The Rugbeian. (Rugby, Morgan Co., Tenn.) 1881-1882, 1882-08-19
ENSlL-AGE:D

EDITOR "RUGBEIAN"
Dear Sir,-Most of your readers must
have seen notices in the papers of this
plan of preserving green fodder in pits,
which has come to us from France, and
many of them, once convinced that it is
practicable and inexpensive: must be
ready to try it, seeing that it claims to
double the stock feeding capacity of
their land. have got two copies of
the "Report Of Proceedings of the
Ensilage Congress, New York, January
1926, 1882 published by the New,
York Plow Co., and shall be happy to
lend them to any one wishing to post
himself on the subject. | have not
read it myself yet, but in it he will
probably find the name mentioned of
Mr.. Fras. Morris, who first introduced
the plan into this country, some seven
years ago, and who has made a complete
success of it. | visited Mr.. Morris
1900 acre farm near Baltimore on my
way home, and this is what | learnt
First, that though the plan can be
applied to clover and all sorts Of grasses,
it answers best with corn; and next,
that properly applied you can keep
your green corn fodder for an indefinite
number. of years. Mr., Morris was just
finishing his pit Of 1880 corn fodder
and it was as sweet as the day it was
put in. You cut your corn as soon as it
gets in tassle, having first prepared a
pit six feet (or less) wide, and six feet
deep, and as long as required to hold
your crop. Your ensilage cutter has to
be close to the pit. You cut in lengths
of rather less than half an inch, and
throw into the pit, letting mule or
some ether animal tread it down after
each layer. You have to pile your
fodder three feet above the top of the
pit, cover over with roofing, felt Or any
thing which will keep it from the air.
Then a layer of earth lSin. to 2ft. thick,
and rocks or lumber (Which can be
taken off when the fodder has settled
into a solid mass) on the top. The
point is to exclude oxygen, and there
fore to prevent any vacuum forming
while the fodder is settling down.
Afterwards the earth has to be we'll
pressed down. and looked to from time
to time to see that it is not washed
away or cracks formed in it. The pit
had better be on the side of a gentle
incline, so as to give drainage and easy
access at one end. There is no need
here to build the expensive brick-and-
cement pits of which M. Auguste
Goffart (the introducer, in 1885, of the
plan in France) gives the description,
though these are all very well where ~
man counts his stock and cleared acres
by the hundred The main object, the
exclusion of air and frost, can be just
as well attained with an ordinary pit
such as | have described and when |
add that am assured on the best
authority that ten tons of green corn
fodder so treated are equal in nutritive
value to five tons of timothy hay, and
that this quantity can be got from very
poor land, and that all stock Especially
dairy eat it ravenously and get fat on
it, need say nothing more to induce
those whose main object is to make
every cleared acre produce its utmost,
to give the plan trial The manure
produced per acre, will, | am assured,
fertilize much more than the acre from
which it is produced.
Yours, ETC.,
w. HASTINGS HUGHES.