56 THE BOOK OF ENSILAGE. 



" Well, " said I, " my Ensilage will keep just the same 

 way. I trample it down solid as it is put in the Silos, 

 cover it with rye-straw, then floor it over with plank, and 

 put about a foot in depth of cobble-stones or bowlders 

 which will press it down solid as a cider-cheese. No air 

 can then get in. The air and gases already in will be 

 continually being forced out by the weight. Therefore 

 it cannot heat any more than the horse and sheep 

 manure can when it is trodden down compactly." They 

 were silenced. 



Pretty soon one old farmer who has got a great deal 

 of good, hard, sound sense in his head, slowly looked 

 round, and still more deliberately said, " By Horn, I've 

 changed my mind ! I believe it will keep. But you will 

 have to feed it all out before the weather begins to get 

 warm in the spring, won't you ? " " No," I replied : " the 

 outside temperature has nothing to do with its keeping. 

 Won't a pile of horse or sheep manure ' heat ' and ' burn ' 

 if it lies up loose so that the air can get at it in the win- 

 ter, be it ever so cold, just as badly as in the hottest days 

 of summer?" 



" Well, there ain't much difference," said he. " Now, it 

 is just the same with Ensilage," I replied. "If it does 

 not ' heat ' in the winter, it will not in the summer. It 

 is the presence of air, or rather of the pxygen in the air, 

 which causes manure or any damp mass of organic mat- 

 ter to ferment or decay." " Well," said he, as he started 

 for his team, " as I said afore, I believe it will come out 

 all right." The rest of them said nothing ; and whether 

 all of them have found out to this time that it does keep, 



coal, and sticks with marks of beaver-teeth, all in a fine state of preservation. These 

 deposits must have been preserved here, perfectly excluded from light and air, for at 

 least a thousand years. 



Very respectfully, 



DANIEL PARKER, M.D. 



