ILLNOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 79 



to-day is one of the best means possible of preservation. All 

 that is necessary is to keep the whole at a temperature that the 

 mow susceptible to cold will not freeze, and the mow hardly 

 will, nor sprout from undue heat. Thus onions most difficult to 

 manage, may be laid, dry, in pits, just before freezing weather 

 comes, and allowed to freeze solid, and not disturbed until 

 naturally thawed in the spring — they come out intact. 



Acting upon this knowledge in 1869, while superintendent 

 of the Bert sugar works, at Chatsworth, 111., I caused a square 

 pit eight feet on each side to be dug, and of the same depth, in 

 stiff clay on a dry knoll. In topping the beets in the field for 

 sugar making, not only the leaves are taken off but also the 

 crowns, from which the leaf had even been attached. The rea- 

 son was that these crowns contained little or no sugar, but largely 

 of nitrate of potash (saltpetre). I estimated one year that we 

 had from 600 acres of beets over 1,500 tons of these leaves and 

 crowns. Had I known as much of ensilage as we now know 

 this vegetation properly preserved would have half fed the 450 

 steers we yearly fattened in our stables. 



But to return, the beet leaves and crowns were hauled to 

 this pit, thrown in and continually tramped, and pounded solid 

 by mauls. The second day the pit was completely filled and 

 rounded up to present this appearance as shown in the diagram 

 before you. (See page 1.) It was covered with about 30 

 inches of earth well tramped and pounded over the pit, and as 

 it settled more clay was added, until when fully settled, the en- 

 silage was compacted six or eight inches below the surface of 

 the ground, and the earth covering was nearly or quite three 

 feet thick. The pit was opened in February, and the whole 

 mass except a slight crust at the sides, and about six inches 

 at the top which was blackened, came out in most excel- 

 lent condition, or in what the German laborers there called 

 wein sour. Nevertheless earth silos are not to be commended 

 except as a make-shitt for something better. Yet Dr. Pratt, of 

 Elgin, I believe, continues to save corn-fodder laid in trenches 

 late in autumn and with most excellent results. 



