Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1881-05-30
TWO BLADES OF GRASS.

Inc man VINO makes TWO DlaueS VI
grass grow where only one grew before
has been pronounced public benefactor.
What shall we say of the discoverer of
plan by which ten COWS are kept where
only one could be supported? 1t is
claimed by an apparent excellent author
ity that this has been done and can be
done anywhere, and by anybody who
will take the trouble. 1t is notable how
one invention always suggests and paves
the way to other inventions, and how
any marked improvement sets the wits
of men at work in directions they had
never taken before. The art of preserv-
ing suggested the new method of cam
ming green fruit and vegetables which
have now become almost indispensable
articles of food. And the success with
which green peas, tomatoes, corn, berries,
string beans and even asparagus are pre-
served for years suggested to an ingen-
ious Frenchman, Auguste Goffart of So
logne. that grass and the stalks of corn
might be kept green through the winter
for the food of cattle. All the best part
of the grass is lost by drying. The
dried husks of corn contain little nour-
lshment. while the green stalks are full
Of rich sweet juices. An acre of mown
clover fills the air for mile with the
fragrance which is nothing but its finest
and most nutritive properties running
away. If modern art can supply our
tables with summer Injuries through the
winter till summer comes again, why
should it not save the best part of the
produce of the fields and give our cattle
the food of perpetual summer?
This is what M. Goffart of Sologne
attempted thirty years ago. His first
experiment was made in 1850. He had
partly succeeded when, in 1871, on re-
turning from the siege of Paris, he found
that his fine stock of cattle had been de-
stroyed by typhus. He set at work again,
and succeeded so well that the Agricul-
tural Society of France gave him the dec
grafton of the Legion of Honor in 1875.
The method he had spent so many years
in perfecting was, however, discovered
by New York merchant who mas farm
not far from Patterson N. J., and by &C.
cident. He hoped to improve the quail
ity of his corn by hypridization, and
planted large field in alternate rows
with the small Northern and the large
Southern seed. The former ripened and
was harvested, while the latter was green
and in the milk. The season was toe
short at both ends for that kind of grain
He was mortified at his failure, but moi
knowing what else to do, he dug severa
pits in the gravel near his barn, linec
them with straw, and buried his greer
fodder in them. covering them over we'll
1t was perfectly canned and without hi
knowing it. In the spring he opened
one of the pits and found the fodder per
fectly green and sweet. His cattle at
it eagerly, and their yield of milk in
creased, while its quality was greatl
improved. He was obliged to treble hi
stock to eat up the fodder he feared wa
lost. He had stumbled on a discovery
The next year he constructed two pit
in his barn capable of holding all tn
green fodder he was prepared to rals,
Into these "silos" as they are called
from the French, he pours the green foe
der after it has been cut up. Then it
subjected to an even pressure by putin
bags of grain on the top, but not enoug
to crush the stalks. 1t is fed out to I'll
cattle in small quantities. with a lit
meal. On farm which FIVE years az
kept ten cattle he now keeps one hun,
red and twenty and twelve horses. Ar
all the fodder is raised on less tia
twenty acres.
These facts tell their own story. If tt
new system of ensilage-which is sir
ply the application to green fodder f
cattle of the same general method
preservation which supplies us with gre,
vegetables and fruits through the wint
lis completely successful. it must lie;
to the most important practical result
1t will enhance the productiveness al