GREEN FOOD IN SILOS. 175 



it up to the point of the destruction of life. Fermentation 

 is due to living organism floating in the air. These living 

 germs, coming in contact with vegetable matter, begin to 

 develop, and will continue to develop just as long as their 

 life lasts. If you heat up any article to be preserved to a 

 point where you destroy the living organisms, and seal it 

 up air-tight while hot, you will fail to find any alcoholic 

 products in that can. 



Mr. Cheeveh. Then the two cases of putting ensilage 

 into an air-tight box and canned fruit into bottles are not 

 parallel ? 



Professor Goessmann. No. 



INIr. Cheever. I suspect that box was filled as tightly as 

 possible. If we know what influences the result, we shall 

 be very careful to exclude that influence ; and I suppose the 

 parties considered that very carefall3^ They knew air wao a 

 destructive element, and, if they wanted to obtain a result 

 worth any thing, they adopted a system which they thought 

 would best bring about the result, and excluded air as much 

 as possible. Taking that for granted, is not a tight box in 

 the middle of a silo far better protected than any part of the 

 silo ? 



Professor Goessmann. The only practical way to do it 

 better is to turn in water at a certain stage, and let the 

 water exclude the air. These experiments have, however, 

 not been sufficiently tried to determine what the exact result 

 would be. The water would probably dilute the material 

 so much as to make it worthless. 



Mr. Whittakee. I should like to ask the professor, in 

 connection with this matter of the exclusion of atmospheric 

 air, a question which I think bears very seriously upon the 

 point. In order to preserve any thing practically, as I 

 understand it, we have either to get rid of the water, or 

 get rid of the atmospheric air. If we retain the water, we 

 must expel the atmospheric air : if we retain the atmos- 

 pheric air, we must get rid of the water. Now, here is the 

 point with regard to this ensilage business. We fill the silo, 

 and, in filling it, we put in a certain quantity of decayed 

 matter. Can that be avoided ? I have always been taught 

 that matter in a state of decay, however small it may be, will 

 carry decay through the mass. It would not make any dif- 



