54 H. R. STEVENS ON ENSILAGE. 



CHAPTER XII. 



CORRESPONDENCE FROM 



OA.IFT_ GK 



ESSEX, VT. ; FEB. 2, 1881. 



MR. H. R. STEVENS. 



Dear Sir : 



I am glad you are starting to do something towards giving farmers 

 reliable, practical information on the, to them, most important matter, 

 the preservation of green crops in silos for ensilage. I receive many 

 letters from the South, in fact, from all parts of Florida, Alabama, 

 Georgia, New York, Maine, and Vermont, all wanting the same 

 information you propose giving to them. I am an old sea-captain ; 

 was placed on the retired list a few years ago, after forty-five years 

 of seafaring life ; and all I know about farming had to be learned 

 from the agricultural papers. Two years ago I first read Mr. Mor- 

 ris's report, of Maryland, about silos : I concluded to dig one in the 

 ground. I dug a trench four feet wide, and about as deep, extending 

 it to hold what I had of sowed corn on a half-acre, packing it into 

 the trench without cutting, rounded up the top, put a length of boards 

 on lengthwise, put on a few stones, then ploughed and shovelled dirt 

 on to the pile, well rounded up to make it shed water ; opened in 

 winter, and found it preserved perfectly, except at the upper corners, 

 where it was badly frozen ; but the cows ate it all up clean. Last 

 year I saw Dr. Bailey's letter, also Mr. Potter's, on silos ; and, out 

 of the stone of an old wall about the barnyard, I built a silo sixty- 

 three feet long, twelve feet wide, nine feet high, with partition- wall 

 in the centre : wall laid up dry, and pointed with lime-mortar outside, 

 and banked up six feet all around, pointed and plastered with lime 

 inside, with cement floor. My reason for building it so long was that 

 I struck water after excavating four feet near the barn, and I feared 

 it would trouble me, so I lengthened it out into dryer ground ; but I 



