GREEN FOOD IN SILOS. 173 



There is, therefore, what I call unavoidable destruction in 

 the operation of the silo system, as a partial fermentation 

 is, in practice, still unavoidable. 



Mr. Ware. I am very glad of the explanation ; but I am 

 sorry to have some of the starch taken out of the ensilage 

 system. It strikes me that the box that has been spol?en of, 

 placed in the bottom of a silo, would not be compressed so 

 solidly as a silo well loaded would be. If that is the case, 

 I think it would account for a large portion of the destruc- 

 tion that took place in that box. 



Now, in illustration, I would like to state one fact that has 

 come under my own observation, that it seems to me is 

 exactly in the line of this silo preservation. I live on the 

 seashore, and we on the seashore depend very largely upon 

 the ocean for material for fertilizing purposes in the form 

 of kelp. Kelp taken from the seashore, and exposed to the 

 air, will, within thirty-six or forty-eight hours, even in win- 

 ter, reach a state of high fermentation, and become so warm, 

 that maggots will be produced even in the middle of winter. 

 Kow, when we have a large amount of kelp come up on the 

 shore, we go to work and team it up, load after load, tread- 

 ing it down continually, until we have a pile perhaps eight 

 or ten feet high, Avhich becomes very solid ; and two or three 

 months after (although it is a substance that will ferment 

 very rapidly, — as quickly as green corn fodder), while the 

 surface of that pile for the depth, perhaps, of ten inches, 

 where it has not been trodden quite solid, will be badly de- 

 cayed, the remainder of the kelp-leaves are perfect, the color 

 is retained, and it seems to retain all the characteristics of 

 the fresh plant. 



Now it seems to me that here is an illustration of the 

 operation of a silo. This kelp has been preserved, if you 

 please, by this system of ensilage, in a perfect condition, with 

 no appearance of fermentation having taken place. It seems 

 to me that the great object in our silos is to follow out this 

 simple illustration ; that is, we must fill the silo so rapidl}^ 

 and tread the green fodder so solidly, and load it finally so 

 heavily, — as I understand, not less than twelve hundred- 

 weight to the square yard, — that the air will be expelled ; 

 and it will be kept hermetically sealed from the air, so that 

 fermentation cannot take place. 



