SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 33 



grown, and in 1870, we are informed by M. Vilmorin- 

 Andrieux, his silos of maize forage (10 feet deep, and 15 

 feet wide at the top, and slightly narrower at the bot- 

 tom), which he filled every year, had an aggregate length 

 of over 3200 feet, and they all turned out remarkably 

 well. 



Having in view the value of the grain, M. Reihlen's 

 practice was to allow the corn to stand until the ears 

 matured, when they were harvested and stored, and the 

 stalks were cut up and placed in the silo. If, however, 

 the season was unfavorable, the corn was cut up before 

 it matured, and the green ears went with the stalks into 

 the silo. In defense of this practice, M. Keihlen 

 remarks, that, after fermentation in the silo, he found that 

 the stalks that were allowed to mature their ears were 

 excellent feed, that were relished by cattle, and he con- 

 siders them but little inferior to the green stalks, with 

 their attached ears, treated in the same manner. ^ 



In a communication to the Country Gentleman in 

 1876, * I gave the following account of his first experi- 

 ment in the ensilage of maize: " Some twenty years ago 

 M. Adolf Reihlen, the owner of a sugar factory near 

 Stuttgardt, Germany, had a quantity of Indian corn 

 injured by an early frost, so that he was unable to use 

 it, as intended, for soiling purposes. Wishing to pre- 

 serve it, as nearly as possible in the green state, he dug 

 trenches, in which the stalks were placed and covered 

 with a layer of soil, in the same manner that potatoes 

 and other root crops are buried for winter in this coun- 

 try. On opening the trenches, after several months, the 

 corn stalks were found to be well preserved, having 

 passed through the first stage of fermentation without 

 any marked change in color, and with a peculiar, though 

 not disagreeable odor. 



"As this preserved fodder was readily eaten by his cat- 



*Co. Gent., 1876, p. 627. 



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