SILOS, ENSILAGE AND SILAGE. 37 



M. Goffart by agricultural societies in France, and by 

 the government, were in recognition of his services in 

 popularizing and extending the practice of ensilage, and 

 not, as has been claimed, for the discovery that green 

 maize could be practically preserved in silos. 



From the prominence given by M. Goffart to his 

 expensive silos of masonry, and the heavy weighting of 

 the silage, these were claimed by his followers as the 

 distinctive features of his system, and they came to be 

 quite generally looked upon as the essential conditions 

 of success in the practice of ensilage. As silos of wood 

 have many advantages over the more expensive struc- 

 tures of masonry, and the weighting of the silage has 

 been found unnecessary, the question may fairly be 

 raised whether the methods of M. Goffart have led to 

 any real improvements in the practice of ensilage, aside 

 from the wider advertising of this method of preserving 

 green fodder, that may be attributed to the extended 

 circulation of his book. 



The many favorable reports in regard tcf the ensilage 

 of maize by the farmers of France, led me, in 1875, to 

 make experiments in the ensilage of corn fodder, in two 

 silos 12 feet long, and 6 feet wide, and with two similar 

 silos of broom-corn seed, with the most satisfactory 

 results. * 



Mr. Francis Morris, of Maryland, made a silo in 1876, 

 and the results of his experience were published in 1877. 

 A number of silos were built in the United States within 

 the next three or four years, nearly all of which were 

 widely advertised in the agricultural press. After this 

 time the practice was rapidly extended, and silos are 

 now found in almost every state arid territory. 



In July, 1882, the Department of Agriculture at 

 Washington published a report on ensilage, which con- 

 tained statements of the experience of 91 persons dis- 



* Co. Gent. Oct. 5, 1876, pp. 627-8. 



