* 
Vol. XL. No. 1666.} NEW YORK, DEO. 31, 1881. fee “5” 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1881, by the Rural New-Yorker, In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
farm (Jojrics. 
ENSILAGE: 
J. B. LAWKS, LL. D., F. R. S, 
It is stated by a writer on the subject of 
ensilage that grass contains a greater amount 
of nutrition when in blossom than at any time 
before or afterwards ;aud that what is true of 
grass is also true of grain. 
While I am quite prepared to accept the 
fact as regards grass, I do not think it follows 
as a necessary consequence that the same is 
true as regards the ordinary grain crops, and 
at all events the subject is worthy of a few 
minutes’ consideration. 
The main function in the life of a plant is 
to provide seed for its reproduction. The 
seeds of most of the grasses are exceedingly 
light, and form but a very small portion of 
the weight of the whole plant; at the time 
of blooming therefore all the sugar and starch 
required to perfect the seed is already stored 
up in the stem and leaves, and the crop, if al¬ 
lowed to ripen its seed, will produce woody 
matter instead of more starch and sugar. 
In the cereal grains the seed bears a con- 
considerable proportion to the whole crop. In 
some the seed and straw are of the same 
weight;in others, as, for example, in wheat, 
the proportion may be 60 or 70 pounds of grain 
to 100 pouuds of straw, and in all cases the 
seed forms an important item in the whole 
weight of the plant. 
I think there is evidence also to show that 
a considerable portion of the starch found in 
the seed, is not to be found in the leaves and 
stem at the time when the plant is in full 
bloom. 
At Rothamsted in 1847, we selected a very 
level acre of wheat, which was divided into 
five portions, and cut at five separate periods, 
commencing with the 21st of June when the 
plant was in bloom, and ending when the 
wheat was ripe, During this period the dry 
weight of the crop had doubled itself. + 
Professor Anderson also carried on some 
experiments ; he did not, however, destroy a 
whole crop of wheat for the purpose, as we 
had done at Rothamsted, but operated upon 
a certain number of carefully selected speci¬ 
mens. Between the time of blooming and^ 
maturity he estimated the dtcrease of dry 
matter per acre at 2,000 pounds. 
A very large addition is therefore made to 
the solid matter of the rop in fcho interim 
between the two periods ; thjx sugar hi the 
stem is converted into starch, tuoro >v<-ixly 
matter is formed in the stem, and <. would 
appear quite certain that a considerable pro¬ 
portion of the starch, which is deposited in 
the seed, did not exist in the stem, in any 
form at the time of bloomiug. We have no 
means of knowing how much was stored up in 
the roots and how much was derived from the 
atmosphere;it would therefore boa mistake to 
say that at the time of blooming a corn crop 
contains as much nutritious matter as when 
it is ripe. 
In the former stage the nutritious matter is 
more soluble, and more equally diffused 
throughout the whole of the plant, but the 
total amount is less than when the ccrni is 
ripe. In Mr. Bailey’s book on Eusilage he 
gives the chemical composition of the coni 
plant in the milk, and of the same corn as en¬ 
silage. Calculated upou the dry matter, the 
coni in the former state contained five-and-a 
half per cent of mineral matter, while the 
dry matter of the silo corn contained more 
than nine per cent: this, if correct, would in¬ 
dicate that about 40 per cent of the dry or¬ 
ganic matter of the corn had been lost by 
fermentation. 
At Rothamsted I have about 54. cows in 
milk, and about 30 head of young stock. 
Their main supply of food until next May 
will consist of mangels. More than half of 
the whole dry matter of these mangels con¬ 
sists of sugar, and this sugar is the most val¬ 
uable of all the ingredients which they con¬ 
tain. Now if I were to subject these mangels 
to fermentation in a pit until the sugar was 
converted into aleohol and carbonic acid, I 
should be destroying that valuable element of 
food, which I had been at so much cost to ob¬ 
tain ! 
In the clamps where our mangels are stored, 
their quality improves rather than the con¬ 
trary, and a farmer would give a preference 
to roots which had been stored up for six 
months. If succulent food for Winter is so 
valuable in the States, some comparison 
should be instituted between the relative ad¬ 
vantages of corn and mangels. 
As regards ensilage I must confess that I do 
not altogether like a process which appears 
to be so destructive of food. 
Rothamsted, England, Dec. 6., 1881, 
EARLY HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE. 
LESTER A. ROBERTS. 
The ages following the fall of the Roman 
Empire saw little progress in agricultural 
matters, which were kept alive mainly by the 
religious institutions, which were also the 
repositories of most >»1 the knowledge of the 
arts and sciences that were preserved for us. 
The first revival appears to have been in 
Italy. But idleuess seemed to prevail until 
the time of Pope Sixtus, who, in 15S4, acting 
on the principle that “a people not pressed 
by taxes are apt to grow indolent, and that 
industry is the only source of riches and 
plenty to a State,” forced bis subjects to 
labor, to their advantage and his gain, raising 
them from sloth and poverty to industry and 
comparative wealth. In Tuscany and Lom¬ 
bardy the culture of the vine and olive was 
improved, their products were demanded for 
export, and the profits therefrom enabled the 
people to improve their estates. The rich¬ 
ness of the pastures, especially in Lombardy, 
and the fact, that the temperature was such 
that cattle could thrive in them through the 
Winter and water was plentiful for irrigation 
aided materially in stock culture. This in 
turn furnished manure for other crops, and 
for a time this section showed greater im¬ 
provement in agriculture than any other 
country in Europe. 
While Spain M as a portion of the Roman 
Empire it wH second to no province 
in agricultural advancement. During the 
filth century it was overrun by hordes 
from Northern Europe, and finally came 
under the dominion of the Goths, in whose 
possession it remained until conquered by the 
Moors in the eighth century. The Goths 
were too much engaged in the chase and in 
wars to pay much attention to agriculture, 
but with the advent of the Moors it revived 
and continued to improve uutil their expul¬ 
sion near the end of the fifteenth century, 
wheu it again declined. The Moors brought 
with them from Africa various new plants, 
as well as their methods of culture, which 
were before unknown in Spain, and during 
their domiuancy agricultural interests mate¬ 
rially improved. Particular attention was 
given to the culture of fruits, of which they 
introduced most of the best kinds now grown 
there. Irrigation was practiced to a consid¬ 
erable extent and much attention was paid 
to saving and applying manures. The Moors 
were an industrious people, and although they 
paid much attention to manufactures, agri¬ 
culture was considered by them the most 
honorable occupation, and under their con¬ 
tinued administration Spain would doubtless 
have been the leading agricultural State in 
Europe. But the “Christian” and the “In¬ 
fidel” could not live together in harmony, 
and the Moors were expelled, taking with 
them the industry and leaving the pride and 
indolence of the country. During the next 
century America was discovered under Span¬ 
ish patronage, and attention was directed to 
the New World that was supposed to abound 
in gold and silver and precious stones. Alby- 
terro, a Spanish author of the seventeenth 
century, wrote truly, “the people who sailed 
for America in order to return laden with 
wealth would have done their country much 
better service to have stayed at home and 
guided the plow.” With the nineteenth cen¬ 
tury a general improvement seems to have 
sprung up, but wars and internal discords 
checked it, and bad government and priest¬ 
craft combined have done much to keep 
Spain from being what, under other circum¬ 
stances, it might have been, the garden of 
Europe. 
All that is known of agriculture in France, 
previous to the ninth century, is gathered 
from the laws, which appear to have been fa¬ 
vorable thereto. Charlemagne in the ninth 
century encouraged the culture of vines and 
orchards. Horses seem to have been more 
common than in Italy, which, with cattle and 
sheep, were pastured in commons and forests. 
After this time civil wars were prevalent and 
agriculture declined, but revived again before 
the close of the twelfth century. The best 
lands were under the control of the Church, 
and were made to pay considerable revenues. 
In the thirteenth century we find wind-mills 
for grinding corn introduced. From this time 
little progress was made until about the mid¬ 
dle of the sixteenth century, wheu considera¬ 
ble enterprise was displayed, and the first ag¬ 
ricultural work produced in. France, a short 
tract by Bernard de Palbsy, was published. 
Later we find Duhamel’s New Husbandry. 
The Government seems to have favored gen¬ 
eral cultivation of the soil, and France is said 
to have abounded with “ corn, grain, pulse, 
wine, cider, flax, hemp, salt, wool, oil, dyeing 
drugs, cattle, great and smali, and everything 
else, whether necessary or convenient for life, 
both for home consumption and exportation.” 
The nations of Europe north of the Rhine 
and the Danube were, previous to the seven¬ 
teenth century, so much engaged in civil wars 
and invasions into neighboring countries that 
but little attention was paid to agriculture. 
In'about the middle of the sixteenth century 
the Elector i,t£ Saxony planted the first vine¬ 
yard that was known within the country over 
which he ru led, and seems to have been con¬ 
siderably interested iu the cultivation of the 
soil for other purposes. 
When Britain was invaded by the Romans 
they carried with them such agricultural 
knowledge as had become common in the Em¬ 
pire. and considerable progress was made dur¬ 
ing the 400 years of their occupancy; but 
they left and were followed by the Anglo- 
Saxous, cultivation ceased and the people sub 
sisted on game caught in the chase, and the 
flocks an 1 herds that found abundant pastur¬ 
age, and especially on the swine, for which the 
seeds of the oak and beech furnished large 
quantities of food. 
The Welsh at this period mainly depended 
on their cattle aud sheep for subsistanee, but 
we find some curious laws relative to cultiva¬ 
tion. Plowing with any other animals than 
oxen was prohibited. None were allowed to 
guide a plow who could not make one, and the 
driver should make the twisted willow ropes 
by which it was drawn. Certain privileges 
were allowed to him who should manure laud, 
clear a field from wood, or fold his cattle on 
another's land for a year. In Ireland and 
Scotland progress in cultivation was, if possi¬ 
ble, far leas than in Britain and Wales. 
The Saxons found, however, that the rais¬ 
ing of field crops contributed to their comfort, 
and although working the ground was thought 
a menial employment, only fit for slaves, it 
became after a while an apparent necessity, 
and the princes and other large landholders 
divided their estates into inlands and outlands, 
the former near their houses, which were 
worked under then- own directions, the latter 
more remote and let out for rent, which was 
very small, established by law, and usually 
paid in kind. 
When the Saxon rule in Britain was over¬ 
thrown by the Normans a marked improve¬ 
ment in agriculture commenced. The thou¬ 
sands who came from Normandy, France and 
Flanders brought with them the knowledge 
those countries possessed, and it was not long 
before the best men in the land were interested 
in the cultivation of such crops as were then 
known. Laws were made in the interests of 
the fanners, implements of husbandry were 
improved, manuring practiced, fruit trees 
and vines became common, and the whole 
country bore a different aspect from 
what it had ever borne before. This pro¬ 
gress continued during the thirteenth and 
fourteenth centuries, but was stayed about 
the middle of the fifteenth century by the 
civil wars that then raged. The peace that 
followed the accession of Henry VII., in 1485, 
again gave opportunity for the improvement 
of landed possessions, but the great demand 
for wool from the Netherlands induced the 
proprietors to turn their attention to sheep 
raising, and to such an extent was this canned, 
that law's restricting the number of each flock 
to 2,000, were made. Certain causes thereunto 
working, however, after a while compelled 
the changing of the pastures into cultivated 
fields, and the herdsmen resumed the plow. 
The first English treatise on husbandry ap¬ 
peared in 1534. It was written by Sir A. Fitz- 
herbert, a lawyer and judge. This was fol¬ 
lowed by Thomas Tusser’s Five Hundred 
Points of Husbandry, and still later we find 
Jethro Tull’s Horse-Hoeing Husbandry, an ar¬ 
gument in favor of higher cultivation, show¬ 
ing the effect of more thoroughly intermin¬ 
gling particles of soil. 
About this tune much attention was given to 
the breeding of horses, and singular laws were 
enacted. One enjoined on all prelates, nobles 
and others whose wives wore velvet bonnets 
to have stallions of a certain size for their 
saddles. The legal standard was 15 hands for 
horses and 13 for mares. “Unlikely tits” 
were executed. 
From the beginning of the sixteenth century 
agriculture partook of the general improve¬ 
ment that was being made by the invention 
of the printing press, the revival ef literature 
and the more settled authority of Government, 
and during the reign of Elizabeth it had at 
tained a considerable degree of respectability. 
Many circumstances combined to retard 
agricultural progress in Scotland. The gen¬ 
eral surface of the soil and the climate are 
not conducive to culture, and the civil dissen¬ 
sions that prevailed took men from the plow 
to engage them in the almost 'ontinualstrifee. 
Many laws were made looking to the protec¬ 
tion aud encouragement of husbandry, but 
they were of little avail. 
The seventeenth century is marked by some 
important improvements in English husband¬ 
ry. At this time works on agriculture had be¬ 
come more common and seem to have exerted 
favorable influence. Clover and turnips which 
had beeu long aud profitably cultivated in 
Flanders, were introduced, and potatoes, that 
had been known there since 1565, but only to 
be neglected, began to receive the attention 
they deserved. 
While in most parts of Europe agri¬ 
cultural interests and knowledge advanced 
almost constantly Horn the earliest pe¬ 
riod of which we have definite knowl¬ 
edge, they seem to have made little progress 
in the East. There is no perceptible advance 
in the processes of China and Japan, which 
may be said to be curious rather than success¬ 
fully practical. Central Asia was little known 
and Western Asia, including Persia, Pales¬ 
tine, the African shores of the Mediterranean 
