J90 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



worth, is an old proverb, but I will improve upon it by saying that the man should be worth 

 more, as the land is worth less. 



I got safely through that year by having 50,000 bundles of wheat, rye, and oat straw. 

 I cut them up, and with 35 kilogrammes of rye flour, which I fermented each day in large 

 tubs, and in which I soaked the straw, I obtained food that was softened by fermentation, 

 which my cattle ate freely and digested easily. Thus I reached the following spring without 

 being obliged to sell my cattle at a low price. I must acknowledge, however, that at the end 

 of the winter they were in a sorry condition, but the first grass quickly restored them, and I 

 was not compelled to replace them at a high price in the spring; and now the two years of 

 scarcity which my fellow-agriculturists have passed through have been for me owing to my 

 silos years of unprecedented plenty. What I have done can be done by thousands of 

 others, and my earnest desire, my sole ambition, is to enable them to imitate me as soon as 

 possible. Until 1872 I only expected from my limited ensilages the means of prolonging 

 for three weeks, or at most a month, the use of maize, so desirable a food for my cattle. To 

 that end I made many experiments. I have mixed my cut maize with various proportions of 

 straw, in order to find which would give the best result. I have made silos without cover, 

 burying the ensilage under bundles of straw, then with earth (never sand). I have filled my 

 four silos with every possible mixture, which would sooner have put me upon the road to a 

 positive success, if I had not been too easily alarmed by slight alterations on the surface, and 

 which I caused to extend all through by too frequent examinations. 



In 1873 I had a real success, due mainly to accident; and it is to be recognized that 

 chance nearly always plays an important part in the happiest discoveries. 



Until this time I had hardly believed that the preservation of green maize for a long 

 time was possible, and I had very little confidence. I hesitated a while, and should have 

 probably hesitated a good while longer if I had not been in a measure compelled to do some 

 thing. The year 1873 had been exceptionally favorable for the culture of maize. At Bur- 

 tin the crop was enormous. After having fed my cattle abundantly until October, besides 

 having all that they could eat while green till December, I found that I had more than 

 170,000 kilogrammes that would be lost if I could not keep it, at least till the following 

 March. I went resolutely to work, and I have described elsewhere the means that I used 

 and the result that I obtained. The difficulties were greater than one would believe, on 

 account of the lack of faith of my employees. One day I had to leave my workmen for a 

 while, but my return was sooner than they expected. The work had ceased, of course. 

 They were talking together, and I overheard my foreman say to the workmen, 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 to at last. I said nothing, but redoubled my 

 watchfulness, knowing how little zeal I could expect from people so convinced of the use- 

 lessness of their labor.&quot; 



In his earlier experiments, M. Goffart, after making his silos air and water tight at the 

 bottom and sides with cement, put in the maize, cut in pieces of three or four centimeters 

 long, with a mixture of cut straw, and pressing it down, placed on the top a layer of straw, 

 cut in length about ten centimetres; over this a layer of loam beaten with care to prevent all 

 contact with the air outside. When fissures appeared in the earth, they were immediately 

 closed with care; but on opening the silo, a vacuum was always found between the fodder 

 and earth covering, showing that the mass had settled and fermentation had set in; conse 

 quently the ensilage could be preserved but a short time. After many experiments he found 

 that by cutting the fodder into very short lengths (about one centimetre),* and mixing but 

 about one-tenth part straw, or leaving the straw out entirely, and placing upon the mass a 

 continuous pressure, that would settle with the fodder (which will always settle in any silo to a 



__ _____________ * A centimetre is about 4-10th inch. 



