IS ENSILAGE A SUCCESS? 123 



plant, whole, in this way for months. In dairying districts 

 brewers' grains were similarly preserved in pits. In Sep- 

 tember, 1877, the "American Agriculturist," under the title 

 of "An American Silo," described and illustrated a dairy 

 barn at Katonah, Westchester Co., N. Y., which contained 

 a cellar or pit, specially constructed for storing brewers' 

 grains and preventing their fermentation and decay, by pres- 

 sure and exclusion of air. 



Mr. GofTart published his book on ensilage in 1877. 

 This work was noticed in a paper read by ex-Governor E,. 

 M. Price, of New Jersey, on Friday, Dec. 6, 1878, at the 

 International Dairy Fair in New York City, and subse- 

 quently published in the Fair "Proceedings." I remember 

 the attention given to the subject by the farmers and dairy- 

 men present on that occasion, and believe it was then dis- 

 cussed for the first time in a public meeting in America. 

 A translation of GofFart's book was published in New York 

 in 1879, and since that time, half a dozen books on the 

 subject have appeared, besides the numberless articles in 

 the agricultural press, with which we are all more or less 

 familiar. 



The first person who built silos and made ensilage of corn 

 for cattle food in the United States was Francis Morris, a 

 large Maryland farmer. Ho saw an account of Gofiart's 

 operations in a French newspaper, early in 1876 ; at once 

 opened a correspondence ; that same year raised five acres 

 of corn in drills and preserved it in silos, and relocated the 

 trial in the following year. It was the experience of Mr. 

 Morris that was given at the New York meeting above 

 mentioned. From this beginninoj, the system has rapidly 

 spread in America, and there are now hundreds of silos in 

 use in difiereut parts of the country. They are chiefly in 

 the Eastern and Middle States ; over one hundred in Ver- 

 mont, for example ; but they are also as far south as the 

 Gulf States, and as far west as Nebraska. 



So general has been the discussion of this subject for 

 several years, that it is useless at this time to enter upon 

 a minute description of the process, or the forage thus pro- 

 duced, or to make an argument upon the practical success 

 of this mode of preservation. But we may well consider 



