"SILO," " ENSILAGE," DEFINED. 19 



CHAPTER II. 



"SILO," "ENSILAGE," DEFINED. 



A SILO is a pit or well, vat or cistern, the sides and bottom being 

 made water- tight, with an open top. They can be made of stone, 

 brick, concrete, or wood. Some have been made by simply excavating 

 the earth, sides and bottom being cemented ; where the earth is com- 

 pact, it has been successfully used, without any thing being done to 

 the sides and bottom of this earth-pit, or silo. The walls are perpen- 

 dicular, made so smooth upon their inner sides as to offer no obstacle 

 to the settling or compacting of the ensilage by friction of the sides. 

 This silo is for the preservation of the green forage crops, corn, 

 Hungarian grass, clover, rye, oats, millet, and all the grasses. The 

 food thus preserved in silos, or pits, is called ensilage. 



The origin of the word ' ' silo ' ' is undoubtedly French, the term 

 being compounded of the two words, " en " (in) and " silo " (a pit). 

 In adopting and developing the old process, known in different coun- 

 tries under various names, the French re-christened it by applying 

 the term "ensilage," both to the act or mode of preservation and 

 its product, using the term necessarily both as a verb and a noun. 



