WINTER SOILING. 907 



they can reduce the pasture, and how well adapted their 

 fields are for producing green crops. Dairymen are better 

 prepared than other stock-feeders to introduce this system, 

 from the practice they have had in raising and feeding fod- 

 der-corn in times of short pasture. The change may be so 

 gradual as not to interfere with the general business of the 

 farm, and whether the system be partial or full soiling, 

 there will be no disappointment. 



WINTER SOILING ENSILAGE. 



France, Germany, and some other portions of Europe, 

 have practiced summer-soiling for more than a century. But, 

 although they were able to supply their cattle and other 

 stock with green, succulent food during the warm season, 

 yet they were obliged to cure grass and other green food to 

 be given during the winter season. This seriously checked 

 the growth of their animals and also added to the expense 

 of keeping them. It is not at all surprising that great 

 effort should be made to overcome this obstacle to steady 

 growth. They could raise any desired amount of green 

 food, and if any plan could be invented fbr keeping it in its 

 succulent condition, soiling could be continued throughout 

 the year. Some parties, who desired to preserve the refuse 

 beet-pulp of the beet-sugar works for future feeding, hit 

 upon the plan of pitting it like potatoes, and found that it 

 could be preserved in this way for many months. It became 

 evident that the only condition necessary was to exclude the 

 air, to prevent fermentation. That principle had long 

 become familiar in the preservation of perishable fruits in 

 hermetically-sealed cans. The only thing to be devised was 

 an economical plan of excluding the air. The pit answered 

 for beet-pulp, and next green corn was pitted, and found to 

 come out with only a moderate amount of fermentation. 

 Long trenches were dug in dry earth, five feet wide at the 

 bottom, seven feet at the top, five feet deep, and as long 



