GREEN FOOD IN SILOS. 177 



dispose of the air. The destruction of the germ-life is a far 

 more important question. That is disintegrating without 

 air : that transforms all the constituents, it changes the 

 sugar, etc., into lactic acid without the aid of air. In our 

 canning system we get the germs out of the air : the heat 

 destroys them. A little air we do not care about. A few 

 grains of sugar will dispose of the oxygen of the air very 

 effectually ; but it cannot dispose of the germs that are 

 there. They are living beings, multiplying by millions, and 

 we know that those forces are most powerful. It is that 

 continued multiplication which destroys the plant. 



Mr. Whittakee. As I understand Dr. Sturtevant's 

 point, it is, that, as the carbonic gas increased, the oxygen 

 would be expelled ; but, if the oxygen cannot get out, I do 

 not know where it is to go. As I understand that the car- 

 bonic acid, when formed, is no greater in bulk than the oxy- 

 gen that is contained in it was before it was converted into 

 carbonic acid, this carbonic acid formed from oxygen will 

 occupy just the same space, and no more, as the oxygen 

 before it combined with the carbon to make carbonic acid. 

 Consequently the atmospheric air would be just as prevalent, 

 notwithstanding it was mixed pretty well up with the car- 

 bonic acid. It would not be displaced, but would occupy 

 just the same space that it occupied before it was combined. 



Dr. FAXOisr (of Quincy). Among my labors at the 

 National Sailors' Home, of which I am superintendent, has 

 been the reclaiming a large quantity of salt meadow, part of 

 it covered with black grass, which I cut yearly, and used for 

 bedding altogether. Last May I went to Billerica, and saw 

 the silo of Dr. Bailey, and I concluded that all there was to 

 a silo was the exclusion of air: so I thought I would try 

 the experiment with some of my black grass. I took a lot 

 of old boards, and enclosed one of the end bays in the barn, 

 ten feet by twelve, in the loosest manner, and I put into that 

 all the black grass I cut on two acres and a half of the marsh, 

 and trod it down very thoroughly. I think I commenced on 

 the fifteenth day of June, which was Tuesday, and I finished 

 on Saturday. The grass was cut every day after the dew 

 was off, and put into the bay. On the barn-floor side I put 

 up simply one upright three by three post, and put in the 

 boards. The heat was sufficient to be disagreeable to the 



