496 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



the weights placed upon it. Where it is not convenient to get stone for weights, heavy logs 

 of wood may be used, sawed in pieces about three feet in length, and placed on end all over 

 the planks which cover the ensilage three feet of wood being about equal in weight to one 

 foot of stone. Bags or boxes of earth may be used as weights. M. Goffart recommends that 

 the corners be rounded; I find that cutting them off answers the purpose as well, and is less 

 expensive. I find upon opening the silo, that the ensilage is preserved as well, and settled as 

 evenly in these corners as elsewhere; also, that the preservation is just as perfect close to the 

 walls, as in the center, showing that a concrete wall is more impervious to air than a brick 

 one.&quot; 



Monsieur Goffart s Silos. The description of Monsieur Goffart s silos, as given 

 by himself, is translated as follows: &quot;With my new stables at Burton finished, I shall be 

 able to house one hundred horned cattle. I have just finished three united silos, which form 

 a part of the plan of my new stable. The form of the silo exercises a great influence on the 

 results. It should avoid all angles, and should offer the least possible resistance to the pack 

 ing down of the ensilage. The elliptic silo with vertical walls is the best form, both for use 

 and durability. It is important to have them as large as possible compatible with the con 

 ditions of easy and economical use. The preservation of the ensilage in small silos is always 

 less perfect than in large ones. No matter how much care is used, and how much weight is 

 applied, I have always found the portion which is farthest from the walls to be the best pre 

 served, and that close to the walls there is always some alteration, not serious, but which it 

 i-s important to reduce as much as possible. Small receptacles offer proportionately much 

 more surface for contact. A rectangular silo, for example, of one metre each way, containing 

 one cubic metre, presents five square metres of contact surface, while one of ten cubic 

 metres, with 1000 cubic metres of contents, presents only 500 square metres of contact sur 

 face, diminishing nine-tenths the evil indicated. 



But I do not advise silos of such dimensions as this. At the commencement of my 

 experiments I recommended small silos, in order that when opened they might be quickly 

 consumed before they became a prey to the slow combustion which the contact with the air 

 produced, with as small an entrance as possible for the air, of which the first effect was to 

 raise the temperature, and then produce fermentation first alcoholic, next acetic, and then 

 putrid. 



But the day that I discovered the new process of a movable, weighted covering, so that 

 I was able to maintain in the mass a continuous density whereby the penetration of air 

 became impossible, I abandoned the small silos. Since then I have made them as large as 

 possible, and they are only limited by the economy of the different operations of ensilage. 

 My new stables are a square of twenty-four metres on each side, divided into two compartments, 

 each of which has a central passage between two rows of stalls. These passages are con 

 nected with the silos by a small railway, which makes it convenient to bring the feed before 

 each animal. The maize and the other ensilaged fodder is carried in willow baskets, all of 

 the same size, which are frequently weighed, in order to keep account of the weight of the 

 rations given to each lot of cattle. My silos are elliptic in form, with perpendicular walls as 

 smooth as possible inside, five metres wide and the same in height. Should I modify them 

 in any way in future, it would be only to increase the height. My farm at Burtin presents 

 exceptional difficulties for building silos. Everywhere the water is met at one metre below 

 the surface, and as I want to sink my silos nearly two metres, because the part below the 

 ground preserves in summer more moisture than that part above the ground, I am obliged to 

 first dig a ditch lower than the excavation all around it, and then to cement the lower part, 

 which causes a considerable expense. 



I put concrete on the bottom, and upon this I build the vertical walls of the thickness of 

 two bricks (45 centimetres) to the top of the ground. Above the ground I reduce the 

 thickness to one brick and a half (about 34 centimetres). 



