
eviderce of practical men, it becomes a matter of inter-
est to inquire how this difference arises, and if by any
means it can be avoided or diminished."
" When the soft young shoots of the dog-rose, the bram-
ble, or the hawthorn, or the stem of the young cab-
bage, are cut off and peeled, they are found to be soft
and eatable, and, like the heart, of the young turnip,
are readily digestible ; but let a month or two elapse,
and these shoots become woody and unfit for mastica-
tion, and, when taken into the stomach, pass through

SILOS, EXSILAGE AKD SILAGE. 21

the intestines of most animals in a great measure un-
changed. Thus, animals which thrive on the young
shoots of early spring, can with difficulty sustain them-
selves on the more matured branches of the advancing
summer. The reason of this difference is, that the
starch and gum, and similar soluble and digestible sub-
stances of which the young shoot consists, are gradually
changed into the insoluble and, in general, almost indi-
gestible woody fibre of which the stem and branches of
the mature plant are in great part composed.

" When green grass or clover, approaching to maturity,
is first cut down, it contains a considerable proportion
of starch, sugar, and gum, still unchanged into woody
fibre, as it would mostly be were the plant allowed to
become fully ripe. But when left to dry in the open
air, the circulation proceeds to a certain extent, and,
under the influence of light, woody fibre continues to be
formed in the upper part of each stem, until it becomes
completely dry. It may even be a matter of doubt
whether this process of change does not often proceed
after the hay has been carried off the field and stacked.

" The effect of this change will obviously be to render
the dry hay less digestible, on the whole, and, conse-
quently, less valuable as food, than the green grass from
which it was prepared.

66 Again, we know that by drying, many very digestible
and nourishing substances become less soluble, and con-
sequently, more difficult of digestion. The stomach of
a growing animal cannot afford the time necessary to
the complete digestion of such dry substances, and
hence a larger portion of the really nutritive matter of
their food is rejected in the droppings of animals which
are fed upon them. How much of dry corn escapes,
half digested, from the stomach of the horse, — how
much, probably, of the animal matter of the bones it
eats, from the stomach of the dog, — which either of

2% SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

these animals would have been able fully to digest, and
to work up for its own sustenance, had the food been
presented to it in a less hard and solid state ! So it
must be, to a certain extent, with dried hay. What
was easily soluble and digestible in the green, has, with-
out undergoing any chemical change, become less solu-
ble and more tardily digestible in the dry, and hence a
second reason why the hay should afford less nourish-
ment than the grass from which it is made.

" The knowledge of these two causes of deterioration
suggests the kind of inquiries which the practical farmer
ought to make, and the kind of practice he ought to
adopt, in order to retain as much as possible of the feed-
ing property of his grass and clover crops, and thus to
turn to the greatest advantage the annual produce of
his land. Thus he may ask — Is it possible to preserve
these crops in their moist state ? Can I cut them down
and so preserve them undried, as to obtain from them,
for my cattle, an amount of food more nearly equal to
that which the fresh cut grass is capable of affording ?
A method has lately been tried in Germany, which, by
the aid of a little salt, seems in a great measure to attain
this object.

" Pits are dug in the earth, from ten to twelve feet
square and as many deep ; these are lined with wood,
and puddled below and at the sides with clay. They
may obviously be made of any other suitable dimensions,
and may be lined with brick.

" Into this pit the green crop of grass, clover, or
vetches, is put just as it is cut. Four or five cwts. are
introduced at a time, sprinkled with salt, at the rate of
one pound to each cwt., and, if the weather, and con-
sequently the crop, be dry, two or three quarts of water
to each cwt. should be sprinkled over every successive
layer. It is only when rain or a heavy dew has fallen
before mowing that, in East Prussia, this watering is
considered unnecessary.

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 23

"Much, however, must depend on the succulency of
the crop. Each layer of four or five cwts. is spread
evenly over the bottom, is well trodden down by five or
six men, and, especially, is rammed as close as possible
at the sides with the aid of wooden rammers.

" Each layer is thus salted, watered if necessary, and
trodden in succession till the pit is perfectly full.
Much depends upon the perfect treading of the grass
for the exclusion of the air, and, therefore, for a pit of
ten feet square, four cwts. are as much as ought to be
put in for each layer. Between each layer may be
strewed a few handfuls of straw, in order that, when
emptying the pit afterwards for the daily consumption
of the stock, the quantity taken out may be known
without the necessity of a second weighing.

" When the pit is full, the topmost layer is well salted,
the whole then covered with boards, or a well-fitting lid,
and upon these a foot and a half of earth, for the more
perfect exclusion of the air. A pit ten feet square and
as many deep will hold about five tons of fresh grass,
and each pit should, if possible, be filled in not less than
two days.

"When covered up the grass speedily heats and fer-
ments, and after the lapse of about six days, when the
fermentation has ceased, the whole has sunk to about
one-half of its original bulk.

" The lid must be examined during the fermentation,
at least once a day, and the earth, as it sinks, carefully
replaced wherever crevices appear ; for, if the air be
allowed to gain admission, a putrefactive fermentation
will come on, which will impart a disagreeable odor to
the fodder, though it will not prevent it from being
eaten by the stock. When the first fermentation has
ceased, the lid may be removed, the pit again filled with
fresh grass, trodden in, salted, and covered as before.

24 SILOS, ENSILAGE AtfD SILAGE.

A pit ten feet square, when perfectly full of this fer-
mented grass, will contain nearly ten tons — equal to
two or three tons of dry hay.

"The grass, when thus fermented, has the appearance
of having been boiled, has a sharp acid taste, and is
greedily eaten by the cattle. The pits should be kept
covered for, at least, six weeks, after which they may be
opened successively as they are required, and may be
kept open till their contents are consumed by the cattle
without suffering any injury from the contact of the
atmospheric air. Of the feeding qualities of this salted
fodder, one experimenter says that, by giving only
twenty pounds a day of it along with chopped straw, he
kept his cows in condition during the whole winter.
His green crop was vetches, and the twenty pounds of
salted fodder were equal to, or would have made, less
than four pounds of vetch hay.

"Another experimenter says that, on a daily allowance
of twenty-eight pounds of his salted fodder, his cows
gave a rich and well-tasted milk.

" This method of salting and preserving green crops in
their moist state appears to afford an answer to the first
question which is naturally asked when we are told of
the difference in feeding value between the same grass
when first cut and when dried into hay. It is probable
that the fermentation which takes place in the pit may
in some degree diminish the nutritive value of the grass,
but the likelihood which exists that a very large propor-
tion of this value will be retained renders the method
of salting in this manner well worthy the attention of
our more skillful agriculturists. It would greatly ben-
efit both theory and practice also, were careful series of
experiments to be made in different localities, with the
view of determining the true relative value in feeding
stock of the grass of the same field when newly cut, and

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 25

when .salted and preserved in the manner above
described." *

In connection with this paper by Prof. Johnston,
and from its relations to the general system of ensilage
and the economy of cattle foods, the experience of Mr.
Samuel Jonas, of Saffron Walden, England, in the pres-
ervation and feeding of fermented straw chaff, reported
to the Secretary of the Eoyal Agricultural Society in
1869, and published in 1870, f is of particular interest.
He says, " Myself and sons have carried out this system
of storing old chaff to such an extent that we are using
on our occupation (which consists of 4,200 acres of
arable land), seven barns which were previously used
for storing corn."

He uses a 12-horse power engine, which threshes,
cleans and sacks the grain, ready for market, and cuts
the straw into chaff. The chaff is carefully packed in
the barns, and mixed with tares, or rye, cut green and
chaffed, in the proportions of about one cwt. of green
chaff to one ton of straw chaff, and one bu. of salt.
This is done in the spring or summer, and the chaff is
not used until October and the winter months. In con-
clusion, Mr. Jonas says, " I am not stating that straw
chaff can be rendered as valuable as hay chaff for feed-
ing purposes, but that it may, by judicious management,
be made a very important auxiliary to the production of
meat food for our fast increasing population. I agree
with Prof. Voelcker, that the straw used for chaff should
be wheat and oat, for these may be cut without loss in a
far greener state than is generally done."

Dr. Augustus Voelcker made an analysis of this fer-
mented straw chaff, and compares the same with "a

* Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, July/
1843,-March, 1845, pp. 57-61.

t Jour. Roy. Agr'l Society, 1870, p. 119.

26 SILOS, ENSILAGE AXD SILAGE.

sample of well-harvested wheat straw which was neither
under nor over ripe,"* with the following results :

{ FERMENTED WHEAT STRAW-
! STRAW CHAFF.

1.60

1.74

fA-lbum inous compounds

4.19

2 93

Sugar, gum, and other organic com-
pounds soluble in water.

10.16

426

Digestible fibre,

35.74

19.40

Woody fibre (cellulose),

34.54

54.13

Mineral matter (ash),

6.01

4.21

100.00

100.00

tContaiiiing nitrogen, .67 .47

In his remarks on these analyses Dr. Voelcker says,
"The addition of the green stuff causes the straw-chaff
mixture to heat ; the volatile and odoriferous principles
produced by the fermentation are retained by the straw-
chaff, itself undergoing a kind of slow cooking process,
and they impregnate the whole mass with an extremely
pleasant flavour, scarcely inferior to that which charac-
terizes well made hay. " * * * The fermentation

to which the straw is submitted in Mr. Jonas' plan thus
has the effect of rendering the hard and dry substance
which constitutes the bulk of the straw more soluble
and digestible than it is in its natural condition. But
useful as is the effect of the slow and moist heat,
developed in the mixture of straw-chaff with green rye
or cut tares, no doubt is in rendering the fibre of the
chaff more digestible, this is not the only recommenda-
tion of Mr. Jonas' admirable plan of preparing a really
very nutritive and important food for stock.

"Another recommendation is the extremely delicate
flavour and the palatable condition which is conferred
upon the straw in the process of fermentation.

"The prepared straw-chaff, kindly sent by Mr. Jonas,
had all the agreeable smell which characterizes good green
meadow-hay, and a hot infusion with hot water produced

* Jour. Roy. Agr'l Society, 1871, p. 85.

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 27

a liquid which could hardly be distinguished from hay-
tea. * * * By Mr. Jonas' plan straw-chaff is not
merely made more palatable, but, as it is mixed with a
little green food, it undergoes a slow cooking process,
and becomes more digestible, and permeated by a delicate
hay-flavour.

" Thus the most is made both of the green stuff and of
the straw, and an excellent food is produced at a trifling
expense, greatly superior in feeding properties to treacled
ordinary straw-chaff, which costs more money. The
great simplicity of preparing and storing straw-chaff,
and the inexpensiveness of Mr. Jonas' plan, are further
advantages, which all who consume much straw for feed-
ing purposes may secure to themselves.

"The more one looks into this subject, the more one
becomes impressed with the great practical value of Mr.
Jonas' plan of preparing a most useful and nutritious
auxiliary food; and it is much to be desired that this
extremely simple, inexpensive, and in all respects excel-
lent plan of dealing with straw for feeding purposes may
be spread throughout the length and breadth of the
country. "

In this review of the rise and progress of the use of
fermented fodder, attention should here be called to the
system of feeding pulped roots with hay or straw-chaff,
which was extensively practiced in Great Britain from
about the year 1855, as it practically provided, for winter
feeding, a supply of succulent food which had many of
the advantages obtained in the modern system of ensi-
lage, and probably suggested to Mr. Jonas the method of
preserving and utilizing straw-chaff by the addition of
green clover and rye, which furnished the conditions
required for the melioration of the food by the process of
fermentation.

At the suggestion of Mr. Charles Lawrence, the Eoyal
Agricultural Society of England offered a prize of three

28 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

sovereigns "for the best machine to reduce roots to a
pulp, " which brought out but a single machine for the
purpose at the Lincoln meeting in 1854. At the Chester
meeting in 18£8, "In the class of machines for pulping
or grating roots, there were no less than twenty-three
exhibitors, indicating that this description of machine is
not only highly approved, but is steadily increasing in
public favor. " *

In 1859 a manufacturer of pulping machines published
a pamphlet giving the experience of over 400 farmers in
feeding pulped roots, in England, Scotland, and Ireland.
In most of these reports the new method of feeding is
praised in enthusiastic terms, and they resemble in their
claims the modern testimonials in regard to ensilage,
particularly as to the larger number of cattle that can be
kept under this system of feeding.

As the root crop held an important place in British
farm practice, the pulping process was at first adopted
with the sole purpose of securing a better economy in the
feeding of roots, but it was soon observed that this was
one of the least advantages of the system, as the chaffed
hay and straw, or other coarse fodder, were improved in
feeding value, by the fermentation that took place when
mixed with pulped roots. In a supplement to an article
" On Pulping roots for Cattle food, " f the editor of the
Journal says, "Statements of experience have been
received from many who have adopted the practice of
pulping roots, and they almost universally assert its
economy and advantage. "

From the number of published testimonials we copy
one, as representing a moderate view of the economy
claimed for the system, by the well-known writer, and
breeder of Hereford cattle, Mr. T. Duckbam, Baysham
Court, Herefordshire, who says: "The advantages of

* Jour. Hoy. Agr'l Soc. 1858, p. 339.
t Jour. Roy. Agr'l Soc., 1859, p. 458.

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 29

pulping roots for cattle are — 1 st, economy of food ; for
the roots being pulped and mixed with the chaff either
from threshing or cut hay or straw, the whole is con-
sumed without waste, the animals not being able to
separate the chaff from the pulped roots, as is the case
when the roots are merely sliced by the common cutter ;
neither do they waste the fodder as when given without
being cut.

"2nd. The use of ordinary hay or straw, after being
mixed with the pulp for about twelve hours, fermenta-
tion commences ; and this soon renders the most mouldy
hay palatable, and animals eat with avidity that which
they would otherwise reject.

"This fermentation softens the straw, makes it more
palatable, and puts it in a state to assimilate more
readily with the other food ; in this respect I think the
pulper of great value, particularly upon corn farms where
large crops of straw are grown, and where there is a
limited acreage of pasture, as by its use the pastures
may be grazed, the expensive process of hay making
reduced, and consequently an increased number of cattle
kept. I keep one-third more, giving the young stock a
small quantity of oil-cake, which I mix with the chaff,
etc.

"3d. Choking is utterly impossible, and I have only
had one case of hove in three years, and that occurred
when the mixture had not been fermented.

"4th. There is an advantage in mixing the meal with
the chaff and pulped roots for fatting animals, as thereby
they cannot separate it, and the moisture from the
fermentation softens the meal and insures its thorough
digestion ; whereas, when given in a dry state without
any mixture, frequently a great portion passes away in
the manure. "*

The usual practice was to put a layer of chaffed hay or

* Jour. Roy. Agr'l Soc., 1859, p. 463.

30 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

straw, or other coarse fodder, about eight to ten inches
thick, on the floor of a room of convenient size (10 by 12
to 16 ft.), and cover this with a layer of pulped roots,
then another layer of chaff, followed again by the pulped
roots, and so on, with alternate layers until the mass
was four or five feet deep. Each layer of chaff was care-
fully packed, so that the corners were well filled, and the
thickness of the layer of roots was regulated by the sup-
ply at command for the season.

The whole was allowed to remain from twenty-four to
forty-eight hours before feeding, when the mass was
found to be thoroughly heated, and the chaff softened
from the moisture, and mild cooking process. *

In tracing the history of ensilage, it appears that in
Germany, previous to 1842, the preservation of green
fodder in underground silos had been developed into a
system, which, in its methods and results, compares
favorably with the average practice of the present time.

The silos were lined with wood, or other materials,
and the thorough packing of the fodder, the close-fitting
cover of boards, and the final weighting of the mass with
eighteen inches of earth, were looked upon as the best
conditions for securing the desired result.

It cannot with reason be assumed that this well
developed system sprung into existence at once, with its
many well-planned, practical details, and we cannot
avoid the conclusion that it was preceded by ruder
methods and successive steps of improvement, extending
over a number of years.

In England we also find that fermented fodder had

* In July, 1868, 1 imported a root pulper from England for the Michigan Agri-
cultural College, and the system of feeding pulped turnips (Swedes), with chaffed
straw, cornstalks, and hay, w is practiced with the most satisfactory results.
As our crop of turnips averaged twenty-five acres each year, our experience was
on a sufficient scale to fully demonstrate the great economy of the system when
roots are grown to any extent for feeding cattle. The pulping system has been
quite extensively practiced by a number of Canadian farmers of my acquaint-
ance, and they were all well pleased wi Jti it.

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 31

been used on an extensive scale, in the form of a mixture
of green food and chaffed hay or straw as early as 1855,
and that for several years previous to 1869 it had been
successfully preserved for winter feeding under essentially
the same conditions that are now prescribed in the prac-
tice of ensilage.

We have, then, conclusive evidence that green fodder
had been successfully used for winter feeding, and the
practical principles involved in the process of preserving
it in silos had been demonstrated long before the system
was introduced into France (1870), where it received a
new nomenclature, and was brought to the attention of
farmers of other countries.

In France the ensilage of fodder passed rapidly through
a series of experimental stages, which, although fully
recorded in the French agricultural papers of the day,
have been almost entirely ignored by American writers
who attempted to give an account of the origin and
history of the process.

"In 1867, Count Roederer, a well-known agriculturist
and breeder of thorough-bred horses, living at Bois-
Roussel, in the Department of the Orne, began to pre-
serve green maize in silos for winter use by chopping it
and mixing it with cut straw and oat cavings, "* which
in effect was the method practiced by Mr. Jonas, in Eng-
land, at the same time, to which we have called attention,
the green maize in France taking the place of green rye
and tares in England, as a complementary adjunct of the
straw-chaff.

The credit of priority in the ensilage of maize, which
gave rise to the present system of practice, must undoubt-
edly be awarded to Herr Adolph Reihlen, a sugar manu-
facturer and refiner, of Stuttgardt, who demonstrated the
economy of the process by the ensilage of beet leaves, beet

* This practice was described in a letter of June 18th, 1870, published in the
" Journal d'agriculture progressive " the following week. See Jour. Roy. Agr'l
Soc., 1884, p. 136.

32 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

root pulp, and maize, on an extensive scale. The beet
leaves from a crop of 400 acres were preserved in a dozen
silos, and the beet root pulp from his large sugar factory
had been stored for winter feeding, in the same way.
He had lived for a number of years in the United States,
and on his return to Germany began the cultivation of
the large dent corn (mais dent de cheval). As this
" giant maize" did not always ripen in the climate of
Stuttgardt, he became interested in utilizing it as a for-
age crop when the season was too short for the grain to
mature.

The first account of his experience was in a letter pub-
lished in a German paper in 1862, and he gave further
details in another letter to the same paper, dated Sep-
tember 23d, 1865. These letters were translated and
published in the Journal d'agriculture Pratique in 1870,
forming part of a series of articles on the ensilage of
green fodder, by M. Vilmorin-Andrieux, who called the
attention of the farmers of France to the advantages of
this method of preserving fodder, in connection with the
growing of forage crops, as a remedy for the effects of
the prevailing severe drought of that year. *

From these papers it appears that M. Eeihlen was
familiar with the sour hay process of Germany, and that
his success in the ensilage of beet leaves, and beet root
pulp, for a number of years, led him to try the same
method with maize, in various stages of ripeness, with
stalks and ears together, and separately, and also mixed
with beet root pulp.

The results obtained in these different methods were
satisfactory, but he was so well pleased with the ensilage
of maize, by itself, that he increased the area of corn

* It is a matter of interest, in the history of ensilage, that the severe drought of
1870 had much to do with the rapid progress of the system in France from that
time to the present, while in England the introduction and diffusion of the prac-
tice was owing to "a succession of wet seasons, which had rendered hay making
almost impossible in some localities." Jenkins, in Jour. Eoy. Agr'l Soc., 1884,
p. 136.

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 33

grown, and in 1870, we are informed by M. Vilmorin-
Andrieux, his silos of maize forage (10 feet deep, and 15
feet wide at the top, and slightly narrower at the bot-
tom), which he filled every year, had an aggregate length
of over 3200 feet, and they all turned out remarkably
well.

Having in view the value of the grain, M. Reihlen's
practice was to allow the corn to stand until the ears
matured, when they were harvested and stored, and the
stalks were cut up and placed in the silo. If, however,
the season was unfavorable, the corn was cut up before
it matured, and the green ears went with the stalks into
the silo. In defense of this practice, M. Keihlen
remarks, that, after fermentation in the silo, he found that
the stalks that were allowed to mature their ears were
excellent feed, that were relished by cattle, and he con-
siders them but little inferior to the green stalks, with
their attached ears, treated in the same manner. ^

In a communication to the Country Gentleman in
1876, * I gave the following account of his first experi-
ment in the ensilage of maize: " Some twenty years ago
M. Adolf Reihlen, the owner of a sugar factory near
Stuttgardt, Germany, had a quantity of Indian corn
injured by an early frost, so that he was unable to use
it, as intended, for soiling purposes. Wishing to pre-
serve it, as nearly as possible in the green state, he dug
trenches, in which the stalks were placed and covered
with a layer of soil, in the same manner that potatoes
and other root crops are buried for winter in this coun-
try. On opening the trenches, after several months, the
corn stalks were found to be well preserved, having
passed through the first stage of fermentation without
any marked change in color, and with a peculiar, though
not disagreeable odor.

"As this preserved fodder was readily eaten by his cat-

*Co. Gent., 1876, p. 627.

3

34 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

tie, M. Eeihlen was so well pleased with his experiment
that he has continued the same system to the present
time." In the same article, as examples of the best
practice in France, and illustrating the change from
earth pits to silos of masonry, I likewise gave the expe-
rience of two farmers, as follows : " M. Ore vat says,
encouraged by the success of M. Moreul,* I prepared, in
1872, three pits in a good soil, with a gravel subsoil, of
the following dimensions, in round numbers : Length
at top, 26 feet ; at bottom, 22 feet ; width at top, 10
feet ; at bottom, 6 1-2 feet ; depth, 6 1-2 feet. Sep-
tember 12th, 13th and 14th filled the pits successively
with corn fodder (geant mais), 6 1-2 to 10 feet high.
The corn was harvested and left in bundles two or three
days in a hot sun.

"The stalks were packed in the pits lengthwise, with
care, in layers 6 to 8 inches in thickness, with salt at
the rate of 73 pounds to each pit. On account of the
scarcity of workmen two days were required to fill each
pit. In the afternoon filled to the level of the soil, and
next morning heaped above to the height of 6 or 7
feet, covering with soil in the afternoon following, to
the depth of about 2 feet.

" The first week the settling of the heaps was great
(at least 6 feet), when they were again covered with
earth to protect them from the rain, and then left with-
out other protection. April 15, 1873, a pit was opened.
The corn was perfectly preserved, of a yellowish color,
and of a peculiar but not disagreeable odor.

"A thickness of 1 to 2 inches of the outside was black
and rotted. In 3 or 4 days 24 head of cattle became
accustomed to the feed, and ate it readily ; so that at
the end of 8 days they had consumed at the rate of 880
pounds per day.

* We should not fall to notice M. Moreul, of Gri^nonniere, as the pioneer of the
new system in France, as he made his first silo in 1870, and continued the prac
tice with success, as shown in reports to the Journal d'Agriculture Pratique.

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 35

" The second silo (pit) was fed after the first, lasting
until July 31st, when green corn was substituted. The
third silo (pit) was not opened until April 20, 1874,
when the interior was perfectly good, but a greater
thickness of the outside was spoiled."

"After this experience M. Ore vat made pits of ma-
sonry of the following dimensions : Length, 26 feet at
top, 24 feet at bottom ; width, 8 1-2 feet at top, 6 1-2
feet at bottom ; depth, 7 1-2 feet, — thus diminishing
the width and increasing the depth, to save labor in the
covering and uncovering of earth, and securing more
completely the exclusion of the atmosphere.

" M. Ore vat thinks it is not necessary to fill the pits in
a single day, and prefers to dry the fodder from two to
three days before putting in the pit. He does not
believe that it pays to cut the stalks, and thinks the
mixing with straw, as practiced by many persons, is
unnecessary. He feeds green stalks from the field from
July 20 to Oct. 20, and the stalks secured in the stooks
from Oct. 20, to Jan. 20, following with the fermented
fodder to July 20, when green stalks are again used."

" M. Houette has raised Indian corn for fodder for 10
years, and has practiced the system of ensilage for 4
years. On account of a wet soil, the earth silos were
abandoned and silos of masonry were made, consisting
of three parallel walls with ends, forming 2 silos 16 feet
wide, 9 feet high, and 138 feet long ; prefers to cut the
stalks before putting in the silo ; uses salt at the rate
of 4 kilogrammes of rock salt to 1,000 kilos, of cut
stalks, which is equal to about 8 3-4 Ibs. of salt to 2,200
Ibs. of stalks. He estimates the cost of harvesting,
handling, cutting and placing in silo, and covering with
earth, at 2 francs per 1,000 kilogrammes (2,200 Ibs.),
besides coal burned in engine. He says the maize thus
preserved is fed until the end of May, without any alter-
ation from fermentation beyond that taking place dur-

36 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

ing the two or three days after .being put in pit, and he
has kept it even to the end of July without any change.
The maize should be as nearly as possible to maturity
before it is cut for ensilage. When fermented, the ani-
mals eat it as readily as when green."

Many similar statements of success in the ensilage of
maize may be found in the agricultural papers of France
previous to 1876, but these are sufficient to show that
the system of M. Reihlen, as described by M. Vilmorin-
Andrieux in 1870, was at once received with favor by
the French farmers, and practically adopted on an ex-
tensive scale.

In 1877, M. Auguste Goffart, a gentleman farmer of
France, published his book on Ensilage, which was
translated and published in New York in the winter of
1878-9. As this translation had a wide circulation,
some 2,000 copies having been sold and given away, it
has generally been accepted as the standard authority on
the subject, and it has been repeatedly claimed that M.
Goffart was the inventor of the system which he so
enthusiastically advocates. There is, however, nothing
new in M. Goffart's methods, as the ensilage of maize
had been extensively practiced in France and Germany
for several years before the publication of his book, and
a number of farmers in France were practically familiar
with ensilage, at least two or three years previous to his
first successful experiment.* The honors conferred on

*In a note to his article already referred to Mr. Jenkins says: "Most English
writers on ensilage during the last two years, have followed several American
authors in saying that M. GofEart made his first experiment on ensilage with
Indian corn, in 1852. This is a mistake. What M. Goffart says is, that in 1852
he began to study, practically, the important problem of the preservation of
forage (' C'est ct, probleme de la conservation des fourrages'). He also states (p. 185,
4th edition), that until 1873 he had scarcely believed in the possibility of pre-
serving green maize, but in that year he was very successful, chiefly by accident,
vtnd he gives (p. 186) the following statement of what he heard his foreman say
to the workpeople: ' M Goffart noun fait fairs la une sotte besoine; il ferait bien
mieiix de jettr, tout de suite, sou mai's sur la fumier, il fandra tonjours qu' il finisse
par la.'" Jour. Roy. Agr'l Soc , 1884=, p. 135. " This work that we are doing is
all foolishness; M. Goffart had better throw his maize into the dung heap at once,
because that is where it will go at last." Brown's Translation of Goffart, p. 42.

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 37

M. Goffart by agricultural societies in France, and by
the government, were in recognition of his services in
popularizing and extending the practice of ensilage, and
not, as has been claimed, for the discovery that green
maize could be practically preserved in silos.

From the prominence given by M. Goffart to his
expensive silos of masonry, and the heavy weighting of
the silage, these were claimed by his followers as the
distinctive features of his system, and they came to be
quite generally looked upon as the essential conditions
of success in the practice of ensilage. As silos of wood
have many advantages over the more expensive struc-
tures of masonry, and the weighting of the silage has
been found unnecessary, the question may fairly be
raised whether the methods of M. Goffart have led to
any real improvements in the practice of ensilage, aside
from the wider advertising of this method of preserving
green fodder, that may be attributed to the extended
circulation of his book.

The many favorable reports in regard tcf the ensilage
of maize by the farmers of France, led me, in 1875, to
make experiments in the ensilage of corn fodder, in two
silos 12 feet long, and 6 feet wide, and with two similar
silos of broom-corn seed, with the most satisfactory
results. *

Mr. Francis Morris, of Maryland, made a silo in 1876,
and the results of his experience were published in 1877.
A number of silos were built in the United States within
the next three or four years, nearly all of which were
widely advertised in the agricultural press. After this
time the practice was rapidly extended, and silos are
now found in almost every state arid territory.

In July, 1882, the Department of Agriculture at
Washington published a report on ensilage, which con-
tained statements of the experience of 91 persons dis-

* Co. Gent. Oct. 5, 1876, pp. 627-8.

38 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

tributed as follows : Maine 4, New Hampshire 2, Ver-
mont 11, Massachusetts 28, Khode Island 1, Connecticut
5, New York 21, New Jersey 5, Maryland 2, Virginia 2,
Kentucky 1, Tennessee 1, North Carolina 1, Wisconsin
3, Iowa 1, Nebraska 1, Canada 2, — but even at that
time there were undoubtedly many silos in the country
that were not included in this enumeration. The capac-
ity of the silos reported vary from about 8 to 500 tons
each.

Unfortunately, some of the first champions of the
new system of ensilage made such extravagant claims,
for advertising purposes, in regard to its advantages,
ignoring the established principles of farm economy,
and urging the ensilage of green fodder as the only thing
needed to establish a golden age of agriculture, that
practical farmers were not disposed to adopt it, as they
could not readily perceive the substratum of truth under-
lying the many assertions that were obviously fallacious.
As the real facts came to be better known the ensilage
of fodder-corn was rapidly extended, and there are now
few localities in which the silo is not a familiar append-
age of the farm that must soon find it3 proper place in
a consistent system of farm management.

As an adjunct or supplement to the ordinary methods
of practice, the ensilage of green fodder for winter feed-
ing, or to augment the scanty supply of feed during a
prevailing drought, will undoubtedly be fully appre-
ciated by intelligent farmers who wish to take advantage
of every available resource of production, but it cannot
be safely recommended as the only element required to
insure success in the complex business of farming.

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 39

CHAPTER IV.

FERMENTATION.

In the ensilage of green fodder, as in the allied sys-
tems of preparing cattle feed, to which we have called
attention, various kinds of fermentation take place, to
a greater or less extent, which have an influence on the
quality and feeding value of the silage, and from a prac-
tical stand-point it becomes a matter of the first import-
ance that the causes and conditions involved in these
changes in the constitution of the preserved fodder are
clearly apprehended. The vague and incorrect popular
notions that prevail in regard to the processes of fer-
mentation and putrefaction lead to errors in practice,
from a false interpretation of the results obtained.

In the first attempts to preserve green fodder in pits,
and even in the storing of grain, it was naturally assumed
that the air was the sole cause of putrefaction and decay,
and that the exclusion of the air was the essential condi-
tion for the preservation of articles of food that were
observed to decay when exposed to ordinary atmospheric
conditions.

This empirical assumption was not only a plausible
explanation of the observed facts, but it was apparently
confirmed by the earlier investigations of science relating
to the phenomena of fermentation. Gay-Lussac proved
that "perfectly pure grape juice does not ferment unless
the process has been started by at least temporary con-
tact with ordinary air."*

It was found that the solid particles of yeast, a well-
known active ferment, could be separated from the
liquid in which they were diffused, and Liebig claimed

* Encycl. Brit. 9th Ed., vol. IX, p. 94.

40 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

that fermentation was excited by " the soluble part of
ferment/' and he says, however, "but before it obtains
this power, the decanted infusion must be allowed to
cool in contact with the air, and to remain some time
exposed to its action. When introduced into a solution
of sugar, in this state, it produces a brisk fermentation ;
but without previous exposure to the air it manifests no
such property. The infusion absorbs oxygen during its
exposure to the air, and carbonic acid may be found in
it after a short time. Yeast produces fermentation in
consequence of the progressive decomposition which it
suffers from the action of air and water."*

As in the experiments of Gay-Lussac, the facts are
correctly stated, but in explaining them the mistake is
made of attributing to the air, and its oxygen, the effects
produced by the germs of ferments floating in the air,
which were so minute as to escape attention. But some-
thing further was needed to round out his hypothesis,
and in 1848 Liebig published a theory of fermentation,
which was substantially a revival of that of Willis (1659),
and Stahl (1697), and a modification of his earlier views.

It was simply that "yeast, and in general, all animal
and vegetable matters in a state of putrefaction, will
communicate to other bodies the conditions of decompo-
sition in which they are themselves placed ; the motion
which is given to their own elements by the disturbance
of equilibrium is also communicated to the elements of
the bodies which come in contact with them." f

This theory was generally accepted by chemists as a
satisfactory explanation of the phenomena of fermenta-
tion, but in its applications it seems to have been inter-
preted in accordance with the earlier views of Liebig,
from the frequent references to oxygen as an active

* Chemistry in its applications to Agriculture and Physiology, 184=2. N. Y. Ed.,
p. 46.

tAs quoted in Schutzenberger "On Fermentation," p. 40. See also article
Fermentation, Encycl. Brit., 9th Ed., vol. IX, p. 94.

SILOS, ENSILAGE AHD SILAGE. 41

agent in the changes taking place in all processes of fer-
mentation and decay. What are now known to be the
essential factors of fermentation and putrefaction were
entirely ignored by Liebig ; and yet his theories were
unquestioned for many years, and even now their influ-
ence is apparent in the popular literature of agricultural
science, notwithstanding the repeated disproof of the
assumptions on which the theory was based, by the
results of direct experiments, beginning in 1838 and
continued to the present time.

More than twenty-five years ago, Pasteur verified the
results obtained by previous investigations, and supple-
mented the work by a masterly series of researches
which proved conclusively that fermentation was a
biological process, the result of the vital activities of
living organisms.

If real progress is made in our knowledge of the com-
plex changes involved in the ensilage of green fodder,
the biological theory of fermentation, which can no
longer be consistently questioned, must be accepted as
the only safe guide in experimentation, and the obsolete
theories of Liebig, that were based on assumed data,
must be entirely discarded.

A brief historical summary of the progress of discovery
will enable us to form a correct estimate of the present
conditions of science relating to the subject, and lead to
a recognition of the real significance of the biological
factors of fermentation.

Iii 1680 the Dutch naturalist, Leuwenhoek, with
lenses made by himself, examined yeast and found it
was composed of minute granules, the real nature of
which he was unable to determine.

Fabroni, of Florence, in 1787 again noticed the gran-
ules of yeast, which he looked upon as a "vegeto-ani-
mal" substance, and a further step in advance was made
by Astier in 1813, who claimed that the yeast granules

42 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

were living organisms that derived their nourishment
from sugar and thus produced the phenomena of fer-
mentation. This was in effect the first announcement
of the true theory of fermentation, but from the prom-
inence given to the popular chemical hypothesis, it was
soon overlooked and forgotten.

In 1838 Cagniard de la Tour (who was afterwards
elected to succeed Gay-Lussac in the Paris Academy of
sciences) re-discovered the yeast granules of Leuwen-
hoek, and found them to be minute plants that were
multiplied by a process of budding, and these he claimed,
in the processes of their nutrition, were the cause of fer-
mentation, as had been asserted by Astier twenty-five
years before. " The chemists, with Berzelius and Liebig
at their head, at first lauged this idea to scorn,"* but
Schultze and Schwann, about the same time (1836-8),
by the simple device of passing air through red-hot
tubes, or through sulphuric acid, to destroy any organic
germs associated with it, without altering its proportion
of oxygen, proved that it did not excite fermentation
when introduced into infusions of fermentable materials
that had previously been boiled, which was of course
fatal to that part of the chemical theory of fermentation
which made oxygen an active agent in the process.

Helmholtz, in 1843, was equally successful in demon-
strating the fact that the liquids or the gases of ferment-
ing materials had no power to excite fermentation. He
separated putrescent and fermenting liquids from putres-
cible and fermentable materials b} a simple membrane
which allowed the fluids and gases to pass through it by
osmosis, but did not permit the transfer of the solid par-
ticles from one side to the other. As the process of fer-
mentation or putrefaction, under these conditions, was
confined to one side of the membrane, it is evident that
the cause of fermentation was something that could not

* Huxley, British Association Address, 1870, Nature, 11, 402.

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 43

pass through the membrane, and that the liquids and
gases were entirely inert.

Another assumption of Liebig's theory was thus dis-
proved by direct experimental evidence, and in the con-
troversy which was carried on for many years, we find
repeatedly enacted what Prof. Huxley terms "the
great tragedy of science — the slaying of a beautiful
hypothesis by an ugly fact."

These experiments, which in themselves appear to be
a conclusive refutation of the chemical theory, were
fully corroborated by the investigations of Schroeder
and Dusch in 1854, which were conducted on an entirely
different plan. They found that liquids which were
particularly liable to take on putrefactive or fermenta-
tive changes, were preserved indefinitely (after boiling,
to destroy all contained germs), when freely exposed to
air that had been filtered through cotton wool. As no
change in the composition of the air could be produced
by this process of filtration, aside from the removal of
the solid particles floating in it, these last must contain
the efficient causes of fermentation and putrefaction.

The chemists, however, continued to ignore this accu-
mulation of evidence, which was in direct conflict with
Liebig's theory, and it remained for Tyndall and Pasteur
to clear up all possible doubts, and establish the biolog-
ical theory of fermentation by a series of experiments
that are unsurpassed in the history of science, for the
accuracy and skill with which they were planned and
conducted to answer all objections that had been raised,
and avoid all possible elements of error.

Instead of filtering air through cotton, as in the exper-
iments of Schroeder and Dusch, another method of puri-
fying it was adopted by Tyndall with quite as satisfac-
tory results. "A chamber, or case, was constructed
with a glass front, its top, bottom, back and sides being
of wood. At the back is a little door which opens and

44

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

closes on hinges, while into the sides are inserted two
panes of glass facing each other. The top is perforated
in the middle by a hole 2 inches in diameter, closed air
tight by a sheet of India rubber. This sheet is pierced
in the middle by a pin, and through the pin-hole is
passed the shank of a long pipette, ending above in a
small funnel. A circular tin collar, 2 inches in diam-
eter and 1 1-2 inches deep, surrounds the pipette, the
space between both being packed with cotton wool
moistened with glycerine. Thus the pipette, in moving
tip and down, is not only firmly clasped by the India-

rubber, but it also passes
through a stuffing-box of
sticky cotton-wool. The
width of the aperture
closed by the India-rubber
secures the free lateral play
of the lower end of the
k pipette. Into two other
smaller apertures in the
top of the chamber are in-
serted, air-tight, the open
ends of two narrow tubes,
intended to connect the
interior space with the at-
mospheric. The tubes are
bent several times up and
down, so as to intercept
and retain the particles car-

by Such feeble CUr-

sterilized putresciWe solutions to the air j. Q phancrPQ of fpTYl-

without producing putrefaction."

perature might cause to set in between the outer and the
inner air.

" The bottom of the box is pierced with two rows of
holes, six in a row, in which are fixed, air-tight, twelve

* " Floating Matter of tlie Air," p. 132. D. Appleton and Co.

FIG 3>

"Tyndall's closed chamber for exposing ried

SILOS, EKSILAGE AND SILAGE. 45

test tubes, intended to contain the liquid to be exposed
to the action of the moteless air.

" The arrangement is represented in Fig. 3, where w w
are the side windows (through which a searching beam
passes from a lamp I across the case) ; p is the pipette,
and a, I, are the bent tubes connecting the inner and
outer air. The test tubes passing through the bottom
of the case are seen below.

" On the 10th of September, 1875, this case was
closed. The passage of a concentrated beam across it
through its two side windows then showed the air within
it to be laden with floating matter.

" On the 13th it was again examined. Before the
beam entered, and after it quitted the case, its track was
vivid in the air, but within the case it vanished. Three
days of quiet had sufficed to cause all the floating mat-
ter to be deposited on the interior surfaces, where it was
retained by a coating of glycerine, with which these sur-
faces had been purposely varnished."*

After the air was thus purified by the subsidence of
the floating particles with which it was contaminated,
the test tubes were partly filled through the pipette,
with a variety of solutions that were readily acted upon
by the micro-organisms of putrefaction, as dilute infu-
sions of beef and mutton broth, urine, and of different
vegetables, as turnips, cucumbers, etc., and these were
sterilized by dipping the test tubes that project below
the bottom of the case, in a bath of boiling brine for
five minutes. It will be seen that these putrescible
materials in the test tubes were in immediate contact
with the purified air of the chamber, which freely com-
municated with the external atmosphere through the
bent tubes at the top of the case.

Under these conditions the contents of the test tubes
were kept for months without undergoing any change.

* " Floating Matter of the Air," pp. 49-51.

46

SILOS, EKSILAGE A^D SILAGE.

"In up wards of fifty chambers thus constructed, many
of them used more than once, it was, without exception,
proved that a sterilized infusion in contact with air
shown to be self-cleansed by the luminous beam, re-
mained sterile. Never, in a single unexplained instance,
did such an infusion show any signs of life. That the
observed sterility was not due to any lack of nutritive
power in the infusion was proved by opening the back
door and permitting the unclean sed air to enter the
chamber. The contact of the floating matter with the
infusions was invariably followed
by the development of life."*

The organisms which cause pu-
trefaction were as readily removed
from the air by the simple process
of subsidence, as by nitration
through cotton, or by passing
through a red-hot tube, or through
sulphuric acid. Pasteur practiced
a still different method, that en-
abled him to separate the differ-
ent organisms concerned in fer-
mentation and putrefaction, and
cultivate them as "pure breeds"
for many generations, and thus FIG

determine the Specific physiologi- tone of Pasteur's culture flasks,

cal action of each species. ^^1^°^^

By means of small glass flasks of different forms, to
isolate the different ferments, he proved that each spe-
cies produced a particular form of fermentation, as the
alcoholic, the lactic, the butyric, the acetic and the
putrefactive, and this, he claimed, was the result of
their vital activities in the processes of nutrition.

Like all living beings, the micro-organisms of fer-

* Tyndall, 1. c. p. 133.

t " Studies on Fermentation," p. 241. Macmillan & Co., N. Y.

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 47

mentation require certain conditions of temperature,
moisture and food supply, for the normal exercise of
their vital activities ; and each species needs some spe-
cial adjustment of these conditions to furnish it the best
facilities for carrying on its processes of nutrition and
reproduction, and give it the advantage, in the struggle
for existence with other species.

The living organisms of fermentation must not, how-
ever, be looked upon as engaged in the direct manufac-
ture of some special product that characterizes the kind
of fermentation with which they are associated. Beer
yeast, for example, is not directly engaged in making
alcohol, and the lactic ferment is not directly engaged
in making lactic acid, although alcohol and lactic acid
are, respectively, the dominant products resulting from
the exercise of th?ir physiological activities, when they
are provided with the food that is best adapted to their
wants. The fermentable materials constitute their food
supply, from which they take what is needed for their
nutrition, and the resulting residue we recognize as the
product of fermentation.

When beer yeast feeds on sugar it leaves alcohol as a
prominent constituent of the residue, which, as a whole,
will of course vary with the other materials associated
with the sugar ; the lactic ferment feeds on milk, and
leaves lactic acid as a characteristic constituent of the
residue, and the same may be said of each specific fer-
ment, that it appropriates from its food what is needed
for its nourishment, and the remains of the feast will
vary with the character of the food and the organism
that fed upon it.

The chemical notions of fermentation, the legitimate
consequence of Liebig's theory, were, that the saccharine,
alcoholic, acetic, lactic, butyric and putrefactive fer-
mentations were successive stages of a consecutive series
of changes tending to putrefaction as a final result, and

48 SILOS, ENSILAGE AKD SILAGEo

each fermentation was expressed by a chemical formula,
or equation, indicating the supposed rearrangement of
the elements involved in the process.

In regard to these equations Pasteur says : " Orig-
inally, when fermentations were put amongst the class
of decompositions by contact-action, it seemed probable,
and, in fact, was believed, that every fermentation had
its own >\ ell-defined equation, which never varied. In
the present day, on the contrary, it must be borne in
mind that the equation of a fermentation varies essen-
tially with the conditions under which that fermentation
is accomplished, and that a statement of this equation
is a problem no less complicated than that in the case
of the nutrition of a living being. To every fermenta-
tion may be assigned an equation, in a general sort of a
way ; an equation, however, which, in numerous points
of detail, is liable to the thousand variations connected
with the phenomena of life.

"Moreover, there will be as many distinct fermenta-
tions brought about by one ferment, as there are ferment-
able substances capable of supplying the carbon element
of the food of that same ferment, in the same way that
the equation of the nutrition of an animal will vary
with the nature of the food which it consumes.

"As regards fermentation producing alcohol, which
may be effected by several different ferments, there will
be, in the case of a given sugar, as many general equa-
tions as there are ferments, whether they be ferment-
cells, properly so called, or cells of the organs of living
beings functioning as ferments. In the same way the
equation of nutrition varies in the case of different ani-
mals nourished on the same food. And it is from the
same reason that ordinary wort produces such a variety
of beers when treated with the numerous alcoholic fer-
ments which we have described. These remarks are
applicable to all ferments alike ; for instance, butyric

SILOS, EXSILAGE AND SILAGE. 49

ferment is capable of producing a host of distinct fer-
mentations, in consequence of its ability to derive the
carbonaceous part of its food from very different sub-
stances, from sugar, or lactic acid, or glycerine, or man-
nite, and many others.

" When we say that every fermentation has its own
peculiar ferment, it must be understood that we are
speaking of the fermentation considered as a whole, in-
cluding all the accessory products.

" We do not mean to imply that the ferment in ques-
tion is not capable of acting on some other fermentable
substance and giving rise to fermentation of a very dif-
ferent kind.

"Moreover, it is quite erroneous to suppose that the
presence of a single one of the products of a fermenta-
tion implies the co-existence of a particular ferment.
If, for example, we find alcohol among the products of
a fermentation, or even alcohol and carbonic acid gas
together, this does not prove that the ferment must be
an alcoholic ferment, belonging to alcoholic fermentation
in the strict sense of the term. Nor again, does the
mere presence of lactic acid necessarily imply the pres-
ence of lactic ferment. As a matter of fact, differ-
ent fermentations may give rise to one, or even several,
identical products."*

The products of fermentation will then vary with
the character of the materials fermented and the
specific organism that acts upon them. In accept
ing the physiological theory of fermentation it will
not be safe to assume that specific micro-organisms are
the sole factors involved in the process. As a pre-
liminary step, starch must be changed to sugar, and
cane sugar must be transformed into grape sugar ; that
is to say, the true organized ferments cannot act directly
on starch or cane sugar. This change is brought about
by zymases, the so-called soluble ferments.

4.

* Studies on Fermentation, pp. 276-7.

50 SILOS, ENSILAGE AKD SILAGE.

These "soluble ferments are all derived directly from
living organisms, in the midst of which they originate/'*
but they must not be confounded with the true, or organ-
ized ferments which act in a different manner.

These zymases appear to be important factors in the
processes of assimilation and nutrition in all forms of
vegetable and animal life.

The starch formed in the green cells of the leaf in
daylight is transformed into glucose (grape sugar) at
night, and transferred to the body of the plant, where
it is stored in the form of starch or cane sugar, as reserve
materials for the future use of the plant. In the tuber-
ous roots of beets, and in the stalks of the sugar cane
and sorghum, for example, cane sugar is stored in con-
siderable quantities, as reserve material, and starch, in
the same way, is stored in the tubers of the potato.
When needed again they are reconverted into glucose,
by a zymase, elaborated by the living cells of the plant,
and transported again where they can serve a useful pur-
pose in its economy.

The salivary and pancreatic glands of the higher ani-
mals secrete zymases which convert starch and cane
sugar into glucose, that is stored up by the liver in the
form of glycogen, which appears to be reconverted into
glucose, and distributed through the general circulation
as the exigences of the system require. The gastric and
pancreatic secretions likewise contain soluble ferments
that convert insoluble proteids into soluble and diffusible
peptones, and even in plants peptonizing ferments are
secreted by the cells to serve a similar purpose. It like-
wise appears that the elaboration of soluble ferments in
animals is not confined to the special glandular organs of
secretion, but the general tissues of the system, as in
plants, are to a greater or less extent concerned in per-
forming the same function. It may, in fact, be said

* Schutzenberger on Fermentation, p. 273.

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 51

that the cells of all living tissues, whether of plants or
animals, in the exercise of their vital activities elaborate
zymases as required in the complex metabolism * of the
processes of nutrition.

The first step in the fermentation of starch and cane
sugar, which is the work of a soluble ferment (zymase),
seems to be identical with the first step, of the germina-
tion of seeds, of the transformation of the reserve mater-
ials in the growth of the seed stalk in tuberous roots, and
of animal digestion.

In these nutritive processes of plants and animals,
heat is liberated as one of the constant results of the
metabolism of the cells in the exercise of their vital
activities. The heat developed by plants, as an incident
of their nutritive processes, is not noticeable under ordi-
nary conditions, as it is obscured by the constant loss of

* Under the old physiological theories many of the changes taking place in the
tissues, or nutritive materials, were erroneously attributed to a process of oxida-
tion. For example, respiration was assumed to be a combustive process of oxida-
tion, in which the carbonic acid exhaled was formed by the direct union of car-
bon with the inhaled oxygen. It is now known that the carbonic acid of respira-
tion is formed in the destructive metamorphoses of the tissues, and not by the
direct combination of oxygen with carbon, as in ordinary combustion. With the
progress of physiological knowledge, oxygen is, more and more, looked upon
as an essential food constituent, required in the constructive processes of the
tissues, and there is no evidence that destructive oxidation, in the ordinary
acceptation of the term, occurs, to any considerable extent, in living organisms.
Metabolism is the term now used to denote the assemblage of vital changes
involved in the processes of nutrition, whether chemical or physical, without
attempting to indicate their precise character, or attributing them to the more
than questionable process of oxidation. "We may picture to ourselves this
total change which we denote by the term 'metabolism,' as consisting on the one
hand of a downward series of changes (katabolic changes), a stair of many steps,
in which more complex bodies are broken down with the setting free of energy
into simpler and simpler waste bodies, and on the other hand, of an upward
series of changes (anabolic changes), also a stair of many steps, by which the
dead food, of varying simplicity or complexity is, with the further assumption
of vital energy, built up into more and more complex bodies. The summit of
this double stair we call 'protoplasm.' Whether we have a right to speak of it as
a single body, in the chemical sense of that word, or as a mixture in some way of
several bodies, whether we should regard it as the very summit of the double
stair, or as embracing, as well, the topmost steps on either side, we cannot, at
present, tell. Even if there be a single substance forming the summit, its exist-
ence is absolutely temporary ; at one instant it is made, at the next it is unmade.
Matter which is passing through the phase of life, rolls up the ascending steps to
the top, and forthwith rolls down on the other side." Foster, Art. Phys. Encycl.
Brit. 9th ed. XIX, p. 13.

52 SILOS, ENSILAGE AKD SILAGE.

heat from evaporation. Under special conditions, where
the loss from evaporation is reduced to a minimum, and
the plants are massed in an atmosphere saturated with
moisture,* the heat evolved becomes sensible and is
readily detected.

In the malting of barley a temperature of 110° has
been observed, and this, too, under conditions that were
not the best to prevent the loss of heat from evaporation
and radiation ; and a thermometer placed in the center
of twelve spadixes of Arum Cordifolium showed a tem-
perature of 121° when the external air was only 66°. f
The heat evolved by these flowers was greatest when the
plants were freely exposed to the air and the exhalation
of carbonic acid was most active. On the other hand,
Dutrochet J found that the evolution of heat in green
growing plants, as in the young twigs and leaves, was
subject to a diurnal variation, and that it was most
active in the middle of the day, when the absorption of
carbonic acid and the exhalation of oxygen was going on
with the greatest rapidity. From these statements it
appears that heat is most rapidly developed when the
metabolism of plant cells is most active, and this is
indicated by the maximum absorption of carbonic acid
in the green parts, like the leaves, and the maximum
exhalation of carbonic acid, in special organs, as the
flowers and fruits, in which chlorophyll is not perform-
ing its special role of fixing the carbon of carbonic acid.

The living cells of various tissues may also, as pointed
out by Pasteur, perform the function of the true, or
organized ferments, in producing alcohol, lactic acid,
etc.. but this function is but an incident of their meta-

* Tyndall's experiments on radiant heat show that pure dry air is transparent
to heat (i. e., is not readily heated), but that moist air absorbs heat, and is, there-
fore, readily warmed. When air is nearly saturated with the vapor of water, the
absorption of heat is ninety times greater than in dry air. Tyndall on Heat, pp.
398 399, etc.

t Carpenter's Comp. Phys., pp. 451-452.

JAnn. des Sci. Nat., 2d. series, XII, p. 277. Carpenter's Comp. Phys., p. 451.
Dalton's Human Phys., pp. 240-244.

SILOS, EKSILAGE AND SILAGE.

53

holism, and not comparable in efficiency or degree with
the action of the specific organisms of these fermenta-
tions.

In the ripening of fruits we have illustrations of cell
metabolism that are of particular interest in this con-
nection. That the changes taking place in the fruit
cells in the process of ripening are not the result of
direct oxidation by free atmospheric oxygen, is shown
by the experiments of Lechartier and Bellamy,* and
Pasteur,! who found that carbonic acid was exhaled,
and alcohol formed in fruits placed in closed vessels, in
an atmosphere of carbonic acid. As no organized alco-
holic ferments could be found, this fermentation must
have been produced by the metabolism of the fruit cells
in the absence of free oxygen. In the maturation of
fruits, the cell metabolism is exceedingly complex, and
it cannot be formulated in definite chemical terms.

Berard J gives the amount of lignine (characteristic
of wood tissue) and sugar, in 100 parts of fruits, at dif-
ferent stages of maturation, as follows :

Fruits.

Lignine

Sugar

Green

Ripe

Green

Ripe

Apricots

3.61
8.45
2.44
1.26
3.01
3.08

1.86
8.01
1.12
1.11
1.21
2.19

6.64
0.52
1.12
17.71
0.63
6.45

16.48
6.24
18.12
24.81
11.61
11.52

Currants (including seeds)

Duke cherries

Green Gage Plums

Melting Peaches

Jargonelle Pears

"The fruit, while still green, it may be remarked,
decomposes carbonic acid and emits oxygen, like the
leaves ; but when it ripens, this chemical action on the
atmosphere alters. In other words, carbonic acid is
given out, accompanied by a sensible rise in temper-
ature, while oxygen is absorbed.

66 The fibrous and cellular tissues also diminish as the

* Compt. rend., 69, p. 466, etc.

t Compt. rend., 75, pp. 784= and 1054. Pasteur, Studies on Fermentation, p. 268.
t Brown's Manual of Botany, p. 4=70, refers to Ann. de Chim. et de Phys., Ser. 2,
XVI, p. 152.

54

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

sugar increases, the latter substance being partly pro-
duced at the expense of the former."* M. Cahours,f
in 1864, observed that the volume of carbonic acid pro-
duced by fruits in ripening, exceeded the volume of
oxygen absorbed, so that it was undoubtedly the result
of cell metabolism, and not of direct oxidation.

These observations were confirmed by the experiments
of Lechartier and Bellamy, J who also noticed that the
development of carbonic acid was not uniformly con-
stant, but varied widely at different periods, and that
it was more rapid in the day than at night, which is a
further indication that it was elaborated as a function of
the life of the fruit cells, and that the absorbed oxygen
was utilized in these vital activities. But the metabo-
lism of the cells in ripening fruits is not limited to the
decrease in woody fibre and the exhalation of carbonic
acid as the sugar increases. A. Hilger, || in experiments
on two varieties of grapes (Austrian and Riesling), found
that the acid diminished as the sugar increased, in the
process of ripening, as seen in the following table :

Sugar

Acid

Austrian

Riesling

Austrian | Riesling

Date

Leaves | Fruit | Leaves

Fruit

Fruit | Fruit

May 19

0.18

1.20

oime 27

1.03

1.37

1.00

1.01

Aug. 16

1.08

1.33

1.03

1.23

4.65

4.95

Aug. 22

1.02

2.18

1.05

1.81

2.55

2.47

Aug. 28

1.06

4.25

1.12

2.39

1.27

1.65

Sept. 1

1.08

2.53

1.14

2.58

1.27

1.20

Sept. 12

1.08

4.49

1.14

2.89

1.20

1.19

Sept. 17

1.82

5.33

1.43

3.87

0.67

1.05

Sept. 23

3.53

7.71

3.64

7.70

0.60

0.75

Oct. 10

1.33

9.90

1.84

8.64

0.52

0.67

Nov. 10

0.52

9.90

0.72

8.21

0.52

0.75

Mercadante found that both malic acid and sugar
increased in plums while green, and that tannin dimin-
ished, but as the fruit ripened the tannin disappeared,

* Brown, 1. c. p. 469.

t Compt. rend. 69, p. 356, as quoted by Lechartier and Bellamy.

t Compt. rend. 69, p. 466, etc.

IILandw. vexsuchs-stat. XVII, pp. 245-251. Jour. Chem. Soc., 1875 (28), p. 281.

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 55

and sugar was formed at the expense of the malic acid,
as shown in the following table : *

Date

Sugar

Malic Acid

June 20th
June 24th
June 30th
July 4th
July 12th

16.52
16.54
16.78
17.05
17.38

2.76 (p. c. in pulp).
2.46 " "
2.16 "
1.57 " "
0.82 " "

The real significance of the facts already presented
cannot be clearly seen if our attention is confined to the
obvious chemical changes taking place at different stages
of growth, without taking into consideration the law of
the conservation of energy in its relations to organic life.
With the progress of biological science, the metamor-
phoses of matter in organic processes, which have been
the almost exclusive subjects of study until within a few
years past, are coming to be looked upon as of less and
less importance, while the transformations of energy are
being recognized as dominant factors in all vital activ-
ities. Heat and light are the main sources of energy
concerned in the processes of nutrition and growth, and
in general terms, the leading phenomena of plant meta-
bolism may be summarized as follows : In the building
up of tissues (constructive metabolism), work is per-
formed and an expenditure of energy is made at the
expense of the heat and light supplied to the plant
Step by step comparatively simple food materials are
converted into more and more complex organic com-
pounds, resulting in the formation of living protoplasm,
an essential constituent of every cell, as the final and
most complex state of constructive metabolism.

An expenditure and storing up of energy is involved
in every step of this process. This stored-up energy is
spoken of as potential energy, that may afterwards be-
come active in doing work, or become sensible in the
form of heat.

* Jour. Chem. Soc. XXVIII (1876), 904, quoted by Prescott, Mich. Pom. Rep'fc
1877, p. 152.

56 SILOS, ENSILAGE A1O> SILAGE.

From the complexity and high potential energy of the
molecules of protoplasm, a reverse process at once begins
(destructive metabolism), and complex compounds are
resolved, step by step, into those that are relatively
simple, and starch, cellulose, and other plant constitu-
ents are formed, in the retrograde metamorphosis of the
protoplasm.

This destructive metabolism is quite as essential to
the life and well-being of the plant as the parallel con-
structive process, and the two are simultaneously taking
place in the normal nutritive changes of every cell.

The stored-up energy resulting from the cumulative
effects of constructive metabolism appears as heat in the
process of destructive metabolism, and when not util-
ized in work or dissipated by radiation, may be detected
by the thermometer, as in the ripening of fruits, the
malting of barley, and in the flowers of the Arum in the
experiments to which reference has been made. In the
normal life of plant cells there is, then, an expenditure
of energy in work, and a storing up of energy in com-
plex organic substances, which is immediately followed
by the breaking down of complex molecules, the libera-
tion of heat, and the elaboration of substances like
starch, cellulose, various nitrogenous bodies, and zy-
mases, which can be utilized by the plant, and inter-
vene between the complex protoplasm on the one hand,
and the final waste products on the other.

It is important that we keep in mind the fact that the
heat resulting from the metabolism of plants and ani-
mals is evolved in accordance with the law of the con-
servation of energy which is as strictly applicable in the
organic kingdom of nature as in the inorganic. Plants
do not produce heat, in the ordinary acceptation of the
term, but it is liberated from the stored- up energy of the
more complex molecules when they are converted into
simpler compounds, as, for example, when starch is

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SIl^GE. 57

formed from protoplasm. As heat is liberated in the
manufacture of starch from the more complex molecules
of protoplasm, it will be seen that starch has less poten-
tial energy than the protoplasm from which it is formed.

The stored-up energy of organic substances may also
be transformed into heat by the process of combustive oxi-
dation, as well as by the metabolism of the living cells.
" The heat which is given out by burning the organic
substance is but the conversion into kinetic energy of the
potential energy stored up in the substance. The heat,
for instance, which is given out by burning wood, or coal,
represents the kinetie energy, derived principally from
the sun's rays, by which were effected the processes of
constructive metabolism of which the wood, or coal, was
the product."*

When a healthy balance is maintained between the con-
structive and the destructive metabolism of the cell, its
activities are vigorously carried on, if other conditions are
favorable ; but with a lowering or loss of cell vitality, an
invasion by the true, or organic ferments cannot be
resisted, and these in their turn become the leading
factors in the changes which follow. And here we have
a further illustration of the law of the conservation of
energy. The heat evolved in the processes of fermenta-
tion and putrefaction has the same origin as that devel-
oped in the metabolism of plants and animals. The
microbes that cause fermentation do not produce the heat
observed, but they feed upon the fermentable materials,
and among the results which follow, the stored-up ener-
gy of these organic substances is liberated in the form of
heat. It will be seen, moreover, that when this heat is
not dissipated by conduction or radiation it may be suf-
ficient to prove fatal to the organisms that are concerned
in liberating it.

The phenomena usually included in the general term

*Encycl. Brit. 9tb ed. vol xix p. 56.

58 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

fermentation may then be considered under two distinct
heads : 1st, the zymases, or so-called soluble ferments,
which are elaborated in the exercise of the normal
functional activity of the living cells of the tissues.
They "invert" cane sugar and convert it into glucose, —
change starch into sugar, or like the pancreatic secre-
tion, change insoluble proteids into soluble and diffusi-
ble peptones, or in general terms they may be said to
bring about those changes which facilitate the transfer
and assimilation of food materials, and according to
Dumas, they "always sacrifice themselves in the exer-
cise of their activity." They do not act like the true
ferments, and they must be looked upon as essential fac-
tors in the physiological activities of both plants and
animals.

3d, The true ferments, which, on the other hand, are
living organisms that increase and grow at the expense
of the substances fermented, and produce fermentation
as an incident of their vital processes.

Pasteur defines the true fermentations as physiological
activities, " the direct consequence of the processes of
nutrition, assimilation and life, when they are carried
on without the agency of free oxygen," or, "as a result
of life without air." The true ferments may be divided
into two groups :

1st, The saccharomyces, or budding fungi, of which
beer yeast may be taken as the type. They are real
microscopic plants that multiply by budding, and have
likewise a process of reproduction by spores. The
prominent members of this group are alcoholic ferments.

#d, The so-called schizomycetes, or fission fungi, that
are perhaps better called microbes, or bacteria.*

*De Bary, an acknowledged authority on these lower forms of life, says the
members of this group are not properly fungi, and he prefers to call them Bac-
teria. He would likewise avoid the use of the term Bacterium as a generic name.
If, however, Bacterium is retained as the name of a genus, the group will be bet-
ter designated by the general term Microbes.

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 59

They multiply by fission, each individual " dividing
into two similar daughter cells through an unlimited
number of generations."

Keproduction by spores has been observed in many
species, and it is probable that this process is common
to all. To this group belong various specific ferments,
as the lactic, acetic, butyric, etc., and a number of
forms that produce putrefaction. They are all micro-
scopic forms, many of them less than 25000 of an inch in
diameter, and they are, at present, classified from pecul-
iarities of form.*

The conditions of temperature, moisture and food
supply, as already noticed, have a marked influence on
the vital activities of bacteria, and they will, to a con-
siderable extent, determine the successful reproduction
and growth of a particular species, to the exclusion, for
the time, of other less favored species. In the struggle
for existence, the individuals that are best adapted to
the sum of the conditions in which they are placed, will
have many advantages over their competitors, and this
will enable them to take the lead in appropriating the
materials required in their processes of nutrition, and
thus become masters of the situation.

Any change in the surrounding conditions that places
this favored form at a disadvantage, will tend to check
its activities, and bring to the front some other form
that is better adapted to the new conditions. The
normal activities of a dominant form may prepare the
way for its own suppression and favor the aggressions of
its rivals. An exhaustion, or even scarcity, of its appro-
priate food supply, or the form in which the food is
furnished, or an accumulation of residues resulting from

* The globular forms are called Cocci, the smaller ones Micrococci, and the
larger Macrococci. When grouped in pairs they are Diplococci, and when in
chains or rows Streptococci. The rod-like forms, if short, have been called Bac-
teria, and the longer rods Bacilli. Spirally curved forms are Spirilla, Spirochsetse,
or Vibrios.

60 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

its own processes of nutrition, will serve to check its
yital powers, and at the same time prove of immediate
advantage to some other species.

Many illustrations might be given of the well known
fact that a repression of the vital powers, and even the
death of an organism may be caused as a direct result of
the exercise of its own normal activities. In a confined
atmosphere animals are killed by the carbonic acid ex-
haled in the process of respiration. Yeast is an alcoholic
ferment, but its activity as a ferment is checked or en-
tirely suppressed by an accumulation of the alcohol re-
sulting from its own processes of nutrition. " The wines
produced from the rich juices of Southern grapes always
contain unfermented sugar," * the alcohol produced be-
ing sufficient to stop the process of fermentation before
the sugar is all consumed.

When lactic acid is allowed to accumulate beyond a
certain amount, the lactic ferment ceases to perform its
function ; the microbes of nitrification are unable to act
as ferments in the absence of lime or some other salifi-
able base to combine with the nitric acid as it is elabo-
rated, and under such conditions they are superseded
by other forms that have no such special requirements.
One ferment may thus succeed another, as the condi-
tions of life are changed to favor it and restrain the
activities of its predecessor. The process of putrefaction
is not a single fermentation produced by any single spe-
cific form, but an indefinite series of fermentative
changes brought about by a succession of microbes,
each of which, in its processes of nutrition, prepares the
way for those that follow, until, by their combined
action, the putrefactive materials are reduced to their
simplest chemical combinations.

The temperature most favorable for the activity of
bacteria will yary with the species, the conditions of

* Encycl. Brit. 9th ed. 1 x p. 94.

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 61

moisture, and the supply of nutritive materials in an
available form. A temperature of from 60° to 100° F.
seems to be best for the rapid reproduction and growth
of most species, while that of 122° to 132° is fatal to the
acid-producing ferments and to those of putrefaction.
When perfectly dry, a higher temperature may be borne
with impunity, but when wet, a considerably lower tem-
perature, if continued for several hours, will prove fatal.
In my experiments with the microbes of the acid fer-
mentations, they have been observed to succumb to a
temperature of 115°, under what may be considered
exceptional conditions, but even at lower temperatures
their vital activities are readily checked and their special
functions as ferments reduced to a minimum without
absolutely proving fatal. It is important to clearly dis-
tinguish the differences in the effects of temperature on
the spores, or germs, and on the mature bacteria. The
spores, of species that are readily killed in the mature
form by a temperature of 122°, may be able to withstand
a temperature of 212° for several minutes, or under
special conditions for several hours.

The intermittent method of heating discovered by
Prof. Tyndall is a convenient and efficient mode of
destroying bacteria at comparatively moderate tempera-
tures.* I have repeatedly succeeded in sterilizing cul-
ture fluids, which involves, of course, the destruction of
all mature bacteria and their germs, by raising the tem-
perature for one minute to 122°, at intervals of about
twelve hours, for a week or ten days. A temperature of
from 122° to 132°, if frequently repeated, or maintained
continuously for several days, seems to be quite as effi-
cient in killing the germs of bacteria as considerably
higher temperatures for a short time. No arbitrary
rule can then be laid down as to the precise thermal
death-point of any particular species, as much will

* Floating Matter in the Air. pp. 210, 337.

62 SILOS, ENSILAGE A^D SILAGE.

depend -upon the conidtions under which the heat is
applied.

From this outline of our present knowledge relating
to the subject, it must be seen that the micro-organisms
of fermentation and putrefaction cannot be overlooked
in discussing the practical principles that must guide us
in the ensilage of green fodder, and that generalizations
based on observations in which their activities are
ignored cannot safely be made.

CHAPTER V.

THE SILO.

A silo is, in effect, a tight box or chamber, in which
green fodder may be stored and preserved. The sides
must be smooth and vertical, so that the silage may set-
tle uniformly and freely, and the bottom should be
water-tight and without drainage. It may be made of
any form, provided these essentials are secured, but,
taking everything into consideration, the rectangle will
be found most satisfactory for the ground plan.

MATERIALS.

Massive and expensive silos of masonry have been
made by the followers of M. Goffart, and it has been
claimed that they were essential to the successful ensi-
lage of green fodder. Others ha\e recommended con-
crete as the best material that can be used in their con-
struction. The only valid argument that can be urged

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 63

in favor of masonry or concrete for the walls of the
silo is that of durability. On the other hand, it must
be observed they are good conductors of heat (and frost),
and this in itself is an objection that more than counter-
balances an}7" apparent advantages that may otherwise be
claimed for them.

From a careful study of the subject and a personal
examination of the silage in a large number of silos of
all kinds, I cannot escape the conclusion that, taking
everything into consideration, wood is the best material
that can be used in the construction of the silo. As a
nonconductor of heat, it is far better than masonry or
concrete, and in most localities, and perhaps as a gen-
eral rule, it is the cheapest.

If reasonable precautions are taken in building, and
suitable preservatives, like crude petroleum, and roofing
pitch, or tar, are judiciously applied, which can be done
at a comparatively trifling expense, it cannot be objec-
tionable on the score of durability. The application of
preservatives will be considered under the head of
construction.

FORM AND SIZE OF THE SILO.

The quantity of fodder to be ensilaged, and the num-
ber of animals it is desirable to provide feei for, should
determine the size and general form and proportion of
the silo. On the start, it may be well to bear in mind
the fact that in feeding out ensilage, if a large surface
is exposed to the air for a number of days, it is liable to
be seeded with the germs of molds and putrefactive
bacteria, so that its value as cattle food may be materi-
ally diminished.

To obviate this difficulty, it is a common practice to
cut down the silage in narrow slices, or strips, but in
this method the wall of silage remains exposed to atmos-
pheric contamination during the time the strip cut off

64 SILOS; ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

is being fed out ; and, moreover, this involves an unnec-
essary expenditure of labor in feeding, particularly in
cutting down and handling the fodder at a disadvantage.
It would be better to make the proportions of the silo so
that, by feeding from one end, or from the entire top
surface, a fresh layer would be exposed every time the
animals are fed. On the whole, several small silos will
be found more convenient, so far as the economy of
feed and labor is concerned, than one very large one of
equivalent capacity, and these should be of such propor-
tions as to require several inches in depth of the exposed
silage to be removed each time the animals are fed.

Uniformity in the quality of the feed will thus be
secured, with a minimum loss of nutritive materials.
The small silos have also advantages in the process of
filling, as will be noticed hereafter. The number of
animals to be fed will thus have an influence in deter-
mining the dimensions of the silo in transverse section.

The walls of the silo may be 12, 14 or 16 feet high,
and it will seldom be advisable to exceed the latter fig-
ure. Silos with walls from 20 to 30 feet high have been
made, but without any apparent advantage.

The weight of a cubic foot of silage will vary with the
condition of the crop when put into the silo, the depth
of the silage, and the pressure applied when it is cov-
ered. From 35 to 50 Ibs. per cubic foot will represent
the range of variation reported, and 40 Ibs. may be
safely assumed as the weight of a cubic foot in approxi-
mately estimating the storage capacity of the silo.

It is better to err on the safe side in estimates of the
amount of feed stored in the silo, when the actual
weight is not determined at the time of filling. A con-
siderable settling of the silage takes place after the silo
is filled, and allowance must be made for this in estimat-
ing the storage capacity of the silo.

From the data presented, a silo 12x16 feet should hold

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 65

from 46 to 56 tons ; one of 12x24 feet over 80 tons ; one
of 14x32 feet over 125 tons ; and one of 16x38 feet over
170 tons. In the reports on feeding silage the amount
fed to a cow per day 'is usually stated at from 40 to 60
Ibs. when supplemented with other feed, and 50 Ibs. per
day will perhaps fairly represent the average.

At this rate a cow would consume 1,500 Ibs., or three-
fourths of a ton, in 30 days, and 20 cows would require
half a ton a day, or 15 tons in 30 days. The 56 tons
which may be stored in a 12x16 feet silo would therefore
serve as the silage ration of 20 cows for over 3 1-2
months. Such calculations, as a matter of course, will
only serve to indicate approximately the amount of
silage that may be fed, under fairly good management,
and the storage capacity of the silo required for its
preservation, as much will depend upon the animals to
which it is fed, the complementary food supply, and
the system of feeding practiced.

LOCATION OF THE SILO.

Much ingenuity has been displayed in building silos
under the floor of the stable, in the side of a sloping
bank, or partly below the levol of the stable floor, but
most of these plans are based on mistaken notions of
what constitutes economy in the ensilage of green fodder.
Silos that are below, or partly below the surface of the
ground, may be easily filled, but the manual labor
involved in raising the mass of silage to the level of the
feeding floor is an unanswerable objection to this plan of
construction.

As the green fodder, both before and after it is placed
in the silo, contains a large proportion of water, and is
therefore heavy to handle, the economy of labor in its
management is an important consideration, if the largest

benefit is to be derived from the process. Attention to
5

66 SILOS, ENSILAGE AKD SILAGE.

a few simple propositions will be of material assistance
in the planning and construction of a silo.

In the interests of a judicious economy the silo should
be so placed that it can be conveniently filled, and as
conveniently emptied, without any unnecessary hand
labor in the transportation or handling of the silage.

As the filling of the silo is almost entirely done by
machinery, under proper management, the last-men-
tioned consideration should have the most weight in
determining the plan and location of the silo. It will
cost less to elevate the cut fodder to the top of a silo
above ground, by a carrier attached to the cutter, at the
time of filling, than to raise it by hand a less distance,
from the pit to the level of the feeding floor, as the
silage is fed out, even if a windlass or pulley is used to
save manual labor. As large a proportion of the work
as possible should be done with a machine, and hand
labor should be economized as far as practicable. In
the application of this principle, there can be no doubt
that the bottom of the silo should be on the same level
with the feeding floor, and continuous with it, so that
a truck can be used to distribute the silage with the
least expenditure of hand labor. The silo may be an
independent structure or annex to the barn, in immedi-
ate and convenient proximity to the stables, or it may
be built inside the barn, in which case a roof would not
be needed. If the stable accommodations are limited,
the latter plan would, however, be of questionable econ-
omy. If the barn is so situated that the silo must be
built in the side of a sloping bank to secure convenience
of access from the stables, three plans of construction
may be suggested : 1st, the lower part of the silo may
be of masonry, where it is in immediate contact with
the bank ; or 2d, a retaining wall of masonry may be
built as a protection to the walls of the silo, which may
be built of wood inside of, but not in connection with it ;

SILOS, EKSILAGE AtfD SILAGE. 67

or, 3d, the entire structure may be of wood, if sufficient
care is taken to prevent decay, and it has strength to
resist the pressure of the bank of earth. In the latter
case, hot roofing pitch should be freely used on all of
the scantling and boards that are below the surface of
the ground, and the outside sheathing, between the
studs and the wall of earth, should be of two-inch
planks, to withstand the external pressure. Large sills
of timber should not be used, as scantling two inches
thick will furnish sufficient strength, and they can be
better saturated with the hot pitch applied for their pro-
tection. Of these plans, the second, although costing
somewhat more than the others, has many advantages,
which, on the whole, should give it the preference.

When the silo forms part of the original plan of the
barn and the stables, it will not be difficult to secure an
arrangement of details that is consistent with the strict-
est economy in the system of management.

CHAPTER VI.

HOW TO BUILD A SILO.

As wooden silos are, on the whole, to be preferred, we
may proceed to consider some of the leading principles
involved in their construction, without stopping to give
directions for the building of silos of masonry or con-
crete. Aside from the conditions required for the
preservation of green fodder, the silo should be made so
that it may be classed among the permanent improve-
ments of the farm, and every reasonable precaution

68 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

should be taken in its construction, to insure the essen-
tial qualities of stability and durability. The least
expensive structure will not prove to be the cheapest, if
these indispensable qualities are not secured.

The decay of a wooden silo does not, as a general rule,
arise from a necessary and inherent defect in the char-
acter of the material used, but from the neglect of cer-
tain principles in the details of construction, which in
themselves involve but a comparatively slight increase in
the original cost of the structure. Too often consider-
able expense is incurred in attempts to make the build-
ing more durable by devices that in effect are sources
of weakness, and tend to favor the processes of decay.

For strength, economy of materials and labor, the
"balloon frame" has many advantages that recom-
mend it as the best, in the construction of the silo.
Persons who are not familiar with the "balloon sys-
tem" of building are liable to err on the side of excess,
in the size and number of timbers, and unnecessary
details are often planned which add to the cost of
construction, without any compensating advantages.
Sills of timber are frequently framed together for the
foundation of the balloon frame, and in many respects
they are a source of weakness instead of strength. In
the balloon frame proper, scantling from 2x4 to 2x12
are all that are needed, and the larger sizes (2x10 and
2x12) are seldom required. The scantling should all
have the ends cut square, without any pretence of fram-
ing, and the junctions should be toe-nailed, or secured
with spikes. Eound steel nails of all sizes can now be
bought at nearly the same price per pound as cut nails
and spikes, and as the steel nails are lighter, the greater
number in a pound makes them, on the whole, the
cheapest, and they are also much better for all purposes
in building a silo. The scantling and boards for the
walls of the silo should be sound, well seasoned and free

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 69

from sap-wood. Green lumber should never be used, as
it is more liable to decay, and, moreover, when the usual
preservatives, petroleum or roofing pitch, are applied,
disappointment in the results will probably follow.
Among the precautions to secure durability, the liberal
und judicious use of petroleum and roofing pitch or tar,
may be urged as of the first importance.

The manner in which these preservatives are applied
is a matter of no little consequence, if the best results
are to be obtained. When applied boiling hot to dry,
seasoned wood, they penetrate the fibres to a consider-
able depth, and a permanent effect is produced. A
superficial coat of cold tar will not be found an efficient
protection to timber, particularly if it is in contact with
moist earth. A single application of hot roofing pitch
to a dry, seasoned pine plank, will, however, usually
penetrate to about the depth of one inch, as may be
seen on examination of a cross section. If both sides of
a two-inch plank are thus treated, the wood is practi-
cally saturated with the pitch, and its durability will be
increased not only by resisting the ordinary elements of
decay, but in its wearing qualities when used as a floor.*
In building a silo the scantling and boards for sheathing
may be cut of proper length, the ends being square, and
the hot petroleum or coal tar may then be applied to

* Mineral pitch and coal tar are refuse products of eras works. A mixture of the
two is usually made for roofing purposes, and also for making sidewalks, when it
is known as asphalt. Coal tar is too sticky at ordinary temperatures unless it
has been boiled, as it should be if used alone, and the pitch, on the other hand,
from its higher melting point, is liable to get too hard before it can penetrate the
timber, and thus form a superficial coating. By a judicious mixture of the two
these extremes are avoided and the mo^t satisfactory results are obtained. In
heating or boiling them care should be taken to prevent the inflammable vapors
from coming in contact wi h the blaze. Crude petroleum, and coal tar too, may
be used by themselves on the scantling and sheathing boards in the process of
construction, but on timbers in contact with the ground, and for the inside finish
of the walls when the silo is complete, a mixture of the Ur and pitch will give a
better body and is therefore to be preferred. A swab, consisting of a suitable
stick for a handle about three or four feet long, with a strong cloth wound around
one end and stoutly secured with a cord, will be found the most convenient
instrument for applying the hot pitch and petroleum.

70

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

both sides and ends of each piece, before it is put in
place.

It will be well, however, to remember that timber
absorbs moisture, and rots more readily at the ends than
the sides, and care should be taken to cover the ends,
and also where the timbers are joined, with the preserv-
ative. To persons not familiar with work of this kind,
it may appear to be an expensive job to treat all of the.
lumber of a silo with preservatives in this thorough
manner, but an extended experience in the use of coal
tar and pitch in the construction of barns and other
buildings has satisfied me that it pays to make thor-
ough work in their application as preservatives of wood-
work when it is exposed to conditions that are favorable
to decay. The materials are not expensive, and the
extra labor involved is not considerable when compared
with the advantages of a structure that is not liable to
require expensive repairs in the course of a few years.

As a further precaution to secure durability a founda-
tion of masonry or concrete should be laid below frost, and
carried above the surface high enough to prevent water

Fig. 5, Section of bottom of silo. E. E, earth; F, F, foundation walls; S, S.
sills; H, H, studs; X, X, anchors for sills; C, C, concrete floor.

from settling against the wood work. Two or three
pieces of 2x4 inch scantling one foot long (well coated
with pitch) may be laid edgewise, at intervals, along the
middle third of the long side, and also near the middle
of the end walls, as shown at X, Fig. 5, to serve as
anchors to the sills to prevent them from spreading.

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 71

The pressure of the silage against the walls of the silo
should of course be taken into consideration in deciding
upon the size of the studs required to secure durability.
From experiments made with the dynanometer, by Prof.
E. M. Sbelton at the Kansas Agricultural College, the
lateral thrust of the silage in settling is less than it had
generally been assumed to be.

At a distance of 19 and 20 feet from the surface, the
pressure of the silage of corn fodder cut in one-half inch
lengths, against the side walls, was found not to exceed
57 Ibs. per square foot. From the data thus furnished
it will be safe to use 2x4 inch studs for a wall 12 feet
high ; 2x6 inch studs for a wall 14 feet high, and 2x8
studs for a wall 16 feet high, if they are in each case
placed from 16 to 18 inches apart, from center to center,
and sheathed on the inside with two thicknesses of
inch boards. The sizes given are in fact consid-
erably in excess of what is actually required to secure
stability, if reasonable care is exercised in other details
of construction.

The inside sheathing boards should be of uniform
width (10 to 12 inches), and surface dressed to secure
uniformity in thickness. The sills, two inches thick
and of the same width as the studs, are laid on a thin
bed of cement mortar, and spiked to the anchor blocks
in the foundation. No framing or lapping of the sills
is required, but where they abut at the corners or on
the sides, if the silo is longer than a single scantling,
they are fastened together by toe-nailing. When the
sills are in place, set the end studs (A, A, A, Fig. 6),
one at a time, flush with the inside of the sill, fasten
the lower ends by toe-nailing on each side, and keep
them plumb by suitable stay laths. Then put on the
bottom board (X, Fig. 6,) of the inside sheathing, with
the lower edge resting on the foundation wall, and nail
it to both sill and studs to bind all strongly together.

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

Then in the same manner set the studs of the sides
( B, B, B, Fig. 6 ), and nail the bottom board II in the
same way. The position of the corner studs and their
relation to the sheathing boards is clearly shown in Fig.
6, the board X being nailed to the side of the stud B,
while the board II is nailed to the edge of the same stud.
This simple plan of building the corners gives ample
strength with the least expenditure of mater-
ials and labor in the construction.

When the first layer of the inside sheath-
ing, marked X and II (Fig. 6), is laid to
the height of four or five feet, begin again at
the bottom by putting on a sheet of tarred
roofing paper, lengthwise, without lapping,
but with the edges in contact, to completely
cover the joints between the boards already
laid, and upon this nail the inner layer of
boards marked III and IV, Fig. 6. In or-
der to break joints it will be seen by refer-
ence to Fig. 5 that the first, or bottom board,
of one of the layers must be one-half the
width of the other boards, and it is immater-
ial in which layer of the sheathing the nar-
;" — \ row board is

placed.

After the
za first board of

Fig. 6. Plan of silo showing construe i ion of comers. A, ,, . . -.

A, A, B, B, B, B, studs; X, II, III, IV. inside sheathing '
boards. C, corner stud for outside sheathing. sheathing is

nailed on, it will be well to complete the frame by putting
on the plates. These are two-inch scantling, and like the
sills, of the same width as the studs, to the top of which
they are spiked. The plates must run entirely around
the walls, at the ends as well as the sides. The end
studs may be two inches longer than the side studs, and
then the plate on the end will lap over the side plate at
the corner, to which it is firmly spiked.

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 73

The inside sheathing, with its intermediate layer of
tarred roofing paper, may now be finished, and at the
top of the wall it should cover the edge of the plate as
shown in Fig. 7. If the silo is over sixteen feet long the
plate may be doubled by spiking on another two-inch
scantling that is two inches wider than the first, so that
it will cover the top edge of the inside sheathing.

If the silo is in the barn the outside of the studs need
not be covered with sheathing; but if it is an indepen-
dent structure, the outside sheathing will form a desira-
ble protection from frost and driving storms. It may be
of vertical boards with the joints battened, by toeing
horizontal laps of 2x4 inch scantling at convenient dis-
tances between the studs, or, to secure greater strength,
the horizontal siding with rabbeted edges may be used.
The corners may be made secure by nailing the siding to
a 2x4 inch stud, as shown at C, Fig. 6.

The air spaces between the studs should never be filled
with sawdust or other materials, but they should be
closed in so that they are at least vermin proof. This
can be done with a little care in construction, and a
serious annoyance from rats and mice may thus be
avoided.

The plate for the roof to rest on should be at least
three feet above the top of the silo proper, to give head
room in the work of filling. This can readily be done
by extending the balloon frame by setting 2x4 or 2x6
inch studs three feet long (0, 0, Fig. 7) on the side
plates of the silo (P, P, Fig. 7), and spiking the roof
plates (S, S, ) on the top of them for the rafters to rest
upon. The end studs of this extension will be nailed at
the top to the rafters. These studs may be covered on
the outside with siding, but the inside sheathing may be
dispensed with.

If the silo is considerably more than sixteen feet long,
a tie in the middle may be desirable to prevent any

74 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

springing of the side walls. For this purpose a truss of
the form sketched in Fig. 7 (T, T, T, T, V, V, V, V,
V) will be less in the way than a tie beam, and quite as
efficient. It may be made of two 2x8 or 2x10 scantling,
T, T, T, T, nailed together at the top, to which are
nailed inch boards, V, V, V, ten or twelve inches wide,
as ties of the truss. The ends of the truss are toe-nailed
to the plates P, P, and spiked to the studs 0, 0. A

Fig. 7. Form of truss to prevent spreading of the walls, with relations to roof.
T, T, T, T, 2x10 scantling; V, V, V, V, V, 1x12 boards, forming the truss; N, N,
studs of silo proper; P, P, main plates; O, O, studs for roof; S, S, upper plates; R,
R, rafters.

board on each side may be nailed to this truss and to the
top of the middle studs 0, 0, as a tie to the upper, or
roof plates S, S.

The bottom of the silo, seen in outline section in Fig.
5, may be finished by firmly packing the earth, E, E,
and covering with a few inches of concrete, C, C.

The concrete is not absolutely necessary and is often
omitted when the bottom is clay that can be puddled and
packed. A pitched plank floor would have advantages
as a non-conductor of heat, and it can readily be laid

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

75

water tight in a thin bed of cement mortar, and spiked
to ribs of 2x4 scantling bedded in the concrete.

The general plan of the doors is indicated in the dia-
gram, Fig. 8. The large door, B, in the gable to receive
the carrier from the cutting machine in filling, needs no
description. Similar doors on each side, above the walls
of the silo proper, will be found convenient for admitting
light when filling the silo, and at other times as required.

They may be hinged at the
top and fastened at the bot-
tom with a hook and staple.

The long door, A, in the
wall of the silo, to give access
to the silage in feeding out,
should be wide enough to
admit a truck (in the form
of an oblong box on three
wheels, two of them under
one end and one at the other),
and it should extend from the
sill to within two and one
half or three feet of the top
of the silo.

This door is, in effect,

Fig 8. Diagram of end elevation, .

showing plan of doors. but a section oi the ins de

sheathing; with its middle layer of tarred roofing paper,
that can be removed in pieces, but which, when in place,
protects the silage as completely from atmospheric con-
taminations as any other portion of the walls.

When setting the studs for the frame, place two of
the end studs the proper distance apart to form the
jambs of the doorway. On the outer side of each spike
a 2x4 inch scantling flush with the inner edge, to form a
wide bearing for the laps of the inside sheathing, and the
pieces cut from it to form the door. When putting on the
inside sheathing, cut from each board of the first layer,

76 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

and opposite the doorway, a piece three inches longer thai
the distance between the studs forming the door jambs
and number and set them aside to form part of th
door.

From the inner layer of sheathing cut out in like man
ner pieces for the door, but two inches longer than wer
cut from the first layer. When filling the silo, the doo
can be laid in sections, three or four feet high at a time
as needed, by beginning at the bottom and putting eacl
board into the space from which it was cut, with hori
zontal sheets of tarred roofing paper between the tw
layers of boards, to completely cover all joints and mak
a practically airtight surface.

As the door boards are put in they may be held ii
place, until the silage is banked against them, by a smal
wedge at one end. When ready to begin feeding th
silage, the top of the door can be readily reached fror
the inside, and the boards removed in sections and lai<
aside, with the roofing paper, for future use. As th
silage is fed out additional boards can be taken out unti
the bottom of the silo is reached. This form of doo
will be found convenient in feeding from the entire to
surface of the silage, or, still better, if the silo is longe
than broad, the feeding may be from the end in obliqu
sections, and the covering will then be removed from th
top as required.

There is no apparent advantage to be derived froi
partitions in silos, and they are objectionable on man
accounts. If they are made they should be permanen
and made as tight as the side walls.

Planks will spring if used for partitions, and a studde<
wall, sheathed on both sides, will alone be found satis
factory. A door through the partition may be made 01
the same plan as at the end described above.

In building a silo on the plan here presented, skille<
labor is not required, as anyone who understands the us

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 77

of the square and saw can do the work, if he has clear
ideas of what he wishes to accomplish and works on a
definite plan. The aim should be to build a tight box,
or chamber, open at the top, with double walls that are
proof against vermin, and the whole made durable by the
liberal application of the coal tar compounds.

CHAPTEE VII.

FODDER CHOPS FOB ENSILAGE.

All green crops like clover, lucerne, rye-grass, etc.,
etc., may be preserved in the silo, but the American
cereal, Indian corn, has many advantages in this climate
that will undoubtedly make it the staple crop for ensi-
lage throughout the United States. From the large
yield per acre under favorable conditions, and its value
as cattle food when properly grown and managed, it can
have no successful competitor as a green forage crop, on
a large majority of the farms in this country.

As the principles involved in the ensilage of all fodder
crops are the same, we will confine our attention to the
ensilage of maize, without stopping to notice the details
of special treatment required in the ensilage of crops of
subordinate interest. Too often mistakes are made in
the cultivation of fodder corn which seriously detract
from its feeding value.

The conflicting opinions expressed in the agricultural
papers in regard to the value of fodder corn as feed for
cows giving milk, furnish an illustration of the import-
ance of directing our attention to methods of cultivation,

78 SILOS, EKSILAGE A]STD SILAGE.

and conditions of growth, as factors that may determine
its value as cattle food. It has been asserted by some
farmers that a diminished flow of milk followed the full
feeding of fodder corn, while others consistently claim
that it is one of the best feeds for dairy stock. The
obvious explanation of these conflicting statements should
be of interest to every farmer.

THICK SEEDIXG.

From its peculiar habits of growth Indian corn, as a
fodder crop, must vary in feeding quality with the con-
ditions that prevail in its cultivation. When too thickly
planted the stalks are bleached and slender, and the
leaves are pale and lacking in vigor, and although a con-
siderable yield in gross weight may be obtained under
such conditions, water forms too large a proportion of
the constituents of the crop, and there is consequently a
corresponding deficiency in nutritive materials. The
general sickly habit of growth is an indication of defec-
tive nutrition and a suppression of the processes of
assimilation.

Some of the leading facts in vegetable physiology have
a practical significance in this connection, which should
not be disregarded. The green coloring matter of plants
(chlorophyll) is the active and essential agent in the
assimilation of carbon, and the formation of starch, and
the reserve materials that are stored up in the body of
the plant. Carbon, which usually constitutes about
one-half of the weight of the dry substance of most
plants, is derived from the carbonic acid of the atmos-
phere, and can only be assimilated by the chloryphyll in
the presence of light. "When the amount of light is
small, even these assimilating organs which contain
chlorophyll lose the power of producing organic sub-
stances out of water and carbon dioxide with the assist-
ance of other food materials."

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 79

The effect of what physiologists call assimilation is to
increase the dry substance of the plant, and conse-
quently its feeding value. Defective assimilation, then,
means deficiency in dry substance and diminished value
as food. Indian corn, a semi-tropical plant, with its
wealth of foliage needs an abundance of sunlight and air
for its vigorous growth and development. When crowd-
ed in dense masses, as we see it in thickly planted fodder
corn, the upper leaves only receive sufficient light to
enable them to carry on the active assimilation of carbon,
while the pale lower leaves and stalks are thickly shaded
and unable to perform their share of the work in the
constructive processes of the plant.

The yellow leaves and delicate, spindling stalks, with-
out a rudiment of ears, furnish conclusive evidence that
the plants are suffering from inanition, and that insuf-
ficient supplies of nutritive materials, in proper form
and under proper conditions, have been provided for
their perfect development and maturity.

Dr. E. H: Jenkins, in a table on the "Composition of
American Feeding Stuffs," * gives the results of seventy-
five American analyses of maize fodder, the dry matter
of which varies from 7.1 to 48.5 per cent ; and in fifty-
nine analyses of maize fodder ensilaged, the dry substance
ranges from 13.0 to 35.6 per cent.

As these differences evidently exceed any reasonable
margin of error in analysis, they must be attributed to
differences in varieties ; to the stage of maturity at time
of harvest ; or, to methods of cultivation ; but unfortu-
nately we have not the data for determining the influence
of each of these factors on the results obtained.

It is evident, however, that fodder corn varies widely
in the amount of dry substance it contains, and that
silage must vary in value with the quality of the crops
ensilaged, so that no definite statements can be predi*

* Connecticut Agr'l Ex. St. Rep't 1880, p. 40.

80 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

cated in regard to average nutritive values. Some of the
objections to the thick seeding of fodder corn have
apparently been observed by farmers, as instead of the
one, two or three bushels of seed per acre of a few years
ago, we now oftener see recommendations of the more
consistent and rational quantities of but eight to ten
quarts, per acre. This is progress in the right direction
and in harmony with the well-known laws of vegetable
nutrition and growth.

As seen from the published analysis quoted above, the
amount of water in fodder corn is liable to wide varia-
tions, and in all experiments with maize as a field crop,
the amount of dry substance obtained per acre, in
connection with the variety and quantity of the seed
planted, and the conditions under which the crop is
raised, should be clearly and fully stated, as they are
matters of the first importance in the interpretation of
results. In a succulent, large-stalked plant, like maize,
a statement of gross weights only may be misleading in
discussing nutritive values.

When immature fodder corn is ensilaged, whether from
thick seeding or premature harvesting, the excess of
water it contains is a real source of annoyance and prob-
able loss. From the weight of the superincumbent mass
the juice is pressed out of the silage in the lower half of
the silo, and there is towards the bottom an accumula-
tion of liquid containing more or less of the food
constituents of the silage, which cannot be disposed of to
advantage.

In a number of cases of this kind, to which my atten-
tion has been called, the accumulation of liquids in the
bottom of the silo has been attributed to the soaking in
of water from the outside, and the real cause of the dif-
ficulty was not suspected. The crops ensilaged should
contain no more water than can be retained in the cells
of the plant under the conditions in which they are

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 81

placed, and this means that a certain stage of maturity
should be reached before the crop is harvested. It is
true that immature fodder corn may be partly dried in
the field after it is cut up, before putting it into the silo,
bub this obviates but part of the difficulty ; the deficiency
in dry substance still remains. The excess of water in
the immature plant is exhaled from the leaves in the
process of maturation as the chlorophyll of the leaves
assimilates carbon, and reserve materials, like starch and
its allies, are stored up to increase the percentage of dry
substance. Nature's method of drying immature suc-
culent vegetation will be found the most profitable, and
we need only aid her by furnishing suitable conditions
for the performance of her work.

The reported yields of fodder corn, under good man-
agement, vary from about 15 to 30 tons per acre, and if
yields of less than ten tons are mentioned, some excuse
is presented of unfavorable conditions for the crop, or,
the effects of a bad season. Claims of 40 to 50 tons per
acre are frequently made, and yields of even 80 to 90
tons have been reported, but these exceptional yields are
evidently enthusiastic estimates that need verification.
There can be no doubt that Indian corn will yield a
greater aggregate of valuable cattle-food per acre, under
good conditions of farm management, than any other
crop, and exaggerated claims are not needed to lead to its
general recognition as the King of the cereals.

VARIETIES OF MAIZE FOR ENSILAGE.

A great number of varieties of maize have been recom-
mended as the best for a fodder crop, but allowance must
be made, in many cases, for a bias of judgment, where
the sale of seed is the object.

From the wide geographical range of the crop in
America, and the different climatic conditions under
which it is successfully cultivated, it will be seen that

82 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

the best variety in one locality may not succeed in a large
proportion of cases in other localities. It has been the
fashion to grow Southern varieties at the North for fod-
der corn, from the imposing appearance of the crop, and
the large gross weights, in yield, that are obtained.

To what extent this practice is desirable we have not
as yet the data to determine, as quality is quite as
important as quantity, and the real value of the crop will
largely depend on the amount of dry substance obtained
on a given area, and the labor required in its production
and management.

Any increase in the gross weight of the crop that arises
from a larger proportion of water, without any marked
increase of dry substance, adds to the cost of labor in
harvesting and storing it, without any real compensating
advantages. Among the varieties frequently mentioned
in the current agricultural papers, Southern white and
yellow dent ; Southern sweet ; and the B. and W. have
perhaps been the most popular, and in many localities,
it is possible that either one of them may be better, on
the whole, than some of the smaller sorts, but it will not
be safe to urge their exclusive use throughout the range
in which fodder corn may be profitably raised.

Some general propositions may be of assistance in
making a choice of a variety for fodder corn. In the
first place it will be generally admitted that it should be
so well adapted to the locality that it will be likely to
mature before it is threatened with early frosts. In
the absence of other defects, an exuberant leafy growth
with stalks of small or medium size may be desirable. A
variety that is prolific in grain formation may likewise
have advantages in feeding quality. At the extreme
North, the medium, or smaller varieties will, undoubt-
edly, give better results, on the whole, than the larger
Southern varieties that require a long season to mature.

It seems to be generally admitted that the sweet

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 83

varieties have no marked advantages, as the yield is
usually less than that of other sorts, and there is no
evidence that they have a decidedly higher nutritive
value. The system of cultivation practiced is probably
of greater importance, in most cases, than the selection
of the variety to be grown, provided it is adapted to the
locality.

Fodder corn should never be sowed broadcast, but
planted in drills, or hills, at such a distance apart as
will admit of convenient cultivation.

The soil should be in high condition and carefully
prepared for seeding. The smoothing harrow may be
profitably used, to check the growth of weeds, until the
plants are several inches high, and thorough after-culti-
vation should follow. As to the distance between the
rows, no definite rule can be prescribed, as the larger
varieties require more room than the smaller sorts, but
all need nearly as much space as when grown as a field
crop with grain as the leading object. One of the most
satisfactory crops I have raised was of medium Western
dent corn, in drills four feet apart, and yielding, in gross
weight, but twenty tons per acre, but this included
eighty bushels of well matured shelled corn that gave
the crop a high feeding value.

It appears to me to be decidedly the best practice to
plant corn for a fodder crop, and for ensilage, so that it
will have abundant room and light for the vigorous
growth of the lower leaves and the development and
approximate maturity of the ears. The ensilage of such
a crop, under proper conditions, cannot fail to give satis-
faction as to the quantity and quality of the feed obtained
from a given area.

The importance of maturity, or a close approximation
to maturity, in the plants fed to animals, will be best
seen by some practical applications of the principles of
physiological science to the intimate relations of plant

84 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

and animal life. From the farmer's standpoint his field
crops may be looked upon as machines for making food
for animals from inorganic materials which the animals
could not otherwise make use of in their nutritive pro-
cesses.

In order to obtain the largest possible returns from
these living plant machines, they must be made to work
to their full capacity, under conditions that are the most
favorable for the exercise of their special endowments.
They must have an abundant supply of the raw materials
required in making organic substances, and of energy, in
the form of light, and heat from the sun, to be expended
in the work of construction they have to perform. Any
deficiency in either of these essentials (inorganic raw
materials, and energy) must detract from their efficiency
as machines in the work they have to do.

The resulting products of these plant machines, which
we call organic substances, as starch, sugar, fat, proteids,
etc., are not only food for animals in the sense that they
furnish materials for building animal tissues, but, what
is quite as important, they are also stores of potential
energy that is liberated and made active in doing work in
the constructive processes of the animal economy.

One of the indications that these plant machines have
performed the full measure of useful work they are capa-
ble of doing, is the store of reserve materials provided for
future seed formation, as in the bulbs of our root crops,
or the actual formation of seeds, as in the cereals, to
provide for the future reproduction of similar machines.
In other words, seed formation, or provisions for seed for-
mation, marks the summit or limits of the profitable
work which plants can do in the manufacture of food for
animals ; and the farmer will find his interests are best
subserved by keeping up, or allowing these activities to
continue, until the limit is at least nearly reached. Im-
maturity in plants, therefore, implies unfinished, imper-

SILOS, ENSILAGE A^D SILAGE. 85

feet work in the construction of organic substances, and
in the storing up of energy, and a corresponding
deficiency in the supplies of nutritive materials furnished
for the food of animals.

CHAPTER VIII.

FILLING THE SILO.

When the crop has reached the proper stage of matu-
rity for harvesting, the work of filling the silo may
begin. As green fodder is heavy to handle, strict econ-
omy should be practiced in the labor expended in
harvesting the crop and filling the silo, to reduce the
cost of the silage to a minimum. Eeaping machines
have been successfully used in harvesting, and it is
claimed that they can be made to do the work well, by
cutting but one row at a time, even when the crop is a
heavy one. Taking the wear and tear of the machine
into account, and especially with the larger varieties of
fodder corn, cutting by hand will, perhaps, be found
quite as economical in the long run, particularly if the
crop is a reasonably heavy one. In hauling from the
field to the silo, two or three wagons, and one or two
teams, according to the distance of the haul, will be
-found convenient, but no arbitrary rule can be laid down
in regard to the details of such work, on account of
differences in the conditions, in each particular case, and
the farmer must plan the work for himself to make every
step count as far as possible.

86 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

The wilting, and partial drying, or curing of the
fodder, in the field before hauling to the silo, is fre-
quently recommended. As a saving in the weight of the
fodder in the subsequent handling, this may be a decided
advantage, but the utilities of the practice must depend
largely on the condition of the crop as to maturity, and
the amount of water it contains, and it will hardly be
safe to formulate any definite method of procedure,
where good judgment is required in deciding upon the
best course under the special conditions presented in
each case. The fact that the fodder is not necessarily
injured by leaving it in the field, in bunches as cut up,
for a short time, or even several days in favorable
weather, is, however, of some practical importance, as
considerable latitude may be admissible in economizing
labor, in adjusting the relations of the cutting and haul-
ing gangs of workmen.

The fodder may be preserved by packing it in the silo
as it comes from the field, but the practice is not to be
recommended, as the whole stalks are not conveniently
handled, or packed, in the silo. It will be far better to
cut the fodder in about half-inch lengths with a suitable
machine, rigged with a carrier to deliver the cut fodder
over the top of the silo. On the whole, this will be
found a labor-saving operation, and, moreover, the cut
fodder will pack to better advantage in completely
filling the silo, and it is also more conveniently fed out.
The fodder cutter should be sufficiently strong to cut the
large stalks with their attached ears without danger of
getting out of repair, and the carrier should deliver the
cut fodder, as near as may be, at the top and middle of
the silo.

Some differences of opinion have been expressed as to
the length of cut that is most desirable, but in a large
proportion of cases, the range of variation reported is
from three-eighths to three-fourths of an inch, and

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 87

very few longer cuts are mentioned. The size of the
stalks may be taken into account in deciding upon the
length of cut it will be desirable to make. With small
stalks a longer cut may be admissible, but there appears
to be no good reason for making a shorter cut than one-
half inch, under any conditions. It is perhaps not
necessary to cut the fodder for ensilage as short as may
be advisable with dry fodder.

Until within a few years past there has been a prevail-
ing notion that a silo must be rapidly filled, in a single
day if possible, and that a large expenditure of labor was
required in treading and packing the fodder as it was
put in, and to make assurance doubly sure, even horses
and mules have been used to tramp down the fodder as
the silo was being filled. The next assumed element of
success was to put on a tight cover of planks as soon as
the silo was full, and load it with heavy weights at the
rate of from 100 to 200 or more pounds per square foot.

A better system now prevails, and these expensive
details which were believed to be of paramount import-
ance in the ensilage of green fodder, are known to be
useless expenditures of labor.

Several years ago, after making a series of experiments
on the thermal death-point * of the bacteria of fermenta-
tion, I ventured to make the suggestion that the rapid
filling and packing of the silo was unnecessary, and that
with slow filling, without treading down the fodder, the
temperature of the mass would rise to a point that is
fatal to the bacteria that cause the acid fermentations,
and that " sweet ensilage" might thus be made. These
statements were made in lectures at several different
places, and I was informed by a number of persons, that
they could now understand the results of their experience
the preceding year, as they had unintentionally made
sweet ensilage of superior quality, as the result of acci-

* For the relations of temperature to the activities of bacteria see pp. 60-61.

88 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

dental and unavoidable delays, of several days, in the
filling of their silos, so that the silage became " quite
hot" before it was covered and weighted. Their fears
that the silage was entirely spoiled were not realized, as
it proved to be the best they had ever made. Soon after-
wards I learned that Mr. George Fry, Chobham, England,
had made sweet ensilage by the process of slow filling,
when the temperature in the silo exceeded 122°. In the
ensilage of clover and rye-grass, he observed temperatures
of 135° to 158°.

On the publication of these suggestions, with the cor-
roborative evidence I had collected in regard to the
practicability of the method, I was assailed on all sides,
in the agricultural papers of the day, and many theoreti-
cal objections were urged that were assumed to conclu-
sively disprove the data on which this new departure in
ensilage was founded. At the present time, however, my
method of filling the silo, to avoid objectionable acidity,
has been quite generally adopted, and the favorable
reports received in regard to the practice, are the best
answer to former criticisms.

Quite recently it has been discovered that the weights,
and even the tight plank covers that were formerly con-
sidered of prime importance, can be dispensed with to
advantage. In a recent communication from Mr. John
Gould of Ohio, who has made extended observations
among the silos at the West, he informs me that weights
are now seldom used, and that but about one-half of the
silos are covered with boards or planks, and that the
number of these is rapidly diminishing. Tarred roofing
paper covered with a layer of straw or coarse hay from
twelve to sixteen inches in depth is frequently the only
protection to the top of the silo, while many omit the
paper altogether and only rely upon the simple covering
of straw or marsh hay, which, they claim, from their
experience, is quite as efficient in protecting and preserv-
ing the silage as the more expensive methods.

SILOS, ENSILAGE AKD SILAGE. 89

In the evolution of the silo, and the practice of ensi-
lage, remarkable progress has been made, and the evident
tendency is towards simplicity in all directions, and a
consequent saving of labor, which of course diminishes
the cost of silage.

The filling of the silo is no longer a task that must be
hurried to completion in one or two days, at any cost,
and at the sacrifice of all other interests, but it comes in
as part of the regular routine of farm work, and requires
no extraordinary addition to the usual working force of
the farm.

The usual practice, in filling the silo to avoid acid
fermentation, is to put in but two and one-half or three
feet in depth of the fodder in a single day, and this is
allowed to heat until a temperature of about 125° is
secured. Another similar layer is then added and left
to heat in the same manner, and this process is repeated
until the silo is full. From one to three days, or even
more, may intervene between the filling in of any two
contiguous layers, according to the condition of the
fodder and the progress of the heating process. Each
layer is carefully packed at the edges and corners to
completely fill all of the space, but any tramping beyond
what is required for this purpose is avoided.

When there are two or more silos, the filling may
alternate from one to the other, a layer of fodder being
put into one while the others are -heating, and with a
single long silo, without a partition, the two ends may
be treated as separate silos and alternately filled in the
same way.

As the heat developed in the silage may be lost by
conduction and radiation, it is found that a temperature
of from 122° to 125° is not as readily obtained at the
bottom and corners of the silo, and along the walls,
especially if they are of masonry or concrete.

This difficulty is obviated, to some extent, by care in

90 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

the management of the fodder as the silo is filled. The
fodder put in the first day is not leveled at once, but
allowed to remain in a loose pile in the middle of the
silo until it is well heated and the fodder for the next
layer is ready to put in. The hot silage is then leveled
and packed at the corners and immediately covered with
the fresh fodder of the next layer. With a similar pur-
pose in view, the last load or two of the fodder of each
layer is left in a pile in the middle of the silo to heat
until ready to fill in the next layer. In this way hot
silage is provided in the middle of the silo, to fill the
corners where the heat is likely to be deficient. When
the silo is full the last layer is treated in the same way,
and when the desired temperature is developed the sur-
face is leveled and a cover of tarred paper and cut straw
or coarse hay, as described above, is finally added. This
cover should be well packed at the sides and corners,
and a few loose boards may be laid on, to keep it in
place.

This simple method of covering was naturally sug-
gested by the well-known fact that a few inches in depth
of the surface of the silage was often moldy and spoiled,
and the obvious remedy for this difficulty was the addi-
tion of a stratum of straw or other coarse materials for
the molds to grow on, and thus protect the layer of
silage beneath from their action. This covering of
straw is soon saturated with moisture from the heated
mass under it, and is thus made more compact and
impervious to atmospheric influences.

Aside from the check given to the acid ferments, the
slow method of filling the silo has advantages which
commend it to popular favor. The work can be carried
on leisurely and economically with the ordinary farm
force, and the entire storage capacity of the silo can be
utilized. Under the old method of rapid filling, thor-
ough packing and heavy weights, the space left at the

SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 91

top of the silo from the settling of the silage could not
be filled with fresh fodder without taking off, and replac-
ing, the heavily weighted cover, which involved a con-
siderable expenditure of labor. In the improved method
of filling, the settling of the silage, favored by the high
temperature, goes on gradually and continuously, as the
fodder is put in, and there is nothing to prevent succes-
sive additions of fresh fodder until the silo is completely
filled.

It will be seen that all details of the slow filling pro-
cess are managed to favor the development of a tempera-
ture of at least 122° in all parts of the silo, to keep in
check, or diminish, the activity of the bacteria of the
acid fermentations.

The cause of the temperature developed in the silage
has not been definitely ascertained, but from the facts
presented in the chapter on Fermentation, it may, with
apparent good reasons, be attributed to the normal
activities of the living plant cells in the maturation of
their contents. There is, at least, no evidence that it is
caused by a true fermentation, or by any direct process
of oxidation. There is, likewise, no evidence to warrant
the assumption that the high temperature involves a
direct loss of nutritive materials, as it is well known
that heat is evolved in the normal metabolism of plant
cells in the elaboration of organic substances. That the
metabolism of the cells of maize goes on after the plant
is cut up, is shown in the maturation of the grain in the
ear while attached to the stalks that are cut up before
the ears are glazed, and we cannot doubt that heat is
liberated in this process. This metabolism of the cells
must continue, in the presence of sufficient moisture, as
long as they retain their vitality.

It must be admitted that the chemical changes taking
place in the ensilage of green fodder have not, as yet,
been determined, and we have much to learn in regard

92 SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE.

to the real transformations of matter and energy in volved
in the process, under different conditions. In investiga-
tions relating to the chemistry of the silo, the biological
factors concerned in the metamorphoses of matter and
energy cannot be ignored, and any generalizations that
are based on inferences from Liebig's obsolete theories of
fermentation can only mislead, by obscuring the funda-
mental elements of the problems it is proposed to solve.
The uniformly favorable reports that have been made by
those who have tried the new method of filling the silo,
both as to the quality of the silage and the certainty and
uniformity of the results obtained, show that the process
has merits that are recognized by practical men as a
decided improvement on former methods.

It has been proposed to revive the practice of M.
Keihlen, of harvesting the ears of corn when the crop
is sufficiently matured, and let them cure in the husks,
while the fodder is ensilaged by itself. There may be
advantages in particular cases that might justify the
expenditure of the additional labor required in this plan,
but as a rule it will probably be better economy to run
the stalks and ears together through the feed cutter and
ensilage the crop as a whole.

CHAPTER IX.

ENSILAGE AND FAKM ECONOMY,

The advantages that may be derived from the ensilage
of green fodder have, undoubtedly, been exaggerated by
its enthusiastic advocates, and on the other hand, the

SILOS, ENSILAGE AJSLD SILAGE. 93

opponents of the practice have failed to recognize its
intrinsic merits in their efforts to show that it involves
needless expense and a loss of nutritive materials.

Notwithstanding the reaction from over-estimates of
its value, and the many objections that have been urged
against it, the ensilage of fodder corn is rapidly extend-
ing, and as the economies of the system come to be bet-
ter appreciated, the indications are that it will be quite
generally adopted on farms where the feeding of live
stock is made a prominent interest.

The silo cannot be looked upon as the only essential
element of success in farm practice, or as an inexhaust-
ible mine of wealth that may be drawn upon at pleasure,
without an equivalent rendered. The farmer can only
take from it the food constituents he has put in, and
the benefits he may derive from the ensilage of the fod-
der will largely depend on other considerations than the
one of mere nutritive values. Experiments have been
made to test the relative feeding value of dry fodder
corn and the same fodder ensilaged, with results that
are not decisive, as the problem is an exceedingly com-
plex one that cannot be solved by a few simple tests
with a small number of animals. Such investigations
have a theoretical interest, and should be encouraged,
but from the very limits of their scope they cannot set-
tle the practical economy of ensilaged fodder. The
form in which a given food is supplied to animals, and
even its palatableness, may have a more decided influ-
ence in determining its nutritive value, than slight dif-
ferences in chemical composition. The same food may
give different results when fed to different animals, and
the benefit derived from it by the same animal may vary
widely at different times, so that extreme caution should
be exercised in interpreting the results of feeding exper-
iments, and in the generalizations based upon them.

From a chemical point of view, there is, beyond ques-

94 SILOS, ENSILAGE AKD SILAGE.

tion, a loss of nutritive materials in curing corn fodder
by the ordinary process of drying, and there is also a
similar loss in the ensilage of the same fodder, but the
differences in these losses are comparatively unimport-
ant in deciding upon the relative practical economy of
the two methods.

The demand for a supply of succulent food in the sys-
tem of feeding, the labor involved in harvesting, storing
and feeding out of the crop, and the waste of the fodder
in feeding under ordinary conditions of management,
must all be taken into the account in striking a balance
to determine the best paying method.

It is generally admitted that jsome form of succulent
food is a desirable addition to the ordinary winter rations
of live stock, and the question arises as to the best and
cheapest method of providing it. The English farmer
looks upon his root crop as an indispensable adjunct of
his food supply for farm stock, but in this country, for
many reasons that need not be stated, the raising of root
crops will not, in all probability, be extensively prac-
ticed. The steaming of feed of all kinds has been urged
as the true solution of the problem, but this method
has failed to gain the approval of a large majority of
farmers, and where it has been tried on a considerable
scale, it is apparently on the decline.

The ensilage of fodder corn has been found a conven-
ient and economical method of providing a supply of
succulent food during the winter months, or in seasons
of drought, and when properly conducted, as a part of
a consistent system of farm management, it has given
the most satisfactory results, and, in American farm
practice, at least, it must almost entirely supersede the
raising of root crops, or the steaming of fodder. Maize,
from its many valuable qualities, is conceded to be the
most important farm crop in the United States, and its
preservation in the form of green winter food will tend

SILOS, EKSILAGE AND SILAGE. 95

to add to the deservedly high estimation in which it is
held as the main stay of American agriculture.

The necessary expense involved in the ensilage of fod-
der corn has been very much overrated by those who
have not made a trial of it. With the comparatively
cheap silos of wood, and discarding the heavy weights
that were formerly used, it is believed that fodder corn
can be put in the silo, and finally fed out, at less expense
than it can be cured in stooks in the field, hauled to the
barn and run through the feed cutter, and fed to ani-
mals, and in the winter management of stock the ensi-
laged fodder has the advantage of convenience, and
decidedly less waste in feeding. Hon. Hiram Smith of
Wisconsin makes the statement that, by actual trial, he
found that a load of fodder corn could be run through the
feed cutter, elevated more than twenty feet, and depos-
ited" in the silo, in seven to eight minutes' less time than
was required to set it up in stooks in the field.

There is, however, another consideration that must
have weight in estimating the economy of the silo.
Fodder corn is rapidly growing in popular favor for
summer feed, and it would be more extensively culti-
vated for winter feeding were it not for the difficulty of
curing it, particularly in wet seasons, and its liability to
injury when stored in the barn or in stack, from the
readiness with which it absorbs moisture. Ensilaged
fodder, on the other hand, is exempt from the influence
of the atmospheric conditions that are so annoying in
the management of dry fodder, and it is always ready
for use when wanted. The relations of the silo to the
general system of management suggest many questions
of practical interest that the farmer must carefully con-
sider. Every interest of the farm has its influence, for
good or ill, on every other interest, and the aim should
be to make each supplement the others and thus aid in
increasing the aggregate of profits. In a large proper-

96 SILOS, EXSILAGE AND SILAGE.

tion of cases the net proceeds of the farm will depend
more upon the harmonious adjustment of many details
than on the disproportionate development of any special
interest.

Animal husbandry, in one form or another, must
become a prominent feature of American farming, under
existing conditions of production, to secure the largest
immediate profits, and at the same time conserve the
elements of fertility as a resource for the crops of the
future. In the feeding of animals the direct returns
in animal products should not be the only consideration,
as the value of the residues in the form of manure must
have an important influence on the ultimate sum of the
results of the system of management.

The ensilage of green fodder may be practiced with
advantage if it is made to supplement other interests of
the farm, and is not allowed to become the sole reliance,
or the dominant factor in production. To successfully
meet fche world-wide competition in agricultural products
that is forced upon the farmer by the rapid development
of the means of transportation, and cannot be evaded,
every resource must be utilized, under a well-planned
system, and the economies of the farm must be studied
from every standpoint.

With the introduction of the silo should come a sys-
tematic readjustment and modification of many details
of the ordinary routine of practice, and the adoption of
improved methods in every department and interest of
the farm. No arbitrary, empirical rules can be formu-
lated in regard to the minutiae of farm management, but
good judgment and a thorough knowledge of practical
farm economy will be required in adjusting the various
interests to the prescribed conditions of the locality, in
order to realize the largest net returns from the aggre-
gate results.

INDEX.

Acid Fermentation of Silage . . ..... 89

Alcoholic Fermentation ....... 48

Animal Husbandry ..... ... 96

Asphalt .......... tf9

Bacteria ..... . ..... 58

Balloon Frame ...... .... 68

Biological Changes in Ensilage ...... 8

"Brown Hay" ......... 18

Budding Fungi ..... ..... 58

Cagniard de la Tour ........ 42

Carbonic Acid Exhaled by Plants ...... 53

Chemical Theory of Fermentation ..... 47

Classification of Ferments ....... 58

Classification of Microbes . . ..... 59

Coal Tar ........... 69

Cost of Silage ......... 88

Crevat, M, on Ensilage ........ 34

Crops preserved in Silos ....... 9

Cultivation of Fodder Corn ....... 83

Curing of Fodder Corn ....... 95

Death-point of Ferments ........ 61

Definitions of Terms ........ 8

Doors of Silo . . . . ...... 75

Dry Substance of Fodder Corn . . . . . .80

Duckham, on Pulped Roots ....... 28

Energy a Biological Factor ...... 55

Ensilage Defined ......... 8

98 INDEX.

Ensilage and Farm Economy 92

Ensilage in France 32

Ensilage, Report of Department of Agriculture . . 37

Ensilage, First Experiments with in U. S 37

Ensilage of maize by M. Reihlen 31-33

Equations of Fermentation 48

Farm Economy and Ensilage 92

Farm Management 96

Feeding Value of Silage . 93

Fermentation . .,.,... 39

Fermentation, Cause of 47

Fermentation, Early Theories 40

Fermented Straw Chaff 25

Filling the Silo . . 85

" Fission Fungi" 58

Fodder Crops for Ensilage 77

Foundation of Silo 70

Gay-Lussac on Fermentation 40

Goff art, Auguste, Book on Ensilage . . . . • 36

Harvesting Fodder Corn . .85

Heat Developed in Silage 89-91

Heat of Fermentation 57

Heat of Plants and Animals 51-56

Helmholtz, Experiments by 42

Houette, M, Silos of 35

Intermittent and Continuous Heating 61

Johnston, Prof. J. F. W., on Green Feed .... 19

Leaves Preserved in Silos in Italy 18

Liebig's Theories of Fermentation 47

Light Essential to Plant Growth . . . . . .78

Maize for Ensilage 77

Maturity of Fodder Corn 83

Metabolism 51

Mineral Pitch 69

Moulds on Surface of Silage 90

Partitions in Silos 76

Pasteur's Culture Flasks 46

Pasteur on Fermentation 41-48

Petroleum to Preserve Wood 69

Physiology of Nutrition in Plants . .... 78

INDEX. 99

Potential Energy 55

Preservatives for Wood . 63

Pressure of Silage on Walls of Silo 71

Pulped Roots 28

Putrefaction, Process of 60

Putrefaction, not Caused by Air 46

Reihlen, Adolph, First Ensilage of Maize .... 31

Relations of Plants and Animals 84

Reproduction of Microbes 59

Ripening of Fruits ....*.... 53

Roof of Silo .74

Roots Pulped and Fermented 28

Saccharomyces 58

Schizomycetes 58

Schultze and Schwann, Discoveries 42

Schroeder and Dusch, Exp. by 43

Science and Art, Relations of .7

Silage Defined 8

Silage, Weight of 64

Silo 8-62

Silo, Construction of 67

Silo, Form and Size of 63

Silo, Location of 65

Silos for Preserving Green Fodder 18

Silos for Preserving Indian Corn in America . . .17

Silos for Storing Grain 9

Silos of Concrete . 62

Silos of Masonry 62

Silos of M. Reihlen 33

Silos of Wood 63

Soluble Ferments .......... 50

"Sour Hay" 18

Specific Ferments 59

Steaming of Feed 94

Straw Chaff, Fermented . . . 25

Struggle for Existence 59

Sugar Formed in Fruits 54

"Sweet Ensilage" • 87

Temperature Favorable for Bacteria 6C

Thermal Death-point of Bacteria 61

Thick Seeding 78

Truss as a Tie . 14

100 INDEX.

Tyndall's Culture Chamber 44

Varieties of Corn for Ensilage 81-82

Vilmorin-Andrieux, Ensilage in France . . . .82

Walls of Silo 71

Water in Fodder Corn 79

Water in Silo . 80

Weight of Silage 64

Weights and Cover of Silo 88

Yeast Granules, Early Discoveries 41

Zymases .••••••••• 50-58

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organizations of plants, and the use of the parts; the germination
of seeds, and the food of plants obtained both from the air and
the soil. The book is a valuable one to all real students of agricul-
ture. With numerous illustrations and tables of analysis. By Prof.
Samuel W. Johnson of Yale College. Cloth, 12mo. 2.00

STANDARD BOOKS. 3

Johnson's How Crops Feed.

A Treatise on. the Atmosphere and the Soil, as related in the
Nutrition of Agricultural Plants. This volume— the companion and
complement to "How Crops Grow"— has been welcomed by those
who appreciate the scientific aspects of agriculture. Illustrated.
By Prof. Samuel W. Johnson. Cloth, 12mo. 2.00

Market Gardening and Farm Notes.

By Barnet Landreth. Experiences and Observations for both
North and South, of interest to the Amateur Gardener, Trucker and
Farmer. A novel feature of the book is the calendar of farm and
garden operations for each month of the year; the chapters on
fertilizers, transplanting, succession and rotation of crops, the
packing, shipping and marketing of vegetables, will be especially
useful to market gardeners. Cloth, 12mo. 1.00

Forest Planting.

A Treatise on the Care of Woodlands and the Restoration of the
Denuded Timber-Lands on Plains and Mountains. By H. Nicholas
Jarchow, LL. D. The author has fully described those European
methods which have proved to be most useful in maintaining the
superb forests of the old world. This experience has been adapted
to the different climates and trees of America, full instructions be-
ing given for forest planting on our various kinds of soil and sub-
soil, whether on mountain or valley. Illustrated, 12mo. 1.50

Harris' Talks on Manures.

By Joseph Harris, M. S., author of "Walks and Talks on the Farm,"
"Harris on the Pig," etc. Revised and enlarged by the author. A
series of familiar and practical talks between the author and the
Deacon, the Doctor, and other neighbors, on the whole subject of
manures and fertilizers : including a chapter especially written for
it, by Sir John Bennet Lawes of Rothamsted, England. Cloth,
12mo. 1.75

Truck Farming at the South.

A work which gives the experience of a successful grower of vege~
tables or " truck" for Northern markets. Essential to any one who
contemplates entering this promising field of Agriculture. By A.
Oemler of Georgia. Illustrated, cloth, 12mo. 1.50

Sweet Potato Culture.

Giving full instructions from starting the plants to harvesting and
storing the crop. With a chapter on the Chinese Yam. By James
Fitz, Keswich, Va., author of "Southern Apple and Peach Culture."
Cloth, 12mo. .60

Heinrich's Window Flower Garden.

The author is a practical florist, and this enterprising volume em-
bodies his personal experiences in Window Gardening during a
long period. New and enlarged edition. By Julius J. Heinrich,
Fully illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. .75

4 STANDARD BOOKS,

Greenhouse Construction.

By Prof. L. R. Taft. A complete treatise on Greenhouse structures
and arrangements of the various forms and styles of Plant Houses
for professional florists as well as amateurs. All the best and most
approved structures are so fully and clearly described that anyone
who desires to build a Greenhouse will have no difficulty in deter-
mining the kind best suited to his purpose. The modern and most
successful methods of heating and ventilating are fully treated
upon. Special chapters are devoted to houses used for the growing
of one kind of plants exclusively. The construction of hotbeds
and frames receives appropriate attention. Over one hundred ex-
cellent illustrations, specially engraved for this work, make every
point clear to the reader and acid considerably to the artistic ap-
pearance of the book. Cloth, 12mo. 1.50

Bulbs and Tuberous-Rooted Plants.

By C. L.Allen. A complete treatise on the History, Description,
Methods of Propagation and full Directions for the successful cul-
ture of Bulbs in the garden, Dwelling and Greenhouse. As gener-
ally treated, bulbs are an expensive luxury, while, when properly
managed, they afford the greatest amount of pleasure at the least
cost. The author of this book has for many years made bulb grow-
ing a specialty, and is a recognized authority on their cultivation
and management. The illustrations which embellish this work
have been drawn from nature, and have been engraved especially
for this book. The cultural directions are plainly stated, practical
and to the point. Cloth, 12mo. 2.00

Henderson's Practical Floriculture.

By Peter Henderson. A guide to the successful propagation and
cultivation of florists' plants. The work is not one for florists and
gardeners only, but the amateur's wants are constantly kept in
mind, and we have a very complete treatise on the cultivation of
flowers under glass, or in the open air, suited to those who grow
flowers for pleasure as well as those who make them a matter of
trade. Beautifully illustrated. New and enlarged edition. Cloth,
12mo. 1.50

Long's Ornamental Gardening for Americans.

A Treatise on Beautifying Homes, Rural Districts and Cemeteries.
A plain and practical work at a moderate price, with numerous
illustrations and instructions so plain that they may be readily
followed. By Elias A. Long, Landscape Architect. Illustrated,
Cloth, 12mo. 2.00

The Propagation of Plants.

By Andrew S. Fiiller. Illustrated with numerous engravings. An
eminently practical and useful work. Describing the process of
hybridizing and crossing species and varieties, and also the many
different modes by which cultivated plants may be propagated and
multiplied. Cloth, 12mo. 1.50

STANDARD BOOKS. 5

Parsons on the Rose.

By Samuel B. Parsons. A treatise on the propagation, culture and
history of the rose. New and revised edition. In his work upon
the rose, Mr. Parsons has gathered up the curious legends concern-
ing the flower, and gives us an idea of the esteem in which it was
held in former times. A simple garden classification has been
adopted, and the leading varieties under each class enumerated
and briefly described. The chapters on multiplication, cultivation
and training are very full, and the work is altogether one of the
most complete before the public. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. 1.00

Henderson's Handbook of Plants.

This new edition comprises about fifty per cent, more genera than
the former one, and embraces the botanical name, derivation,
natural order, etc., together with a short history of the different
genera, concise instructions for their propagation and culture, and
all the leading local or common English names, together with a
comprehensive glossary of Botanical and Technical terms. Plain
instructions are also given for the cultivation of the principal veg-
etables, fruits and flowers. Cloth, large 8vo. 4.00

Barry's Fruit Garden.

By P. Barry. A standard work on Fruit and Fruit Trees ; the author
having had over thirty years' practical experience at the head of
one of the largest nurseries in this country. New edition revised
up to date. Invaluable to all fruit growers. Illustrated. Cloth,
12mo. 2.00

Fulton's Peach Culture.

This is the only practical guide to Peach Culture on the Delaware
Peninsula, and is the best work upon the subject of peach growing
for those who would be successful in that culture in any part of
the country. It has been thoroughly revised and a large portion of
it rewitteii, by Hon. J. Alexander Fulton, the author, bringing it
down to date. Cloth, 12mo. 1.50

Strawberry Culturist.

By Andrew S. Fuller. Containing the History, Sexuality, Field and
Garden Culture of Strawberries, forcing or pot culture, how to
grow from seed, hybridizing, and all information necessary to en-
able everybody to raise their own strawberries, together with a
description of new varieties and a list of the best of the old sorts.
Fully illustrated. Flexible cloth, 12mo. .25

Fuller's Small Fruit Culturist.

By Andrew S. Fuller. Rewritten, enlarged, and brought fully up to
the present time. The book covers the whole ground of propagating
Small Fruits, their culture, varieties, packing for market, etc. It is
very finely and thoroughly illustrated, and makes an admirable
companion to "The Grape Culturist," by the same well known
author. 1*50

6 STANDARD BOOKS.

Fuller's Grape Culturist.

By A. S. Fuller. This is one of the very best of works on the Cul-
ture of the Hardy Grapes, with full directions for all departments
of propagation, culture, etc., with 150 excellent engravings, illus-
trating planting, training, grafting, etc. Cloth, 12mo. 1.50

Quinn's Pear Culture for Profit.

Teaching How to Raise Pears intelligently, and with the best re-
sults, how to find out the character of the soil, the best methods of
preparing it, the best varieties to select under existing conditions,
the best modes of planting, pruning, fertilizing, grafting, and utiliz-
ing the ground before the trees come into bearing, and finally of
gathering and packing for market. Illustrated. By P. T. Quinii,
practical horticulturist. Cloth, 12mo 1.00

Husmann's American Grape Growing and Wine-Making.

By George Husmann of Talcoa vineyards, Napa, California. New
and enlarged edition. With contributions from well know grape-
growers, giving a wide range of experience. The author of this
book is a recognized authority on the subject. Cloth, 12mo. 1.50

White's Cranberry Culture.

Contents: — Natural History.— History of Cultivation.— Choice of
Location.— Preparing the Ground.— Planting the Vines.— Manage-
ment of Meadows. — Flooding.— Enemies and Difficulties Overcome.
— Picking. — Keeping.— Profit and Loss. — Letters from Practical
Growers. — Insects Injurious to the Cranberry. By Joseph J. White,
a practical grower. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. New and revised
edition. 1.25

Fuller's Practical Foresteyi

A Treatise on the Propagation, Planting and Cultivation, with a
description and the botanical and proper names of all the indigen-
ous trees of the United States, both Evergreen and Deciduous, with
Notes on a large number of the most valuable Exotic Species. By
Andrew S. Fuller, author of "Grape Culturist," "Small Fruit Cul-
turist," etc. 1.50

Stewart's Irrigation for the Farm, Garden and Orchard.

This work is offered to those American Farmers and other cultiva-
tors of the soil who, from painful experience, can readily appre-
ciate the losses which result from the scarcity of water at critical
periods. By Henry Stewart. Fully illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. 1.50

Quinn's Money in the Garden.

By P. T. Quinn. The author gives in a plain, practical style, in-
structions on three distinct, although closely connected branches
of gardening— the kitchen garden, market garden, and field culture,
from successful practical experience for a term of years. Illustra-
ted. Cloth, 12mo. 1*50

STANDARD BOOKS. 7

Roe's Play and Profit in My Garden.

By E. P. Roe. The author lakes us to his garden on the rocky hill-
sides in the vicinity of West Point, and shows us how out of it,
after four years' experience, he evoked a profit of $1,000, and this
while carrying on pastoral and literary labor. It is very rarely
that so much literary taste and skill are mated to so much agri-
cultural experience and good sense. Cloth, 12mo. 1.50

The New Onion Culture.

By T. Greiner. This new work is written by one of our most suc-
cessful agriculturists, and is full of new, original, and highly valu-
able matter of material interest to every one who raises onions in
the family garden, or by the acre for market. By the process here
described a crop of 2000 bushels per acre can be as easily raised as
500 or 600 bushels in the old way. Paper, 12mo. .50

The Dairyman's Manual.

By Henry Stewart, author of "The Shepherd's Manual," "Irriga-
tion," etc. A useful and practical work, by a writer who is well
known as thoroughly familiar with the subject of which he writes.
Cloth, 12mo. 2.00

Allen's American Cattle.

Their History, Breeding and Management. By Lewis F. Allen.
This book will be considered indispensable by every breeder of
live stock. The large experience of the author in improving the
character of American herds adds to the weight of his observations
and has enabled him to produce a work which will at once make
good his claims as a standard authority on the subject. New and
revised edition. Illustrated, Cloth, 12mo. 2.50

Profits in Poultry.

Useful and ornamental Breeds and their Profitable Management.
This excellent work contains the combined experience of a num-
ber of practical men in all departments of poultry raising. It is
profusely illustrated and forms a unique and important addition
to our poultry literature. Cloth, 12mo. 1.00

The American Standard of Perfection.

The recognized standard work on Poultry in this country, adopted
by the American Poultry Association. It contains a complete de-
scription of all the recognized varieties of fowls, including turkeys,
ducks and geese ; gives instructions to judges ; glossary of technical
terms and nomenclature. It contains 244 pages, handsomely
bound in cloth, embellished with title in gold on front cover. $1.00

Stoddard's An Egg Farm.

By H. H. Stoddard. The management of poultry in large numbers,
being a series of articles written for the AMERICAN AGRICULTUR-
IST, niustrated. Cloth, 12mo. -60

8 STANDARD BOOKS.

Stewart's Shepherd's Manual.

A Valuable Practical Treatise on the Sheep for American fanners
and sheep growers. It is so plain that a farmer or a farmer's son
who has never kept a sheep, may learn from its pages how to
manage a nock successfully, and yet so complete that even the ex-
perienced shepherd may gather many suggestions from it. The
results of personal experience of some years with the characters
of the various modern breeds of sheep, and the sheep raising capa-
bilities of many portions of our extensive territory and that of
Canada— and the careful study of the diseases to which our sheep
are chiefly subject, with those by which they may eventually be
afflicted through unforseen accidents— as well as the methods of
management called for under our circumstances, are carefully
described. By Henry Stewart. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. 1.50

Wright's Practical Poultry-Keeper.

By L. Wright. A complete and standard guide to the management
of poultry, for domestic use, the markets or exhibition. It suits at
once the plain poulterer, who must make the business pay, and the
chicken fancier whose taste is for gay plumage and strange, bright
birds. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. $2.00

Harris on the Pi£.

New Edition. Revised and enlarged by the author. The points of
the various English and American breeds are thoroughly discussed,
and the great advantage of using thoroughbred males clearly
shown. The work is equally valuable to the farmer who keeps but
few pigs, and to the breeder on an extensive scale. By Joseph
Harris. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. 1.50

The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser.

A guide to the Prevention and Treatment of Disease in Domestic
Animals. This is one of the best works on this subject, and is es-
pecially designed to supply the need of the busy American Farm-
er, who can rarely avail himself of the advice of a Scientific Veter-
inarian. It is brought up to date and treats of the Prevention of
Disease as well as of the Remedies. By Prof. Jas. Law. Cloth.
Crown, 8vo. 3.00

Dadd's American Cattle Doctor.

By George H. Dadd, M. D., Veterinary Practitioner. To help every
man to be his own cattle-doctor; giving the necessary information
for preserving the health and curing the diseases of oxen, cows,
sheep and swine, with a great variety of original recipes, and val-
uable information on farm and dairy management. Cloth, 12mo. 1.50

Cattle Breeding:.

By "Wm. Warfield. This work is by common consent the most
valuable and pre-eminently practical treatise on cattle-breeding
ever published in America, being the actual experience and ob-
servance of a practical man. Cloth, 12mo. 2.00

STANDARD BOOKS. 9

Dadd's American Cattle Doctor.

A complete work on all the Diseases of Cattle, Sheep and Swine, in-
cluding every Disease peculiar to America, and embracing all the
latest information on the Cattle Plague and Trichina; containing
also a guide to symptoms, a table of Weights and Measures, and a
list of Valuable Medicines. By George H. Dadd, V. S., twenty-five
years a leading Veterinary Surgeon in England and the United
States, and author of the "American Reformed Horse Book." Cloth,
octavo. Illustrated. 2.50

Cattle and Their Diseases.

By A. J. Murray, M. R. C. V. S. Breeding and Management of Cat-
tle. This is one of the very few works devoted exclusively to
cattle diseases, and will be particularly valuable to cattlemen
for that reason. It is written in plain, simple language, easily un-
derstood by any farmer, while it is learned and technical enough
to satisfy any veterinary surgeon. Cloth, 12mo. 2.00

Silos, Ensilage, and Silage.

A practical Treatise on the Ensilage of Fodder Corn, containing
the most recent and authentic information on this important sub-
ject, by Manly Miles, M. D. F. R. M. S. Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. .50

Manures.

How to Make and How to Use them. By Frank W. Sempers. The
author has made a concise, practical handbook containing the lat-
est researches in agriculture in all parts of the world. The reports
of the agricultural experiment stations have furnished many val-
uable suggestions. Both commercial and home-made manures
are fully described, and many formulas for special crops and soils
are given. Price postpaid, paper 50 cents, cloth. 1.00

Potato Pests.

No farmer can afford to be without this little book. It gives the
most complete account of the Colorado Beetle anywhere to be
found, and includes all the latest discoveries as to the habits of the
insect and the various means for its destruction. It is well illustra-
ted, and exhibits in a map the spread of the insect since it left its
native home. By Prof. C. V. Riley, Paper. .50

Your Plants.

Plain and Practical Directions for the Treatment of Tender and
Hardy Plants in the House and in the Garden. By James Sheehan.
The work meets the wants of the amateur who grows a few plants
in the window, or has a small flower garden. Paper covers. .40

Pedder's Land-Measurer for Farmers.

A convenient Pocket Companion, showing at once the contents of
any piece of land, when its length and width are unknown, up to
1500 feet either way, with various other useful farm tables. Cloth,
18mo. &

10 STANDARD BOOKS,

Hop Culture.

Plain directions given by ten experienced cultivators. Revised,
enlarged and edited by A. S. Fmller. Forty engravings. .30

Wheat Culture.

How to double the yield and increase the profits. By D. S. Curtiss,
Washington, D. C. Importance of the Wheat Crop. Varieties Most
Grown in the United States. Examples of Successful Wheat Cul-
ture. Illustrated. Paper covers. .50

Starr's Farm Echoes.

By F. Ratchford Starr, Echo Farm, Litchfield, Ct. This handsome
little book tells how the author turned from a successful business
career to agricultural pursuits, and has achieved health, happiness
and prosperity upon his broad acres near Litchfield. Cloth, 12mo.
Illustrated. .50

The American Merino. For Wool or for Mutton.

A practical and most valuable work on the selection, care, breeding
and diseases of the Merino sheep, in all sections of the United
States. It is a full and exhaustive treatise upon this one breed of
sheep. By Stephen Powers. Cloth, 12mo. 1.50

Coburn's Swine Husbandry.

New, revised and enlarged edition. The Breeding, Rearing, and
Management of Swine, and the Prevention and Treatment of their
Diseases. It is the fullest and freshest compendium relating to
Swine Breeding yet offered. By F. D. Coburn. Cloth, 12mo. 1.75

Tobacco Culture: Full Practical Details.

This useful and valuable work contains full details of every process
from the Selection and Propagation of the Seed and Soil to the
Harvesting, Curing and Marketing the Crop, with illustrative en-
gravings of the operations. The work was prepared by Fourteen
Experienced Tobacco Growers, residing in different parts of the
country. It also contains notes on the Tobacco Worm, with Illus-
trations. 8vo. .25

Keepin? One Cow.

A collection of prize Essays and Selections from a number of other
Essays, with editorial notes, suggestions, etc. This book gives the
latest information, and in a clear and condensed form, upon the
management of a single Milch Cow. Illustrated with full page en-
gravings of the most famous dairy cows. Cloth, 12mo. 1.00

Guenon's Treatise on Milch Cows.

A treatise on the Bovine Species in General. An entirely new
translation of the last edition of this popular and instructive book.
By Thomas J. Hand, Secretary of the American Jersey Cattle Club.
With over 100 illustrations, especially engraved for this work.
Cloth, t2roo. 1-00

STANDARD BOOKS. 11

Sander's Horse Breeding.

Being the general principles of Heredity applied to the Business of
Breeding Horses and the Management of Stallions, Brood Mares
and Foals. The book embraces all that the breeder wishes to know
in regard to the selection of stock, management of the stallion,
brood mare, and foal, and treatment of diseases peculiar to breed-
ing animals. By J. H. Sanders. Cloth, 12mo. 2.00

Herbert's Hints to Horse Keepers.

This is one of the best and most popular works on the horse pre-
pared in this country. A complete manual for horsemen, embrac-
ing: How to Breed a Horse; How to Buy a Horse; How to Break a
Horse ; How to Use a Horse ; How to Feed a Horse ; How to Physic a
Horse (Allopathy or Homoeopathy) ; How to Groom a Horse; How
to Drive a Horse ; How to Ride a Horse, etc. By the late Henry
William Herbert, (Frank Forester). Beautifully Illustrated. Cloth,
12mo. 1.75

Warington's Chemistry of the Farm.

Treating with the utmost clearness and conciseness, and in the
most popular manner possible, of the relations of Chemistry to
Agriculture, and providing a welcome manual for those who,
while not having time to systematically study Chemistry, will
gladly have such an idea as this gives them of its relation to oper-
ations on the farm. By R. Warington, F. C. S. Cloth, 12mo. 1.00

Farm Appliances.

Describing numerous Useful and Labor-Saving appliances, and
will be found of great value in every department of Farm work.
With nearly 250 Illustrations. Cloth, 12mo. 1.00

Fences, Gates and Bridges.

A much-needed and valuable work. The descriptions are abundantly
illustrated. The book also contains a synopsis of the Fence Laws
of the different States. Over 100 engravings. Cloth, 12mo. 1.00

Farm Conveniences.

A Manual of what to do, and how to do it. Describing all manner
of Homemade Aids to Farm Work. Made up of the best ideas from
the experience of many practical men. With over two hundred
engravings. 1.50

Waring's Draining for Profit and Draining for Health.

This book is a very complete and practial treatise, the directions
in which are plain and easily followed. The subject of thorough
farm drainage is discussed in all its bearings, and also that more
extensive land drainage by which the sanitary condition of any
district may be greatly improved, even to the banishment of fever
and ague, typhoid and malarial fever. By Geo. E. Waring, Jr.
Illustrated. Cloth, 12mo. 1.50

12 STANDARD BOOKS.

The Dogs of Great Britain, America and Other Countries.

New, enlarged and revised edition. Their Breeding, training and
management, in health and disease; comprising all the essential
parts of the two standard works on the dog, by "Stonehenge." It
describes the Best Game and Hunting Grounds in America.
Contains over One Hundred Beautiful Engravings, embracing
most noted Dogs in both continents, making, together with Chap-
ters by American Writers, the most complete Dog Book ever pub-
lished. Cloth, 12mo. 2.00

American Bird Fancier.

Or how to Breed, Rear and Care for Song and Domestic Birds. This
valuable and important little work for all who are interested in
the keeping of Song Birds, has been revised and enlarged, and is
now a complete manual upon the subject. All who own valuable
birds, or wish to do so, will find the new Fancier indispensable.
New, revised and enlarged edition. \By D. J. Browne and Dr.
Fuller Walker. Illustrated, paper. .50

Gardening: for Young and Old.

By Joseph Harris. A work intended to interest farmers' boys in
Farm Gardening, which means a better and more profitable form
of agriculture. The teachings are given in the familiar manner so
well known in the author's "Walks and Talks on the Farm." Illus-
trated. Cloth, 12mo. 1.25

Onions ; How to Raise Them Profitably.

Being the Practical Details, from Selection of Seed and Preparation
of Ground to Harvesting and Marketing the Crop, given very
plainly by Seventeen Practical Onion Growers of long experience
residing in different parts of the country. No more valuable work
of its size was ever issued. Paper, 8vo. .20

Tomato Culture.

By J. W. Day, D. Cummins, and A. I. Root. In three parts. Part
First — Tomato Culture in the South. *Part Second — Tomato Cul-
ture, especially for Canning Factories. Part Third— Plant Growing
for Market and High Pressure. Gardening in general. A Practical
Book for those who work under either Glass or Cloth as a Protec-
tion from Frost. 135 pages, illustrated. Paper, 16m o. .35

How to Handle and Educate Vicious Horses.

By Oscar R. Gleason. Directions for Handling Vicious Horses,
Breaking Colts, Teaching Horses Tricks, etc. Illustrated. Cloth,
12mo. .50

The Family Horse.

Its Stabling, Care and Feeding. By Geo. A. Martin. A Practical
Manual, full of the most useful information. Illustrated. Cloth
12mo. 1.00

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