258 THE FA EM. 



fire is made, while at the upper end is placed a barrel or box containlug the 

 hams and other meat to be cured. The lower end is closed after the tire ia 

 well started, to prevent a too rapid burning of the com cobs or othei- ma- 

 terial used in smoking the meat, and also to direct the smoke to the upper 

 orifice for escape. 



Ensilage. —This word, which is only a few years old, grows out of the 

 discovery made by a Frenchman, Auguste Goifart, that green crops, when 

 stored in water-tight pits called silos, under a heavy pressure, do not rot, 

 but are preserved fresh and sweet, and retain all their nutritive juices for a 

 year or more; and that, when offered to cattle in tliis condition, in the win- 

 ter, are preferred to any dry food. It is not surprising that the discovery 

 made a sensation among farmers and cattle feeders in this country, and that 

 there is exhibited a keen desire to know all aboiit it; for, not only can a great 

 deal more in weight, of green food than dry, be raised on an acre, but ensi- 

 lage possesses the advantage of supplying cattle with succulent summer 

 feed in the winter — an advantage of great value to milch cattle. Any green 

 crop that stock are fond of when in a growing state is good material for ensi- 

 lage — grass, clover, rye, young corn, sorghum and vegetables; but corn, 

 clover and the grasses are most generally used, because when growing they 

 are full of juice, which is lost in curing into hay or fodder, but preserved in 

 the sUo. Several kinds of green crops may bo packed in the same silo, and 

 the ensilage is said to be improved by the variety. Corn, either drilled or 

 cultivated or sown broadcast, and cut in its most juicy condition, is the basis 

 of most ensilage experiments in this country; it may be packed in the same 

 silo with clover or grass of any kind cut green, and successive crops of corn 

 may be planted for mixture with different kinds of grasses in their season. 

 As it is estimated that ten to twenty tons weight of green crops may be cut 

 from an acre of good soil — five to ten times as oiuch as the Aveight of a dry 

 crop of grain or hay — it is easy to see how much more profitable it is to save 

 green crops in the form of ensilage than to allow them to mature and dry. 

 Col. J. W. Wolcott, of Boston, Avho owns a farm near that city, raised 460 

 tons of cnsUage on thirty-four acres— being fourteen tons to the acre— one 

 year. By raising two crops on the same soil he has gathered as much as 

 twenty-one tons per acre. On one piece of groiind he gathered thirty-one 

 tons per acre, but " that com was fourteen feet high," he says. He adds: 

 " I am satisfied that an acre of ground will keep a cow twenty-four months." 



When the silo is opened in winter the contents are found in a sort of 

 cheesy condition, and lequire to be sliced oft' with a sharp axe. They have 

 vmdergone a slow and slight fermentation which docs not impair their morita 

 as feed and is not offensive to cattle. Indeed, the first smell of ensilage 'is 

 said to "set cattle wild for it," and they prefer it to any other kind of feed. 



Silos are variously constructed. The usual plan is to dig pits ten feet 

 wide, fifteen feet deep, and as long as may bo desired, on sloping ground, 

 and make them water-tight with cement. Mr. C. "\V. Mills, of Pompton, New 

 Jersey, prefei-s to build a strong frame, boarded up tight and close with 

 thick lumber, entirely above the ground, something in the fasMon of an ice 

 house. The green crops may be packed into them, either whole or cut up 

 with a cutter; each plan has its advocates, tluugh the weight of opinion is 

 in favor of cutting, as it allows of closer packing. As the crops are thrown 

 in they are tread down as closely near the edges as possible, and when the 

 silo is full it is covered and weighted with heavy rocks or earth, and then 

 shedded ©ver to protect it from the weather. In a few weeks the ensilage is 



