CHAPTER XVII. 



CORN SILAGE AND CORN SILAGE 

 PRODUCTION 



HISTORICAL 



IN EUROPE. The preservation of green food in silos commenced 

 more than one hundred years ago. In 1786 Symonds wrote of Italians 

 preserving fresh leaves for cattle in casks and pits in the ground. In 

 1843 Johnston, an Englishman, published an article on preserving green 

 clover, grasses, and vetches in pits, basing his statements on observa- 

 tions made in Germany. Pits were dug 10 to 12 feet square and 

 about as deep, the sides lined with wood, and a clay floor made. The 

 green stuff was placed in the pit and plenty of salt scattered over it 

 from time to time. When the pit was full, the top was well salted and 

 a close-fitting cover of boards was placed over it. Dirt to the depth 

 of a foot or so was thrown on the cover to exclude air. In a few 

 days, after the contents had fermented and settled, the cover was 

 removed, and more green fodder was thrown in, and the cover again 

 put on. In commenting on the contents of such a pit, Johnston notes 

 that the grass when thus fermented had the appearance of being 

 boiled, had a sharp acid taste, and was greedily eaten by cattle. 



In England, between i860 and 1870, Samuel Jones stored rye, cut 

 green and chopped, and fed the fermented material un an extensive 

 scale. 



Adolph Reihlen, a sugar manufacturer of Stuttgart, Germany. 

 probably stored the first green maize in pits. He also preserved green 

 beet leaves and beet pulp in silos with marked success. He had lived 

 a number of years in the United States and on his return to 

 Germany experimented with large dent corn, the seed of which 

 he carried with him from this country. As the crop did not 

 always mature in that climate, the green crop was pitted after, the 

 manner of the beet refuse. This work was conducted between i860 

 and 1870, and the results were published in the German and French 

 papers of the time. The use of the silo was strongly urged upon the 



