The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1883-04-26
THE HISTORY OF ESSILAGE.
An Article by Prof. McI,r, do OF the State
University.

|
One OF your corresI oadents asks
"What is IL Will you be Kind cnougl
to let me know through the columns o
your valuable paper what the meanin,
of 'enslnge' is and what it is used for
how it is used" &c.
EnMidge, word of comparatively re
cent coinage, is n term applied, first to {
socalled new process of preserving greer
forage in pits, and second, to the product
of the process. 1t is compounded of tho
two French words en-, in, and silo, pi
for the preservation Of grain, roots, SC
"The cns;lage of maize" is, therefore, ir
plain English tie process of Cutting
green ccrn fodder, and "corr cnsilaec'
is "pitted corn" or the corn forage pre-
served by the process. The foreign de-
rivation of the word is well calculated tc
prejudice the minds of our farmer.
against the process. 1t is hotly disputed
as to whom the honor of originating il
rightly belongs. GoGart, French far.
mer, claims to have practically tested il
on large scale as far back as 1852, and
to have perfected it by his subsequen.
experiments. He does not scruple to
apply to his achievements the much
abused line Of Horace. "E'rcgi monumen
fun. "re pcrcnnius." Ina gathering of
his enthusiastic American admirers, held
In New York few months ago, reso-
luton was introduced urging the import
ance OF rerpetuating his fame by the
erection of a"mOnument" Of somewhat
| less eEduring character, but cheaper ma.
terlal, than brass. Mr.. Francis D..
Moulton. another warn. al ocato of the
process, roundly affirms TINT "to an
American Mr.. G. w. Mills, of New
Jersey,) will belong the honor and fame
OF having perfected the system of ensil.
age III his discovery OF tho value of uni.
form continuous pressu. . and the method
of applying it,"
Such prejudices can be best removed
and such disputes most easily settled by
a hasty glance at the true history of the
process. /, therefore, propose in this
communication to submit brief histori.
cal abatement of the origin Of ensilage,
and to reserve for future letter de.
| tailed account of the process.
The French ".Siio" is the same word as
the Latin dative siro and the Greek da-
tive siro, the substitution of for being
common genealogical change. The
word can be traced back to the Persian.
IN all these languages it's meaning is the
same, an underground excavation or pit,
used for the storage of grain and other
farm products.
Columella, Latin writer OF the first
century, speaks rf grain being kept in
pits rs, "in certain transmarine provin-
ces, where the ground followed out into
excavations resembling wells, which are
called siros, receives back its own pro-
duce." LIB. /, Cap. VI. 15.)
Earro, another Roman author Of still
earlier date. mentions these sros, and
states that "they were in use ii, Cappado-
cia and Trace, and also formerly in Spain
and around Carthage" "Their bottoms" !"
he says, "were covered with straw and
every precautioE taken to prevent the
| access of moisture and air to the grain
until it was brought out for use, for it
was held that the weevil would not breed
where the air was excluded" He adds
that wheat thus stored away kept fifty
years and millet upwards Of one hundred
LIB. /, Cap. LVII.)
Pliny, the naturalist, who perished in
an eruption of Mount Vesuvius, "A. y.
70, after referring to different methods of
Preserving grain, goes on to remark :
They (corns) keep we'll stored away in
trenches which they call siros, as in Cap
padocia and Thrace, and Spain and part
of Africa. They are very careful to
build them in dry soil-they next strew
them with stray and store away the grain
in them in the ear. If no air penetrates
the grains thus stored away, it is certain
that they continue uninjured. Varro is
authority for saying that wheat thus
buried keeps fifty years, and millet even
one hundred and that the bean and
pulse are preserved for long time in
olive oil casks smeared with ashes, and
that the bean remained sound in a GER
tain cave of Ambracia from the age Of
King Pyrrhus even down to the pratical
war OF Pompey the Great, period of
220 years." Natural History Lib.
XVIII, Cap. 30!.
a year or SO ago an article appeared
in al agricultural paper warming farmers
against incautiously descending in the
morning into a partly filled siIo The
writer observed that "the carbonic acid
produced during the process of filling
collects over night" and went on to state
that "a laborer near Sing Sing, New
York, came near losing his life by going
down in the morning into one half filed"
After reading this it seems strange to
learn from Varro, in the days when
Priestly and oxygen were not, that
whenever they opened the siros they
waited for some time before descending
into them for fear Of the noxious air col.
lected therein" Glib. /, Cap. LXIII.)
Diodorus says that the Britons laid up
their corn in the ear, and preserved it in
subterranean pitB from which the damp
and air were carefully excluded. Taci-
tus, also, in his DE Ge,menia, informs us
that "the Germans were in the habit of
making subterranean excavations, which
they covered on the outside with thick
layers of dung" and that they used
theae as places Of shelter in winter and
"as receptacles for their crops, because
they lessened the severity of the cold and
saved their stores from spoliation. )"
| (Chap. ICY
WRITER ON CELTI C ANTIQUITIES.
states that "subterranean buildings OF
rude but substantial formation, are
found throughout Scotland" and that
'there is every reason TO believe that
these were places where the grain of the
inhabitants were deposited for security
It should be mentioned in this connec
tion that Vitruvius, writer on. archi
lecture in the days of Augustus, men
items in Lib. VI, cup. s, among Other
buildings used for the preservation OF
farm produce, Oructibus rusticis) vaults OF
pits in houses, lin edibus crypttr.) Phi
lander, commenting on this passage
interprets cryptic as "vaulted subterrane
an bitches or excavated places, and
trenches where grain Ia stored away.'
and compares them with the siros men.
toned in Varro.
It would appear, then, that tho proces,
| 0F anRiIapa s1r1ue CON lox D1o;.,. -