137 



soon. The ideas they promote would tend to brighten some 

 of those necessarily dull days which our winters bring with 

 them, and impart valuable knowledge. 



Many of you have undoubtedly had experiences con- 

 nected with Agricultural or Horticultural work that have been 

 curious, peculiar or interesting ; they may have proved so odd 

 that you have not thought them worth mentioning, or such - 

 that you believed might provoke only a laugh or smile among 

 your acquaintances ; or they may have been so interesting to 

 you that you immediately called in your neighbors to consider 

 them. The result of this may have been that they were either 

 unknown beyond yourself, or they may have benefitted your 

 immediate locality and done good only so far ; but to the 

 experimenter, who is seeking for all facts bearing at all upon 

 Agricultural or Horticultural experiences, they would have 

 been of considerable use, and there is not a systematic record 

 of such facts as I have just named, and which, if existing in a 

 tangible form, might advance either of these most useful 

 branches of industry so much more quickly that the present 

 age might benefit more by its own findings instead of waiting 

 for their development in a future generation. 



I would most respectfully urge the importance of bringing 

 forward from individuals any and all such information and 

 endeavoring to place it where it will best reach the eyes of the 

 public. Let it reach the Essex Society's Transactions, and at 

 some future day let us hope that we can secure an index to all 

 past publications which will bring their contents readily within 

 our reach. Encourage the sending in of essays for our 

 Society's publication. 



Practical experience with ensilage, the curing of green 

 corn-stalks in pits, which is now being much talked of and 

 considerably used, would be most valuable for general publica- 

 tion. 



Some of the corn thus treated is said to result in extremely 

 wholesome food, when it has been cured with the air entirely 

 excluded from the mass that is compressed in the pits ; and, 

 again, if the work of curing it is but slightly imperfect the 



JO 



