ENSILAGE. 499 



used it for four seasons, every time with complete success, and I know that it multiplied the 

 value of our land three or four times over.&quot; 



Mr. Mills System of Ensilage. At the first meeting of the Ensilage Congress in 

 January, 1882, Mr. C. W. Mills stated as follows: &quot;In 1876 I tried an experiment, but failed 

 from lack of knowledge. I tried to mix the southern corn with our species of corn indigen 

 ous to the State of New Jersey, but I made a mistake. When one kind was ripe enough to 

 cut, the other had only just begun to tassel. Some of the Southern corn grew higher than 

 this room. My neighbors would say, Is that the two-year-old corn? Is it going to come 

 out next year? There is another city farmer come down to show us how to do things. I 

 got pretty well nettled, and I determined to put it out of sight, any way. I came to the con 

 clusion that if I could exclude the air, I could keep it. To produce fermentation, three 

 things are required, air, warmth, and moisture. Take away any one of these and there is no 

 fermentation, consequently no decomposition. 



I placed it in pits whole, and covered it over with boards and straw. I then covered 

 the top with dirt. It settled until the top was a little below the surface of the ground. My 

 neighbors would say, What are you doing? I would reply, I am making manure. 



When I opened one of the pits and commenced to take it out it seemed to be packed 

 and glued together. The color was richer than any samples I have seen here, and I do not 

 think I have ever seen a sample of ensilage to compare with it. To get it out, I had to rig 

 up a derrick, put on a double purchase, and pull it out with a team of powerful horses by the 

 use of grappling irons. The cattle would smell the stuff from quite a distance, and were wild 

 for it. It was eaten up very clean. Then I found I had a good thing, and I doubled my 

 stock to eat up this ensilage. 



Now about the matter of preservation. If you do not exclude the air, but keep it down 

 to a low temperature, it will keep quite well. Though incipient fermentation may have set 

 in, it does not seriously injure it, but I prefer the exclusion of the air, as far as possible. I 

 think I can keep the air out by pressure. Let us have the matter as simple as possible, 

 whether we exclude the air by pressure, or by hermetically sealing, which is more particularly 

 Mr. Potter s plan. I maintain that pressure excludes the air the most effectually. 



I have two large masonry silos each 40 feet in length, 20 feet deep, and 12 feet wide. 

 There is a wooden extension above each silo of 15 feet, making the whole depth 35 feet. I 

 shall never build another such silo. If I should wish to increase my capacity, I should build 

 on the surface, notwithstanding I have fine facilities for putting in silos. I am satisfied that 

 the less contact there is with the ensilage, the better it will keep. Last winter both of my 

 silos were full. My west wall was exposed for about eight feet deep. I had taken out part 

 of the other end, and left it standing with nothing intervening; I had a pressure of about 300 

 pounds to the square foot. The part left standing with nothing intervening between it and 

 the weather, kept perfectly, say for two or three weeks, in the coldest and bitterest weather 

 we had last winter, while the ensilage on the other end was spoiled for some three or four 

 feet, next the wall. 



If I should build another receptacle for my fodder I should build it of wood, entirely 

 above ground. My system is unique and different from that of M. Goffart. I depend 

 entirely upon a sufficient, uniform, and continuous pressure with no let up from the time it is 

 put on until the fodder is taken out for use. 



The principle of ensilage is nothing more nor less than the preservation of green fodder 

 from the action of the oxygen of the atmosphere. I cut it up no shorter than is necessary to 

 have it pack well in the silo; I allow no tramping. If you bruise the succulent stalk, the juice 

 will exude, and air will take its place in the cellular tissue, the very thing to be avoided. 



I would not use rye for the silo at all, on account of the ergot. I prefer oats to corn, 

 but give me perennial grasses above them all. When I get my farm rich enough, I propose 



