Mo. Qass f^B/^5 
 
 Book > Gl^^5 
 
 Cat 
 
M. AUGUSTE GOFFART. 
 
THE 
 
 ENSILAGE OF MAIZE, 
 
 AND OTHER 
 
 GREEN FODDER CROPS, 
 
 BY 
 
 M. AUaUSTE GOEEART, 
 
 Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur, Metnher of the Central Agricultural Society of France, ^c. 
 
 PARIS, 1877. 
 
 translIteij ' :feiir ' 
 J. B. BROWN^. 
 
 Together with a History of the Introduction and the Present Condition 
 of the Art in the United States. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 1879. 
 
^3^^^ 
 
 A^^ 
 
 Entered e year 1879, 
 
 Published by 
 
 J. B. BROWN, 
 In the O ^^ Beekman Street, New York Washington. 
 
 Pat. OfiQoe UliU 
 
 STKKEOTyPED AND PRINTEP BY 
 
 THK NATIONAL PKXKTING COMPANY, 
 
 10, JS, 20 ANi> 22 Chamreks Strekt, 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
TO THE 
 
 MEMBERS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 DE FRANCE,* 
 
 It is to you that I dedicate this little hooh ; to you who have 
 received so favorably my early efforts in this matter. 
 
 You ivill see that the author has not slept upon his first success^ 
 and that during the ]}ast two years he has made much progress. 
 
 It is for you to judge 'if the end is entirely attained, as he he- 
 lieves it to he, or if he should continue to seek further improvement 
 in this art which he considers notv perfectly acquired in agrictdtural 
 practice. 
 
 At any rate, he now submits his work to your impartial 
 judgment. 
 
 AUGUSTE GOFFART. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Vocabulary or Feench Words 7 
 
 Preface 9 
 
 Chapter I. — Advantages to be derived from the Preservation of Green 
 
 Fodder by Ensilage 11 
 
 " II. — ^Varieties of Maize 13 
 
 " III. & IV. — Land suitable to the Production of Maize 14 
 
 '' V. & VL—Methods-of Culture 17 
 
 " VII.— Yield of Maize 18 
 
 " VIIL— Food Value of Maize 18 
 
 " IX. — Prickly Comfrey of the Caucasus 22 
 
 " X. — ^Processes for Assuring the Preservation of Green Maize. 23 
 
 " XI. — How the Green Maize should be cut 25 
 
 " XII. — Proportion of Straw 27 
 
 " XIII. — Compression of the Silos 29 
 
 " XIV. — The Proper Hydrometric Condition 30 
 
 " XV. — ^Effect of Ensilage upon Fodder 30 
 
 " XVL— How to Build a Silo 33 
 
 " XVII.— How to Fill a Silo 34 
 
 " XVIII.— The new Stables at Burtin, and their Silos 36 
 
 " XIX.— Conclusions- Effects of Frost 38 
 
 Extract from M. Goffart's Speech at Blois, May 8, 1875 40 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Chapter I. — Eeport of the Central Agricultural Society of France... 45 
 
 " II. — ^Extract from the Journal of Agriculture, France 49 
 
 " III. — Extract from the Journal of Agriculture, France 50 
 
C CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chapter IV. — The Analysis and Composition of Maize. . . . , 51 
 
 " V. — Extract from the Report to the Agricultural Club of 
 
 Romorantin 59 
 
 '' VI. — Extract from the Report to the Central Agricultural 
 
 Committee of Sologne 60 
 
 ii VII. — Extract from the Speech of President of Central Agri- 
 
 cultural Committee of Sologne Announcing the 
 Award of the Decoration of the Legion of Honor to 
 
 ■" Monsieur Goflfart 02 
 
 Introduction of Ensilage to the United States, by Francis Morris, Esq. 63 
 
 Letter from Mons. Goffart, Dec. 4, 1878 65 
 
 Conclusions by the Translator 67 
 
 Composition of Maize (grain) 71 
 
 Disadvantage of Drying Corn-fodder 71 
 
 Food Ingredients — Cliemical Terms Explained 72 
 
 Farming for Profit , 73 
 
 Pearl Millet 76 
 
 The Ensilage Cutter 77 
 
VOCABULARY OF FRENCH WORDS, 
 
 PRESERVED IN TRANSLATION, SOME OF WHICH SHOULD BE ADOPTED INTO 
 
 OUR OWN LANGUAGE. 
 
 Centimetre. — j^Vo^o inch ; about -^^ inch. 
 
 Centime. — -^-^ of English penny, or \ American cent. 
 
 Ensilage. — The act of compressmg into pits, trenches, or compartments called 
 silos ; also the green crops so preserved. 
 
 Franc. — ISj^ cents. 
 
 Hectare. — 2j^*J^ ^"^re, or 100 French ares. 
 
 Hectolitre. — 22 gallons ; 2f bushels. 
 
 Kilogramme. — "iri^iob 1^- advoirdupois ; about 2 lb. 3^^ oz. 
 
 Litre. — Ij^ol) pi^t; 01 cubic inches. 
 
 Maize. — The corn-plant. 
 
 Jfefre.— 3.2808992 ft. ; about 3ft. 3i inches. 
 
 Silo. — Excavation, pit, or trench, hollowed in the ground (Littre), or any com- 
 partment used for storing green fodder in an air-tight manner. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In beginning, four years ago, my publications on the 
 subject of ensilage, I did not deceive myself, nor hide from 
 the world that my success was far from being complete, and 
 that my task was not on the eve of being accomplished. 
 Since that time I have worked incessantly to perfect my early 
 methods. I have rectified, one by one, my erroneous ideas as 
 to the modifications that the fodder undergoes in the silo, and 
 in consequence I have made various changes in my early 
 processes. Since my first writings I have been compelled to 
 renounce certain views which I believed to be indisputable. 
 It is important to be able to confess to ourselves when we are 
 mistaken, and, above all, to confess to others, without self- 
 love, and with no other desire but for the truth. Thanks to 
 this freedom from the prejudice of preconceived opinion, I 
 have corrected my early erroneous views, and I can to-day 
 recommend to my agricultural brothers a complete system of 
 ensilage, applicable to all green crops without distinction, and 
 can guarantee to them an entire success if they will follow 
 to the letter all my directions. For many years I have been 
 interested in agricultural as well as industrial and commer- 
 cial affairs. At the age of 24 years I built, in Belgium, the 
 high furnaces of Monceaux, one of the most important estab- 
 
10 PREFACE. 
 
 lishments in the country, and for forty years I have been one 
 of the directors. In 1846 I acquired the domain of Burtin in 
 Sologne, which contained about 1,200 hectares. Since that 
 time my Hfe has been divided between agricultural and in- 
 dustrial pursuits. It was at Burtin, in 1852, that I com- 
 menced to stvidy practically the important problem of the 
 preservation of fodder. 
 
 The great passion of my whole life has been work. It 
 will only be extinguished with my life. To that passion I 
 owe the honor of having attached my name to an agricultural 
 system of which the importance will be each day better ap- 
 preciated, and will increase without ceasing. 
 
Culture and Ensilage of Maize, 
 
 AND OTHER GREEN FODDER. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 ADVANTAGES TO BE DEEIVED FROM THE PRESERVATION 
 OF GREEN FODDER BY ENSILAGE, OVER THE METHOD 
 OF PRESERVATION BY DRYING. 
 
 If there is one fact recognized by all agriculturists, it is 
 that a certain quantity of grass, which, consumed in a green 
 state represents an ascertained nutritive value, loses a consider- 
 able portion of that value in passing into the state of hay in- 
 tended for the winter sustenance of animals. 
 
 The cow, which gives us in summer, while feeding on 
 green grass^ such excellent milk, and butter of such agreeable 
 color and flavor, furnishes us in winter, when slie eats the 
 same grass converted into hay, an inferior quality of milk, 
 and pale, insipid butter. What modifications has this grass 
 undergone in changing to hay? These modifications are 
 numerous. It is sufficient to cross a meadow at the time when 
 the new-mown grass is undergoing desiccation in order to 
 recognize that it is losing an enormous quantity of its sub- 
 stance that exhales in the air in agreeable odors, but which, 
 if they remained in the plant, would serve as a condiment, fa- 
 cilitating digestion and assimilation. 
 
 All stock-raisers, those of Sologne especially, know how 
 rapidly our young cattle increase in weight in summer on 
 green pasture, which, converted into hay and devoted to their 
 
12 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 nourishment in winter, scarcely keeps them in statu quo ; hay 
 given judiciously does not always prevent them from becom- 
 ing* lean. 
 
 Therefore the sole fact of desiccation accomplished by fine 
 weather, in the best conditions, causes the loss of a consider- 
 able part of essential substance. This loss, added to the 
 physical modifications which render mastication and digestion 
 of the hay more difiicult than of the grass, and consequently 
 assimilation less complete, merits the most serious attention 
 on the part of those who are interested in agiicultural affairs. 
 
 The losses which I have mentioned are far from being all 
 that result from our method of transforming grass into hay. 
 
 Rains, ofttimes prolonged, coming upon the harvest, the 
 absence of sufficient heat in autumn, are powerful causes of 
 deterioration of hay. 
 
 What agriculturist has not seen a hundred times his hay, 
 injured by rain, deprived of its richest and most assimilative 
 elements ? The rain prolonged, the hay is invaded by a species 
 of nauseous rot, which disgusts cattle and causes formidable 
 maladies when hunger forces them to eat it. If these things 
 occur to the common fodder crops — clover, lucern, sainfoin, 
 etc. — what would happen to the fodder crops of high growth 
 and great yield, such as maize and sorgho 1 Never in otu- 
 temperate climate could we obtain for these a sufficient desic- 
 cation by the sun. 
 
 These are the grave inconveniences which from time 
 inunemorial have induced agriculturists to seek some new 
 method of preservation for their fodder. It is nearly a century 
 since the German, Klapmayer, called the attention of the agri- 
 cultural world to his system of conversion of grass into hay, 
 and which still bears his name — ''Brown hay, Klapmayer 
 method." This method, which made a great noise at the time 
 of its appearance, has had its seasons of popularity. It has 
 been successively taken up, abandoned, again taken up ; but 
 it has in fact never been firmly implanted into agricultural 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OP MAIZE. 13 
 
 practice. For my part, at the commencenient of my agricul- 
 tural career, more than thirty years ago, I pursued some expe- 
 riments perseveringly through two campaigns, in which I fol- 
 lowed faithfully the directions of Klapmaj^er. How many 
 times have I arisen in the middle of the night, with one of my 
 workmen, in order to satisfy myself, thermometer in hand, that 
 my grass, gathered in cocks larger or smaller, did not exceed 
 the degree of heat prescribed as the extreme limit to insure 
 excellent preservation. I never succeeded, and I doubt if any 
 other persons have been any more fortunate. 
 
 A few years later I gave my attention to the culture of 
 maize, and I began to seek for it a system of preservation 
 by ensilage. I have therein entirely succeeded, but only after 
 thousands of experiments, which have continued not less than 
 a quarter of a century. It is that all agriculturists may 
 profit by the experience acquired, often at my cost, upon this 
 important subject, that I have written this Manual. 
 
 11. 
 
 VARIETIES OF MAIZE. 
 
 In order to have early fresh maize to give to cattle in sum- 
 mer, I sow in May a half hectare of forty-day maize. This 
 is a variety of early maize, but of moderate yield. Its pre- 
 cocity is its principal and nearly its only merit. For my en- 
 silages I only cultivate the large foreign maize, which I will 
 describe. 
 
 The maize of Nicaragua holds, evidently, the first place; 
 its great height, the great number of large leaves, which cover 
 it from root to top ; the product in weight, superior to all, con- 
 stitutes an incontestable superiority. Next comes the maize of 
 
14 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 Algeria, recently imported into our African colony under the 
 name of Caragua, and cultivated by M. de Bonand, the skill- 
 ful agriculturist who presides over the Society of Agricul- 
 ture of Algiers. This maize is excellent in every respect ; the 
 sprouting sure, the product considerable. It is to be desired 
 that Algeria should prepare to send it to us in large quantities. 
 I have sown no other kind the past year. 
 
 Translator's Note. — M. Goffart devotes several chapters to the consideration of 
 the subject of procuring seed from Central America, which is rendered difficult by the 
 flies that infest tropical grain. It would seem that in order to have large corn-stalks 
 in France it is necessary to use imported seed. As the United States produces some 
 very tall corn-stalks, I have written him to know why the inventive ability of the 
 farmers of the United States has not been set at work to produce a seed corn that 
 would yield large and tall stalks in France. 
 
 The author speaks of a Hungarian maize which exceeds three metres in height 
 and twenty centimetres (or eight inches) in circumference. He also mentions Dent 
 de cheval (horse-tooth) as being sold at a moderate price. This is doubtless our 
 Dent corn (the word dent originally meaning a tooth). He seems to give preference 
 to the seed raised in Algeria, of American origin, and called Caragua. 
 
 III. AND TV. 
 
 LANDS SUITABLE TO THE PRODUCTION OF MAIZE. 
 
 I DO not pretend that all soil is adapted to a profitable 
 culture of maize. There are certain indispensable conditions of 
 the physical, hygrometric and chemical state of the soil, the 
 absence of which wiU render impossible the profitable culture 
 of this fodder crop ; but in most instances it will answer to in- 
 crease, for the first two crops, the manuring and dressing, in 
 order to obtain a large production, which will give a sort of 
 impetus to the new culture, and will be the point of de23arture 
 of a most happy transformation. As in a machine, however 
 well constructed, it is necessary to overcome at first the force 
 of inertia. 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 15 
 
 At Burtin my soil possesses some qualities very favorable 
 for this culture, but for four years my processes left much to 
 be desired, and Avithin two years I have made more progress 
 than I had obtained during twenty years preceding. Tlie 
 large quantity of maize that the increase of this culture and 
 my perfected processes have placed every year at my disposal 
 has permitted me to double the number of my stock ; then 
 each animal which formerly produced 13,000 kilogrammes of 
 dung has produced, since it has been better nourished, nearly 
 20,000 kilogrammes. Therefore, if my maize requires abund- 
 ant manuring it causes a production of manure more than suf- 
 ficient. In fact, a hectare of maize, properly treated and suc- 
 cessfully preserved, yields a product of more that 50,000 kilo- 
 grammes of manure, and absorbs hardly one-third of this quan- 
 tity. It is necessary to add that each week I spread upon my 
 dung-heaps 100 kilogTammes of phosphate. This practice 
 gives excellent results, above all in Sologne, where our soil, 
 naturally very poor in phosphoric acid, requires that we should 
 furnish it in every possible form. Some foreboding people 
 predicted four years ago that I would lose all my stock if I 
 continued to feed them exclusively on maize throughout the 
 year. I have continued to do so, and all my animals enjoy 
 excellent health, without even a shadow of a malady. One of 
 the most valuable properties of maize is the power of self suc- 
 cession almost indefinite. Some of my finest maize occupies 
 a field which, during the past eighteen years, has borne 
 fourteen harvests of that plant without giving any signs of 
 weariness ; on the contrary, the later yield is better than the 
 former. All the requirement is to give to the land suitable 
 manuring, restoring each year the equivalent of that which is 
 taken off. Potash is the predominating component of maize. 
 Animals consuming it assimilate very little potash, and the 
 dung-heap restores to the soil nearly all of it that has been 
 removed in the crop. Another plant, much cultivated in So- 
 logne, the hemp, jDossesses also the property of eternalizing 
 
16 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 itself upon the same field. Each farm has its hemp field, 
 which, for centuries, occupies the same ground. 
 
 The soil which is best adapted to the culture of maize is 
 of medium consistency, rather light than heavy, moist without 
 being wet, rich in alluvial matter, and therefore of a dark 
 color. It is remarkable that our poor Sologne possesses an 
 abundance of this kind of land, as if Heaven had wished to 
 give it some sort of compensation for all its other inferiorities. 
 Heavy soil is equally well adapted to produce very fine maize, 
 but requires more labor; for it is necessary to bring it to a 
 state of fine pulverization, at the risk of the seed not sprouting, 
 which is always difficult in compact earth. In general terms, 
 maize will succeed wherever beets do well, with the same 
 conditions as to manuring and top-dressing. But maize can- 
 not, of course, have the pretension to compete with advantage 
 against such a rival ; above all, in the rich countries where 
 for so long a time it has been cultivated as a plant that is both 
 valuable in commerce (sugar) and for fodder. In those parts 
 maize can only make for itself a modest place, as a means of 
 varying a little the food of our animals. 
 
 But in those countries, such as the South of France and 
 Algeria, where the excessive heat causes the beet to fail, there 
 maize will render immense service. Preserved by ensilage, it 
 will assure at all times to the cattle sufficient food, instead of 
 those alternations of abundance and scarcity which often have 
 such sorrowful results. 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 17 
 
 V. AND VI. 
 
 METHODS OF CULTURE. 
 
 Formerly I planted my maize in ridges, which has been 
 the sole method practiced for a long time in the fields of om' 
 Sologne. The ridge in shallow soil but little dug up is an 
 excellent method for protecting the fall seeding against the 
 wet, so destructive in winter. But as a spring crop it is neces- 
 sary to give up the ridges entirely, and to replace them by 
 beds more or less extensive. These, by yielding less evapo- 
 ration, provide better than the ridge against the dryness of 
 summer. Another motive, more serious, pleads also in favor 
 of beds. When well compressed by a heavy roller, they pro- 
 tect the seed, more eifectually than the ridge, against one of 
 the most to be dreaded plagues of this culture. At the mo- 
 ment when the little shoot makes its appearance out of the 
 earth, the birds come in crowds, in order to jjull up and eat the 
 grain which adheres to and comes out of the soil Avith it, 
 especially when the soil is light, as it commonly is in Sologne. 
 I have lost several times a third, and sometimes a half, of my 
 maize, devoured thus at the birth, by crows, pies, and pigeons, 
 which swarm in our fields. A good rolling of my beds with a 
 heavy stone roller is an efi^ective preservative against the 
 danger which I have mentioned. When the earth has been 
 well packed down by the roller, the bird that pulls iip the 
 shoot of maize finds that it breaks off near the ground without 
 being followed by the grain, wdiicli is all that lias an}' value 
 to him. Deceived in his hope, the bird gives up very quickly 
 an ungrateful labor which refuses him the reward upon Avliich 
 he had reckoned. Besides this, the roller is jin instrument of 
 security for our light soil. It strengthens the hold of the 
 plant upon the soil, and it has saved, twenty times, my crops 
 that were in danger by being laid bare. 
 
 The use of the seeding machine is the surest and least 
 
18 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 costly method. It economizes the seed, which often costs so 
 dear, and it gives regular and equal lines, which render the 
 after cultivation very easy. For want of a machine, I have 
 obtained very good results in distributing the seed by hand, 
 by women, who follow the laborer and only put the seed in 
 every second fm-row. I obtained thus wider rows, but regu- 
 larly spaced and easily cultivated. 
 
 Note. — The translator supposes that the gang-plow is used in this case. The 
 French plow of this kind excelled even our American plows at the Paris Exposition, 
 and is to be introduced into this country. The remainder of this chapter is de- 
 voted to comparison between drilled and broadcast sowing, which is omitted as 
 valueless to the American farmer. The mechanical genius of the United States and 
 Canada, fostered by the Patent Office and rewarded by the immense demand for its 
 results, has settled this question to the great relief of the arms and backs of the 
 laborers. 
 
 VII. 
 
 YIELD OF MAIZE. 
 
 Thanks to the care that I have specified, I obtain from 
 my maize an enormous yield. In the past five years the 
 minimum has been 75,000 kilogrammes per hectare, and the 
 maximum 415,000. The average 3deld has been 90,000 kilo- 
 gi'ammes per hectare. 
 
 Note. — About 40 tons to the acre. 
 
 vm. 
 
 FOOD VALUE OF MAIZE. 
 
 It is only by experience that we can solve the question 
 of the alimentary value of maize. I can assert, however, that 
 at my home at Burtin, in the way in which I prepare it, 
 maize with one-tenth of its weight of oat straw maintains my 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 19 
 
 animals in perfect condition. It would be, I confess, going 
 too far to say that maize alone has the faculty of making verv 
 fat animals for fairs, or for high quality butcher stalls. Cows 
 which are not being milked quickly take a condition entirely 
 satisfactory to our country butchers, who are, as a class, less 
 exacting than those of the city. But for perfect fattening it is 
 necessary to add other aliments to the regular ration, such as 
 beet-pulp. I have tried the experiment of fattening five ani- 
 mals with my preserved maize, and an addition in the com- 
 mencement of four kilogrammes per day of oilcake. They 
 became fat with surprising rapidity. At this time seventy- 
 three horned animals live only upon maize and straw on 
 my farms at Burtin and Gouillon, and my stables are always 
 open to visiting farmers. Maize poorly preserved is a poor 
 nutriment for animals, and may even become a poison for 
 them. We should not lose sight of the fact that in the condi- 
 tion of the preserved fodder there are an infinite immber of 
 degrees to which the nutritive value con'esponds ; the inethod 
 of cutting, the chemical modifications to which it is subjected, 
 cause it to vary from single to double the nutritive power. 
 
 Says one person to me, " I can use but one-half maize in 
 my rations ; otherwise my beasts would perish." Another says, 
 "One-third is the maximum quantity that my beasts can 
 stand in their rations." Another pretends that a quarter is 
 hardly endurable. Gentlemen, only make good ensilages, and 
 all will change with you, as it did with me. The ensilages of 
 my first attempts were no better than yours. Little by little 
 I have made them better, and therefore better supported m}' 
 animals — that is the whole question. My much regretted re- 
 lative, Louis Pilat, who held for many years the first rank in 
 the art of fattening sheep, when pressed by me to divulge his 
 secret, replied, '' My secret: I have none ; it is only a question 
 of fare. Induce the animals to eat abundantly by a large 
 choice, variety, and good preparation of food ; that is all there 
 is to it." 
 
20 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 Now is maize by itself a rich food ? Evidently not. With- 
 out the analyses more or less exact that have been published, 
 one fact proves its lack of richness in nutritive principles, and 
 that is the large quantity that animals eat in order to keep 
 them in good condition. This fact I have recognized and 
 published twenty times. No one would pretend that a kilo- 
 gramme of maize could be made to take the place of a kilo- 
 gramme of lucern, clover, or French grass (sainfoin) ; but by 
 supplying in quantity what it lacks in richness, we can main- 
 tain our animals by maize as well as by the richest grasses. 
 The question is to compare the selling value, or rather the 
 price that returns from the two kinds of fodder, and to ascer- 
 tain if twice the quantity, or even thrice, does not cost less 
 than the j^roducts that it replaces. To me, the affirmative is 
 not in doubt. The question is simpler when we apply it to 
 countries, too numerous indeed, which, like Sologne, produce 
 good crops of maize, but are rebellious to the culture of rich 
 fodder, lucern, sainfoin, etc. In such jolaces the cultivator lias 
 no choice ; he has only to avail himself of the benefits of maize, 
 and he is spared all embarrassment. One important point that 
 a long practice has put for me beyond doubt is that the same 
 green maize placed nourishes better, the weight being equal, 
 when it is cut short than when it is fed whole, and that its 
 nutritive power increases when it has been softened by lying 
 several weeks in a silo, then undergoing a light commencement 
 of alcoholic fermentation a few hours before being fed out. I 
 estimate that with young animals acclimated, the increase of 
 weight at eighty centimes per kilogramme (7 cents per lb.) will 
 pay upon an average about 20 francs per thousand kilogram- 
 mes of preserved maize (about $3.50 per ton). I consider this 
 price as so nearly regular that I adopt it as a point of departm^e 
 when I msh to reckon up my farming operations. 
 
 Fattening by means of preserved maize, with an addition 
 of calie of arachide (earth-nuts) has given me excellent results. 
 I have fattened this winter eight animals from my stables 
 
CULTUKE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 21 
 
 which I wished to part with on account of old age, steriHty, 
 deformity, under size, or mischievous disposition. Their value 
 on foot before fattening was 55 centimes per kilogramme. 
 They sold for 70 centimes per kilogramme ; there was an in- 
 crease of weight of 447 kilogrammes, and in value 845 francs 
 25 centimes. These animals consumed during their fattening, 
 averaging 58 days, 2935 kilogrammes of oilcake, costing 10 
 centimes per kilogramme, or a total of 203 francs 50 centimes. 
 The maize therefore paid me about 45 francs per 1,000 kilo- 
 grammes, which is indeed a high price, better than one could 
 obtain either by milk, the increase of young animals, or other 
 products of the stables. Preserved maize has also the merit 
 of exciting to its highest point the appetite for oilcake, which 
 is at first repugnant, especially at the commencement, if it is 
 fed alone, without being mixed with maize, which has so much 
 attraction for them. A third experience, viz., the nutritive value 
 of maize in view of the raising of sucking calves, resulted in 
 paying me 40 francs per 1,000 kilogrammes of maize. 
 
 Numerous experiments will be necessary in order to set- 
 tle these questions. I have wished simply to indicate them 
 and to put them in some sort of order before recommencing 
 them. The advantages that I have enumerated are not the 
 only ones that belong to this culture. These plants have large 
 and numerous leaves which exercise a happy influence upon 
 the health of the country where they are cultivated. 
 
 They absorb miasms which arise from the earth at the 
 critical moment in certain countries where the crops of grain 
 and fodder have just been removed. The maize in full vege- 
 tation at that moment replaces, as an absorbent, the other vege- 
 tation. Planted in gardens near habitations they play at first 
 a hygienic role ; then gathered and dried, if need be near the 
 hearth, and the stalks cut in pieces of eight to ten centimetres 
 long, placed in a close vessel filled with warm water, they 
 quickly produce an agreeable drink much appreciated by work- 
 ingmen. 
 
22 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 IX. 
 THE PEICKLY COMFREY OF THE CAUCASUS. 
 
 Me. Cheisti has sent me from London this winter three 
 hundred stalks of this plant, in which the agricultural world 
 begins to take an interest. They were planted in April, in a 
 field prepared to receive the maize, upon large ridges, spaced 
 one metre ; the distance between each plant was also a metre 
 upon the ridge. Thus each plant occupies one square metre, 
 and the hectare would contain ten thousand. 
 
 The soil is excellent. It is situated in my valley, and is 
 surrounded by ditches in which I can keep water at the height 
 which I judge necessary in order to insure suitable moisture. 
 I have already (August, 1877) cut this forage twice, and 
 probably shall cut it twice more before the end of the season. 
 The yield increases at each cutting, owing to the development 
 of the plants. Without being able to give yet the precise 
 figures, I believe that the total yield will be in weight very 
 httle less than that of maize. My plants will not attain their 
 fullest development till next year, when the yield will exceed 
 all the other forage crops which are cut successively. My 
 animals eat it without avidity, but without repugnance. I 
 will mix it with my maize at the time of ensilage, and I hope 
 to obtain some good results. The comfrey seems to exceed 
 the maize in nitrogenous substance, and the maize will aid 
 the comfrey by its great richness in certain very useful prin- 
 ciples which are much desired by animals. Maize contains 
 only on an average 1.20 to 1.25 per cent, of nitrogenous mat- 
 ter, while recent analyses attribute to the comfrey 2.70 per 
 cent. — ^that is, more than double. These two plants, instead of 
 concurring, complete each other, to the great advantage of 
 agriculture. 
 
 The comfrey, by its manner of growth and of successive 
 
OULTUKE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 23 
 
 cropping, which commences with the spring and only finishes 
 with the autumn, seems to me especially called for in aid of 
 small farming. This will accommodate itself better than large 
 farming to the frequent attentions that the comfrey requires, 
 and of the time relatively considerable that this crop demands 
 from day to day. 
 
 PROCESSES BY WHICH I HAVE SUCCEEDED IN ASSURING 
 THE PRESERVATION OF GREEN MAIZE FOR AN INDE- 
 FINITE TIME. 
 
 The end to be attained is to prevent all kinds of fermen- 
 tation before and after ensilage ; for the wa}^ to avoid bad fer- 
 mentation is to not permit any. It is by not having discover- 
 ed sooner this fundamental principle that so many seekers like 
 myself have lost so many years in baiTen experiences. We 
 wished to preserve maize by fermentation ; that is to say, we 
 turned our backs on the solution of the problem. Fermenta- 
 tion preserves nothing. On the contrary, it is always a }jre- 
 liminary step towards a decomposition more or less putrid, 
 towards a real destruction. I have had this experiences a 
 thousand times : when my maize had contracted in my im])er-. 
 feet silos alcoholic fermentation, I hastened to have it eaten up 
 as soon as possible rather than to see it pass to acetic fermen- 
 tation, and soon after to lactic or putnd fermentation. These 
 experiences, so often repeated and always fruitless, had finally 
 discouraged me. For a long time I had resigned myself to 
 only require from my silos a temporary preservation of a few 
 weeks at the most ; that is to say, the time that lapsed be- 
 tween the ensilage and the appearance of putrid fei-mentation. 
 I had, however, from that time, at my disposal all the elements 
 
24 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 of a complete success. In 1853 I had established at Burtin a 
 complete factor}^ for preserving — a powerful feed-cutter from 
 England, which has admirably performed for me, for more than 
 twenty years ; a hydraulic power, eight-horse, to work the feed- 
 cutter ; then at two steps from the feed-cutter, four silos, hol- 
 lowed in the ground, plastered with Portland cement, and per- 
 fectly water-tight. I cut at that time my maize in pieces of 
 three to four centimetres long; I mixed a certain proportion 
 of short straw (always too much), and I filled successively 
 my silos by pressing down the layers of the mixture by one, 
 and sometimes several persons treading upon it. After this 
 pressing down with great pains, I placed on the top a layer of 
 short straw about ten centimetres long, and above all a layer 
 of loam, beaten with care, in order to prevent all contact be- 
 tween the ensilaged maize and the air outside. During the 
 following days I stopped up the fissures which appeared on 
 the surface. When I proceeded, several weeks later, to open 
 the silo, I found invariably a vacuum of several centimetres 
 between the maize and the superincumbent clay. Notwith- 
 standing the force of the compression that was produced during 
 the ensilage, the maize had undergone another settling, and its 
 upper part presented an alteration which would communicate 
 rapidly to the lower layers. In order to avoid this result I 
 had no other means than to feed it out as quickly as possible. 
 Later I abandoned the clay as a covering for my silos. Imme- 
 diately after having pressed in my mixture of cut maize and 
 straw, I applied above all a covering of plank fitting exactly 
 the opening of the silo, and descending with the maize as it 
 shrunk down. This simple change produced a j)erceptible 
 amendment, but it was quite insufficient still. The alteration 
 was but little retarded, but I was on the right track. To-day 
 I still use the same silos, and I obtain a preservation indefinite 
 and complete. In what then have I modified my processes I 
 Instead of cutting my maize in pieces of three or four centi- 
 metres in length, I cut them one centimetre only. Instead of 
 
OULTUEE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 25 
 
 mixing- a quarter and sometimes a third in weight of sliort 
 straw, I never exceed the proportion of one-tenth, and oftener 
 I bury tiie maize without any mixture. Finally, and here is 
 the principal difference : I pile on the cover of my silo when 
 it is filled, four or five hundred kilogrammes of stones or blocks 
 of wood per square metre of surface. By my first processes I 
 obtained only a temporary and incomplete preservation ; with 
 my last I obtained a preservation indefinite and absolute. 
 How have these three simple modifications led to such mar- 
 vellous results? To explain this will be the object of the fol- 
 lowing chapters. 
 
 XI. 
 
 HOW THE MAIZE SHOULD BE CUT. 
 
 Agriculture does not generally appreciate at its full value 
 the advantages that can be derived from the cutting of fodder 
 as affecting the nourishment of cattle. Even besides the pre- 
 paration for ensilage, these advantages are considerable. The 
 feed-cutter with its cutting-knives and the fluted cylinders 
 which precede them, and which act in some sort as molars, 
 work certainly better and more economically than the jaws of 
 oui* animals, especially when it is moved by water, by steam, 
 or by horse-power. (I do not speak of the arms of men, which 
 have become too scarce, and therefore too dear for that ser- 
 vice.) The labor of mastication is an expenditure of force 
 which the animal does not perform gratuitously. I leave to 
 our skillful professors of mechanics the care of determining 
 scientifically the effort that animals make in grinding the dif- 
 ferent food that is presented, and which proportionately 
 requires an addition to its ration in order to represent that ex- 
 
26 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 penditure. I have seen in former times in my stables, when 
 I caused my beasts to eat maize uncut, that they were fatigued 
 b}^ their incessant efforts to tear to pieces the large stalks, and 
 were so exhausted as to fail to profit as they have done since 
 by this excellent food when presented in a form more favora- 
 ble for its absorption. Imagine two men obliged to support 
 themselves, one upon the wheat in grain, and the other upon 
 the same quantity reduced to flour. You may be sure that 
 these two men would not profit equally from their respective 
 food, which, however, is chemically the same. The same 
 maize produces food very different in its effect, according to 
 whether it has been only cut, or cut and softened by the com- 
 mencement of fermentation, or offered to the animals in whole 
 stalks more or less dry. The fineness to which I cut my 
 maize at the moment of ensilation is extremely important in 
 view of good ])reservation. Gut in disks of only one centime- 
 tre thick, the maize packs better in the silo, it occupies less 
 space, and takes the form and consistency of a species of pulp, 
 leaving in its mass the least possible amount of air. In pro- 
 portion as the length is increased, the preservation becomes 
 less perfect, and finishes by being entirely defective. Last 
 year a cultivator of the valley of the Loire, took from me the 
 dimensions of my elliptic silo, and reproduced it exactly on his 
 own farm. He filled it in the autumn, and when he opened it 
 during the winter, he took out a poorly preserved product, 
 which his beasts only eat with repugnance. Grreatly disap- 
 pointed, he brought to me a sample of his maize that he had 
 cut in lengths of five to six centimetres, instead of one or two 
 at most, as I had advised him. I recognized at once the cause 
 of his failure, and asked him why, contrary to my advice, he 
 had cut it so long. He replied, " I was not able to procure a 
 steam engine which I expected to use, and I had to use a 
 horse-power ; the work did not get along fast enough, and in 
 order to hasten it, I decided to cut it in such long pieces." He 
 was surprised at the excellent preservation of the maize at 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 27 
 
 Bui'tin, and he carried home a hundred kilogrammes ; his cat- 
 tle were thus enabled to appreciate the difference. I cite this 
 fact because it contains a valuable lesson. 
 
 XII. 
 
 PROPER PROPORTION OF STRAW. 
 
 At the beginning of my ensilages I had as principal 
 resource for the sustenance of my stock a great quan- 
 tity of wheat, oat, and rye straw, etc. In order to induce 
 my cattle to eat it, I mixed all that I could with my maize and 
 my green cut rye, but I was not slow to notice that this mixture 
 kept much less time as the proportion of straw was greater. 
 A fiftieth in volume, or a tenth in weight, Avas the maximum 
 of what the maize could carry without being exposed to an 
 early alteration ; when I increased this quantity, the time that 
 it kept always diminished, and at last did not exceed forty- 
 eight hours. I attribute this to the fact that the straw, being 
 very dry, absorbs from the maize too much of its water. The 
 moist condition of the ensilages, instead of being a cause 
 of deterioration, is, on the contrary, to a certain extent, indis- 
 pensable to the good preservation of the whole matter. 
 
 Maize in its normal condition contains about eighty-five 
 per cent, of water ; when the addition of dry straw has caused 
 the mixture to decline to an average holding less than sev- 
 enty-five per cent, the good preservation is much compro- 
 mised, and quickly becomes impossible if we try to go below 
 it. Besides the too great dehydratation that the presence of 
 the straw may cause, it also offers another serious inconven- 
 ience, especially rye straw. This straw when cut forms a 
 great quantity of little tubes, the envelopes of which resist de- 
 composition for a long time ; these tubes inclose an apprecia- 
 
28 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 ble quantity of air, which is the most dangerous enemy of 
 ensilage. Oat straw, or others of softer texture, are less dan- 
 gerous in this respect than rye straw. While I used at first 
 the short straw from my threshing, always troublesome on ac- 
 count of the amount of room that it occupies, henceforth I 
 shall bury my fodder almost without any mixture. Some- 
 times, however, it is well to mix short straw with maize with- 
 out passing suitable limits. Such a case presented itself at 
 Burtin, in the autumn of 1876. When maize has been cut be- 
 fore the frost, and arrives in good condition to the cutting- 
 machine and then to the silo, it does not yield its Avater easily, 
 even when it is submitted to a considerable pressure. But it 
 is not the same when this fodder is too old, and has been ex- 
 posed to the rains and frosts at the end of autumn. 
 
 On one occasion, in October, 1876, I found, for lack of 
 sufficient silos, that it was impossible to bury all my crop of 
 maize. 1 was obliged to improvise a new silo, in an old build- 
 ing, in order to place the surplus, and this ensilage was not 
 completed until the first days of December. 
 
 The stalks, touched by frost, had become very soft and 
 weak. The cutting was difficult, but, most unfortunate of all, 
 the layer of cut maize had scarcely attained in the silo two 
 metres of thickness, when, by reason of the pressure upon the 
 first layer, the juice began to run out freely through the open- 
 ing, and this discharge continued for several days. This was 
 a serious loss, which I could have avoided by mixing some 
 cut straw with the overripe maize. Except in this case, my 
 maize has never lost in this way any of its water ; at the dis- 
 interment the bottoms of my silos have always been found 
 nearly dry, barely moist. 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 29 
 
 XIII. 
 
 COMPRESSION OF THE SILOS. "^^ , 
 
 / 
 It is indispensable to superimpose four or five hundred 
 
 kilogrammes per square metre of heavy materials upon the cover- 
 ing- or movable planks of the filled silos. I meet here the most 
 important question — that which I have had the most trouble 
 to solve, and whicli I have only really solved quite recently. 
 When a silo has been filled, it does not answer only to prevent 
 the external air from penetrating it; it is necessary at once to 
 seek means for expelling the mass of air that it incloses be- 
 tween its disks and in its cells. It is liere that tlie heavy ma- 
 terials with which I load my silos become important ; it is 
 necessary that the air inclosed in the silo should find between 
 the joints of the covering planks an outlet ; it is necessary that 
 a strong compression should compel this air to pass out quick- 
 ly and to quit the place where it would cause most serious 
 damage if it remained. It is necessary that this powei'ful 
 compression should continue during several months, because 
 the tramping of the workmen is insufficient, for the following 
 reasons : At the moment when the green maize is cut, it is all 
 ahve, and is so elastic that it reacts forcibly against the mo- 
 mentary pressure of the feet of the workmen. It is not the 
 same several days or weeks thereafter, but its elasticity dimin- 
 ishes, or, in other words, its compressibility increases in con- 
 siderable proportions ; it is then that the heavy superimposed 
 materials follow the maize down in its softened condition, con- 
 tinuing to press it in proportion as its compactness increases, 
 and brings it to that state of density that is necessary in order 
 to put it out of reach of all alteration. 
 
30 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 THE PROPER HYDROMETRIC CONDITION OF MAIZE AT THE 
 TIME OF ENSILAGE. 
 
 A FAULT which I often committed at the commencement 
 of my experiments, was to leave my maize upon the field in 
 order that it might undergo a partial desiccation before the 
 ensilage. This is to be avoided absolutely. When the water 
 evaporates from the cells of the maize, it is immediately re- 
 placed by air; that is to say, by the most active agent in all 
 alteration. Let the maize keep all its water, if you wish to 
 preserve it by ensilage. 
 
 All the directions which I have laid down as proper for the 
 ensilage of maize, apply to all other fodder without dis- 
 tinction, and insure the same success. If I speak more par- 
 ticularly of maize, it is because I have found in that wonder- 
 ful plant all the elements of a new and boundless agricultural 
 wealth, from the day when I arrived at the assurance of its in- 
 definite preservation by ensilage for the nourishment of my 
 cattle throughout the whole year. Before this time it had 
 hardly nourished them during three months, while it was pos- 
 sible to feed it to them green. 
 
 XV. 
 
 EFFECTS OF ENSILAGE UPON FODDER. 
 
 My maize, my green rye, my fodder of all kinds, have 
 scarcely changed color, after eight or ten months of ensilage ; 
 fed exclusively to my animals, they produce exactly the same 
 effects, the same a,bundance of milk and butter, the same flavor, 
 and the same color to the butter. These qualities, so important to 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 31 
 
 butter preserved through the winter by the ensilage, are in my 
 eyes the true touchstone, when we seek to appreciate the re- 
 spective merits of the different processes of ])reservation of fod- 
 der. Let a farmer show me the butter that his ensilasre ogives him 
 during the winter, and I will have no need of other means of 
 investigation in order to arrive at his skill. ^' A workman is 
 known by his work." 
 
 I opened in April, 1877, my last elliptic silo, which con- 
 tained nearly 100,000 kilogrammes of maize, ensilaged in Octo- 
 ber, 1876, more than seven months. It disclosed a very compact 
 mass of a brownish green color ; the-temperature-did not exceed 
 10 degrees (Reamur) ; there was no appreciable odor; taken 
 in the mouth it was really insipid, and this freedom from odor 
 and taste produced at first an almost disagreeable sensation. 
 
 I detached from the mass several hundred kilogrammes,"~| 
 intended for the next feeding of my animals. It was hardly 
 exposed to the air when it underwent a veritable change : the 
 brownish color became sensibly green, the beginning of alco- ; 
 holic fermentation took place, without exceeding the limits 
 which that fermentation ought never to pass. That silo was 
 not completely exhausted until the 10th of August, and the 
 maize remained in good condition until the last day. My 
 forty-days maize reached at that time the point where it was 
 suitable to be cut for fodder ; it had attained its full height, 
 and in the month of August my animals eat it green ; they 
 were only ten days without maize during the year 1877. 
 
 My silos of rye will be consumed dm-ing the winter. I do 
 not need to say that green rye is much richer than maize, and 
 a much smaller quantity will go as far ; the mixtui'e of these 
 two kinds of fodder is an excellent diet. 
 
 My animals, fed upon maize ensilage during the whole 
 winter, scarcely drink when they are loosened in the middle 
 of day to quench their thirst at the river which crosses my 
 farm ; nearly all return to the stable without having approached 
 it. 
 
32 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 Their excrements, of medium consistency, denote a very 
 favorable pathological condition. We must conclude that 
 maize ensilag-e in the matter of retaining water is a well bal- 
 anced food, since it furnishes to animals, in most suitable pro- 
 portion, food and drink. Each one of my ensilages may be 
 regarded as an immense cylinder, and its covering of plank, a 
 gigantic piston, whose surface exceeds fifty square metres ; the 
 heavy substances which I superimpose act as a motive power, 
 causing the piston to descend and compress the ensilage, 
 leaving between the planks an outlet for the air, which the 
 compression is intended to drive out. My large operations I 
 have frequently repeated in a small way, with a glass jar 27 
 centimetres in diameter and 50 centimetres in height; a wooden 
 disk, surmounted with a faucet, furnished with a rubber tube, 
 acts as a piston ; I load it with a certain ascertained weight in 
 order to compress the matter in the jar ; a second faucet is put 
 in the bottom, when the pressure commences to lower the pis- 
 ton. The air in the ensilage escapes by the two faucets, and I 
 easily ascertain the quantity. In the beginning the faucets 
 give out pure air, the volume of which is exactly equal to that 
 the mass has lost ; afterward, if the compression has been in- 
 sufficient and has left a certain amount of air in the mass, it is 
 no longer pure air which comes out when I open the faucets ; 
 there have been some very interesting modifications produced 
 in the mass, interesting to follow and well worth the study 
 of the chemist. 
 
 "But," as has been kindly said to me, " you are making sour- 
 krout; that was made long before you did it." If I am making 
 sour-krout, or anything resembling it, I make it without cab- 
 bage and without pickle, with different kinds of fodder, and 
 my sour-krout cost but J centime a kilogramme ; it is sour- 
 krout for animals, who show themselves very gi-ateful for it. 
 This sour-krout is a complete agricultural revolution. 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 33 
 
 XVI. 
 
 HOW TO BUILD A SILO. 
 
 With my new stables at Burtin finished, I shall be able 
 to house one hundred horned cattle. My ensilages of 1877 
 only permit me to feed seventy, but with those of 1878 I 
 expect to be able to feed one hundred. I have just finished 
 three united silos, which form a part of the plan of my new 
 stable. 
 
 The form of the silo exercises a great influence upon the 
 results. It should avoid all angles, and should offer the least 
 possible resistance to the packing down of the ensilage. The 
 elliptic silo with vertical walls is the best form both for use 
 and for durability. It is important to have them as large as 
 possible compatible with the conditions of easy and economi- 
 cal use. The preservation of the ensilage in small silos is 
 always less perfect than in large ones. No matter how much 
 care is used and how much weight is applied, I have always 
 found the portion which is farthest from the walls to be the 
 best preserved, and that close to the walls there is always 
 some alteration, not serious, but which it is important to re- 
 duce as much as possible. Small receptacles offer proportion- 
 ally much more surface for contact. A rectangular silo, for 
 example, of one metre each way, containing one cubic metre, 
 presents five square metres of contact surface, while one of 
 ten cubic metres, with 1,000 cubic metres of contents, presents 
 only 500 square metres of contact surface, diminishing nine- 
 tenths the evil indicated. But I do not advise silos of such 
 dimensions as this. At the commencement of my experiments 
 I recommended small silos, in order that when opened they 
 might be quickly consumed before they became a prey to the 
 slow combustion which the contact with the air produced, 
 with as small an entrance as possible for the air, of which the 
 first effect was to raise the temperature, and then produce fer- 
 
34 CULTURE AM) ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 mentation, first alcoholic, next acetic, and then putrid. But 
 the day that I discovered the new process of a movable 
 weighted covering, so that I was able to maintain in the mass 
 a continuous density whereby the penetration of the air be- 
 came impossible, I abandoned the small silos. Since then I 
 have made them as large as possible, and they are only lim- 
 ited by the economy of the different operations of ensilage. 
 
 XVII. 
 HOW TO FILL A SILO. 
 
 It is necessary to procure, either by purchase or rental, a 
 motive power and a powerful feed-cutter. Large farms are 
 generally provided with these machines, but the average 
 farmer will have to hire. It may be that the travelling con- 
 tractors for threshing will become contractors for cutting maize 
 for ensilage, with a machine that possesses sufficient weight to 
 be solid, and is also portable. Filling the silo should be done 
 as rapidly as possible, and the layer of maize should be kept 
 level all the time. The greater the compression the better 
 will be the preservation. The packing along the walls (which 
 should be as smooth as possible) should be attended to care- 
 fully. A woman turning continually as near as possible to 
 the walls will accomplish this very well. 
 
 When the silo is filled to the top and carefully leveled, 
 spread along the surface short straw four or five centimetres 
 thick, then place on top of this boards fitting close to- 
 gether. These should be put across the silo in order that 
 when it is being fed out they may be taken off one by one, as 
 the silo is cut down vertically. Upon this flooring there should 
 be piled abimdance of weight, such as stones, bricks, logs of 
 wood, or old bags filled with dirt, etc. At Burtin I have aban- 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE 
 
 35 
 
 doned using loose earth as a means of compression, as it infil- 
 trates into the ensilage, and adhering to the walls a vacuum 
 forms as the maize settles away, which is destructive. 
 
 Note. — The translator lost his first investment in ensilage by depending upon 
 earth covering, which arched by freezing and left a vacuum. 
 
 A filled Silo being emptied by vertical sliciag. 
 
 Any ridge on the silos is objectionable, as the ensilage 
 cannot be sufficiently compressed, and the diy rot soon at- 
 tacks it and communicates to the material below. 
 
 As to using salt in the silos, it is not very important, and 
 I often omit it without any bad result ; but I believe the mod- 
 erate use of salt is favorable to the health of animals, and I 
 sometimes mix in my ensilage one kilogramme to a cubic 
 metre of maize, the average weight of which, after being 
 packed, is 812 kilogrammes. 
 
 When the ensilage is fed out it should be exposed to the 
 air fifteen or twenty hours, in order that the alcoholic fermen- 
 tation may commence. The proper time depends upon the 
 temperature, but if kept longer than this, the fermentation be- 
 comes excessive and injurious. The spontaneous heat which 
 is produced in the feed should never exceed 35 or 40 degrees 
 (R.). Two years ago I had no silos at my farm at Gouillon, 
 and I carried every other day from Burtin what was neces- 
 sary. From the second day the heat exceeded these limits, 
 and the alcoholic vapor abundantly emitted indicated the seri- 
 
36 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 ous loss that was going on. The acetic acid was not slow to 
 join the party. In the north, the beet pulp that is fed in win- 
 ter is nearly always quite sour ; it is to this circumstance that 
 I attribute the poor quality of milk and butter obtained from 
 the animals kept on this food. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 THE NEW STABLES AT BURTIN, AND THEIR SILOS. 
 
 My new stables are a square of twenty-four metres on 
 each side, divided into two compartments, each of which has a 
 central passage between two rows of stalls. These passages 
 are connected with the silos by a small railway, which makes 
 it convenient to bring the feed before each animal. The maize 
 and the other ensilaged fodder is carried in willow baskets all 
 of the same size, which are frequently weighed in order to keep 
 account of the weight of the rations given to each lot of cattle. 
 My silos are elliptic in form, with perpendicular walls as 
 smooth as possible inside, five metres wide and the same 
 height. Should I modify them in any way in future it will be 
 only to increase the height. 
 
 My farm at Burtin presents exceptional difficulties for 
 building silos. Everywhere the water is met at one metre below 
 the surface, and as I want to sink my silos nearly two metres, 
 because the part below the ground preserves in summer more 
 moisture than that part above the ground, I am obhged to first 
 dig a ditch lower than the excavation all around it, and 
 then to cement the lower part, which causes a considerable 
 expense. I put concrete on the bottom, and upon this I 
 build the vertical walls of the thickness of two bricks (45 
 centimetres) to the top of the ground. Above the ground I 
 reduce the thickness to one brick and a half (about 34 centi- 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 37 
 
 metres.) I coat the walls with Portland cement sufficient to 
 insure their perfect impermeability. My triple silos have cost 
 me 4176 francs, and their total capacity 812.45 cubic metres, 
 about 5 francs 14 centimes per cubic metre. I intend next 
 }'ear to raise the walls of my silos another metre, so that their 
 capacity will be about a thousand cubic metres. I postpone 
 till that time my decision as to a special cover for them. 
 
 Plan of united Silos. 
 
 Most agriculturists are more favored in the profile of their 
 soil; many of them have a hillside in the neighborhood of their 
 barn, in which they can open silos that will always be dry, and in 
 some places can dispense with masonry by having solid rock. 
 Those who wish to imitate me will have less hesitation when 
 they know that Burtin is a particularly bad place for building 
 silos, and that they can obtain the same results with much 
 less outlay. 
 
 In making use of such large silos as these it is necessary 
 of course to have a cutting-machine with a six-horse power 
 engine at least, and an elevator to raise the cut fodder over 
 
38 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 the walls of the silos. I estimate that with these instruments 
 one silo can be filled in three days at most without difficulty. 
 This rapidity is necessary in order to assure the success of 
 ensilage. When the elevator and cutter are combined in the 
 same machine, the process will be simplified. 
 
 As to the average farmer, as I have already said, it will 
 be better to employ the thi-eshing-machine contractors, who 
 will find it to their interest to adapt themselves to this busi- 
 ness also. It is above all the duty of the wealthy agriculturists 
 who have entered upon the way that I have indicated, and 
 from whom I receive every day so many grateful letters, 
 to assist the willing farmers around them, and who have need 
 of their advice. For my part, I shall hold myself in the future 
 as in the past always at the disposal of farmers who think 
 they need to recur to my experience. 
 
 I engage to pay a prize of 500 francs to the first thresh- 
 ing-machine contractor who will prove to me that he has en- 
 silaged in this way at least 2,000,000 kilogrammes of fodder. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 CONCLUSIONS. 
 
 i SAID in 1873, in one of my first pamphlets, " My pro- 
 found conviction is that the culture and ensilage of maize is 
 destined to cause a complete agricultural revolution ; it ought 
 in ten years to double the number of animals supported on 
 our soil." Was this a chimerical hope? G-od has pre- 
 served me from all discouragement on this point. In the last 
 four years the progress that I have made at Burtin has ex- 
 ceeded all my hopes. Upon my reserve of thirty-five hec- 
 tares I have kept during the winter of 1876 forty- three horned 
 cattle, and I shall keep during the winter of 1877 seventy, 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 39 
 
 with the assurance of going much beyond this at the end of 
 1878. 
 
 Here are facts more conclusive than any argument. The 
 great establishment that I have finished, and shall inaugui*ate 
 in October, 1877 (to which I invite all agriculturists), proves 
 my firm faith in my work. I have spared no pains nor ex- 
 pense to assure solidity in my buildings in dear Sologne, 
 which may be considered as the cradle of this new industry, 
 and they represent the point of departure of an immense agri- 
 cultural progress. Perhaps I may, without too much pride, 
 inscribe upon them the words of the great Latin poet, '■'■ Exegi 
 monumentum^ acre perennms.'" 
 
 EFFECTS OF FROST IN SEPTEMBER, 1877, AT BURTIN. 
 
 I had hardly finished this little work when I was sur- 
 prised, as were all my confreres, by a meteorological circum- 
 stance that was exceedingly injurious. A heavy frost in the 
 nights of the 22d and 23d of September and following, stop})ed 
 short the vegetation of my maize, which at the bottom of ray 
 valley had the appearance of having been burned down to the 
 roots. My maize on higher ground sufi'ered less, but the 
 growth is also stopped, and the crop will be much smaller. 
 When such a misfortune occurs, the most effective way to 
 lessen it is to cut the maize and proceed with the ensilage im- 
 mediately. Thanks to the prompt measures taken, the frost 
 caused me little other damage than a diminution of the 
 crop, according as it had more or less attained its full devel- 
 opment. The maximum height of my stalks was 4.72 metres, 
 and from that down to 3 metres. 
 
40 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 HISTORY OF M. GOFFAET'S INVENTION. 
 
 From his Speech at Blois, May 8, 1875. 
 
 In 1850 I made some experiments in the ensilage of 
 wheat at Versailles, since which time the preservation of fod- 
 der has become my favorite occupation. In 1852 I construct- 
 ed four underground silos, with masonry, and cemented, each 
 having a capacity of two cubic metres ; these silos I have 
 filled and emptied several thousand times. Maize, Jerusalem 
 artichokes, beets, sorgho, turnips, potatoes, straw, I have ex- 
 perimented upon with more or less success. Straw, in the 
 scarcity of fodder, has several times saved my stables. Some 
 years ago I had in the autumn more than 80 horned cattle, 
 and my hay crop would not have permitted me to support 10. 
 One should be an agricultm'ist of Sologne to know what such a 
 trouble means. In rich countries when the hay crop fails, it 
 means that instead of harvesting 5,000 or 6,000 kilogrammes to 
 the hectare, there are only 3,000 or 4,000, but in Sologne it 
 means that there is no crop at all. In such difficulties the en- 
 terprising cultivator must use more intelligence and more in- 
 dustry. " What the man is worth, that the land is worth," is 
 an old proverb, but I will improve upon it by saying, the man 
 should be worth more, as the land is worth less. 
 
 I got throu.gh safely that year by having 60,000 bundles 
 of wheat, rye, and oat straw. I cut them up, and with 35 
 kilogrammes of rye flour, which I fermented each day in large 
 tubs, and in which I soaked the straw, I obtained food that 
 was softened by fermentation, which my cattle ate freely and 
 digested easily. Thus I reached the following spring without 
 being obliged to sell my cattle at a low price. I must ac- 
 knowledge that at the end of winter my beasts were in a sorry 
 condition, but the first grass quickly restored them, and I was 
 not compelled to replace them at a high price in the spring ; 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 41 
 
 and now, the two years of scarcity which my fellow-agricultu- 
 rists have passed through have been for me — owing to my 
 silos — years of unprecedented plenty. What I have done can 
 be done by thousands of others, and my earnest desire, my sole 
 ambition, is to enable them to imitate me as soon as possible. 
 Until 1872 I only expected from my limited ensilages the 
 means of prolonging for three weeks, or at most a month, the 
 use of maize, so desirable a food for my cattle. To that end 
 I made many experiments. I have mixed my cut maize with 
 various proportions of straw, in order to find which would give 
 the best result. I have made silos without cover, burying the 
 ensilage under bundles of straw, then with earth (never sand). 
 I have filled my four silos with every possible mixture, which 
 would sooner have put me upon the road to a positive success 
 if I had not been too easily alarmed by slight alterations on 
 the surface, and which I caused to extend all through by too 
 frequent examinations. 
 
 In 1873 I had a real success, due mainly to accident ; and 
 it is to be recognized that chance nearly always plays an im- 
 portant part in the happiest discoveries. 
 
 Until this time I had hardly believed that the preservation 
 of green maize for a long time was possible, and I had very 
 little confidence. I hesitated a while, and should have proba- 
 bly hesitated a good while longer if I had not been in a measure 
 compelled to do something. The year 1873 had been excep- 
 tionally favorable for the culture of maize. At Burtin the crop 
 was enormous. After having fed my cattle abundantly until 
 October, besides having all that they could eat while green till 
 December, I found that I had more than 170,000 kilogrammes 
 that would be lost if I could not keep it at least till the follow- 
 ing March. I went resolutely to work, and I have described 
 elsewhere the means that I used and the result that I obtained. 
 The difficulties were greater than one would believe, on account 
 of the lack of faith of my employees. One day I had to leave 
 my workmen for a while, but my return was sooner than they 
 
42 CULTURE AITD ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 expected. The work had ceased, of course. They were talk- 
 ing together, and I overheard my foreman say to the workmen, 
 '' This work that we are doing is all foolishness ; M. Goffart had 
 better throw his maize into the dung-heap at once, because that 
 is where it will go to at last. " I said nothing, but redoubled 
 my watchfulness, knowing how little zeal I could expect from 
 people so convinced of the uselessness of their labor. 
 
 A silo built upon the ground gives the best result dm^ing 
 the cold season from December to March, but as the tempera- 
 ture rises fermentation develops rapidly. The underground 
 silo with masonry walls is better ; the temperature does not rise 
 even in April, and at Bm-tin at this time (May 8) it is nearly in 
 the same condition as at the time of ensilage, seven months ago. 
 I would advise that the silo be sunk two metres in the ground, 
 with masonry walls, and raised two meters above the ground 
 Duiing the cold weather I would feed out the ensilage in the 
 up2)er half, and reserve for the warmer months the lower half 
 
 The experiment of an underground silo, but Avithout facing 
 the walls with masonry, has also given a favorable result, in the 
 sense that the loss has only been one per cent of the whole, but 
 such a silo soon falls down when it is empty, and consequently 
 is much inferior to the former. There is another method, the 
 simplicity of which is a dangerous temptation to the inexperi- 
 enced. That is to pile the cut maize upon the soil, and to cover 
 it with a layer of earth. I can assert that such a silo has never 
 given good results. The packing down, which is essential to 
 good preservation, cannot be applied to such a silo. Those who 
 recommend this method of ensilage manifest a culpable igno- 
 rance, and cause great loss to those who follow their advice. 
 When one loses half his capital in an operation, he is not suc- 
 cessful; he makes a disastrous speculation. I proscribe this 
 method in the most positive manner. 
 
 I once buried, for experiment, a thousand kilogrammes of 
 corn-stalks, uncut, under a stack of straw, forming a layer 25 
 centimeti-es thick. In eight days it went to the dung-heap. 
 
CULTUEE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 43 
 
 The cost of gathering and ensilaging 226,000 kilogram- 
 mes of maize has been as follows : 
 
 Francs. 
 57 days of men, at 2 francs 114.00 
 
 9 days of women, at 1 franc 10 centimes 9.90 
 
 5 days of 2 drivers and 4 horses, at IG francs 80.00 
 
 5 days of engine, from contractor, at 10 francs 50.00 
 
 Old wood for engine, 3 francs per day 15.00 
 
 Total 268.90 
 
 Making cost of 1 franc 18 centimes per 1,000 kilogrammes 
 (about 20 cents per gross ton). About 40 per cent of this ex- 
 pense was for the cutting and putting in the silos. 
 
 We should not lose sight of the fact that the crushing of the 
 food saved to the cattle by the cutting is in itself an important 
 saving of food. 
 
 It is above all important to avoid all kinds of fermenta- 
 tion during and after ensilage. Fermentation can be pro- 
 duced whenever desired, and a few hours suffice to give all 
 its useful effects. Take each evening from your silo the maize 
 requu'ed for the next day's feeding, and 15 or 16 hours after, 
 however cold and free from fermentation when taken out, it 
 will be quite warm, and in full fermentation, and the animals 
 will eat it greedily. Eight hours later it will have passed the 
 proper limits, and it will rapidly spoil. 
 
 This first fermentation increases the facility of digestion, 
 and therefore the nutritive or assimilative poAver of the food. 
 For instance, when cattle live on fresh maize in the summer, 
 they eat large quantities, and are always big-bellied, which 
 shows that they are obliged to supply what is lacking in 
 quality by an excessive consumption ; but when they live on 
 ensilaged maize which has fermented, their bellies are smaller, 
 they eat less, and their whole condition is more satisfactory. 
 To study all things, to try all things, to be always willing to 
 change the system when one finds himself in the wi'ong — 
 
44 CULTUEE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 such is the duty of the agriculturist, whose lot perhaps is too 
 much envied. 
 
 For my part, I have had in my agricultural career some 
 hard experiences. 
 
 In January, 1871, when I returned to Burtin, after having 
 taken part in the defence of Paris, I found my stables entirely 
 empty; the typhus had carried off in a few days 63 horned 
 animals out of 64. By successive increase with Norman bulls, 
 which I had changed every two years, I had created for my- 
 self a new and very fine race, and my stables were justly re- 
 nowned in Sologne. In ten days I had lost the fruit of twen- 
 ty years' labor. The blow was severe, but I hardly felt it. 
 What was the loss of a few thousand francs compared with the 
 great national grief which was causing all our hearts to bleed? 
 I began again my work mth courage. I bought young ani- 
 mals to replenish my stables, which continually improve, but 
 I am aware that time will fail me to replace what I have lost. 
 Let us strive com-ageously. Perhaps the most obscure of the 
 pioneers of agriculture brings you to-day an effective means 
 with which you can charm away the dearth of fodder, which is 
 one of the greatest plagues of agricultural industry. 
 
 Do not deny to this poor but interesting Sologne the 
 honor of having been the cradle of a system of ensilage that is 
 effectively preservative, and of having given an example that 
 the richest countries will not be slow to imitate. This is my 
 earnest prayer and brightest hope. 
 
CULTUKE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 45 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 I. 
 
 EEPORT TO THE CENTRAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF 
 FRANCE BY A COMMITTEE OF THE SECTIONS ON LIVE 
 STOCK, PHYSICO-CHEMICAL AND HIGH CULTIVATION, 
 UPON THE SUBJECT OF THE ENSILAGE OF GREEN 
 CUT CORN FODDER.— SEANCE APRIL 7, 1875. 
 
 YouK committee considered that the question of the pres- 
 ervation of a fodder so productive and so desirable as maize 
 deserved to be studied, and if the results should be found as 
 satisfactory as M. Goffart has announced, it should be brought 
 to the attention of the agricultm^al public ; therefore, I have 
 been directed to present to you our report upon this important 
 subject. 
 
 All methods of preservation of food interest deeply the 
 farming community which produces it, and the whole nation 
 that consumes it. It tends to reduce losses by deterioration 
 and by waste; it mitigates the deplorable alternations of 
 low prices for crops, which ruin the agriculturists, and of 
 high prices, which weaken every portion of the commonwealth. 
 Finally, it insm'es regular food to animals and men, which in- 
 creases the energy and adds to the productive power of the 
 nation. The preservation of maize in a green state lends a 
 special interest to the value of that fodder for milch cows, be- 
 cause the crop is so variable^ according to the season, and the 
 time for consuming it in the autumn is so short if not pre- 
 served. When the heat and moisture of the season favor the 
 vegetation, it produces such large crops that it cannot be con- 
 
46 OULTUEE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 sumed before the frost destroys it, while the dried leaves and 
 stalks are of very little value. Many agriculturists who 
 have introduced this excellent fodder in their business have 
 tried various ways of preserving for the winter what could not 
 be consumed in the autumn, with results more or less satisfac- 
 tory, but oftener the latter. There have been many prece- 
 dents of a nature to justify these efforts. The preservation of 
 grape leaves green near Lyons for the food of cattle and goats 
 has made a high reputation for the cheese called Mont Dore 
 from time immemorial. Apple pomace has been preserved in 
 silos with good results. In various parts of Germany the 
 preservation of vegetables of all sorts— tui'nips, cabbages, and 
 different kinds of leaves seasoned with celery for feeding 
 cows — runs back as far in the night of time as that of sour cab- 
 bage (sauer-kraut) for the food of men. In the north of 
 France, several lai'ge agriculturists have preserved for twen- 
 ty years in silos the leaves of beets, also the beets cut across, 
 which have kept better than the whole beets in cellars. The 
 pulp of beets, from distilleries or sugar factories, also makes 
 excellent fodder when kept in silos. The world is so old, ne- 
 cessity has so long compelled the efforts of human beings, that 
 we may find precedents in every line of improvement. But 
 all experienced men who know the great difference that sepa- 
 rates a happy suggestion, or even a successful attempt, from a 
 practice well enough confiiTQed to become the base of a reg- 
 ular business, will admit that these precedents do not destroy 
 the merit of any man who, like Monsieur A. Groffart, has ac- 
 complished a continued success. If the cultivation of maize 
 and the method of ensilage have given the results that he 
 clauns, and the samples submitted indicates, he merits our 
 eulogies. 
 
 M. Groffart states that he conunenced to experiment with 
 maize and ensilage in 1852, and what we have seen at Burtin 
 proves that his experiments have led him to a practical success. 
 We have been very favorably impressed by the silos that were 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 47 
 
 located in the old distillery which had been used for the daily 
 feeding- of the cows. These silos were made by lateral walls 
 of two and a half metres in height, without any excavation, 
 and the maize piled upon the ground as high as the floor abo\'e 
 permitted. M. Groffart had thought best to cut the maize fine 
 before ensilaging it, for the following reasons : First, a more 
 uniform mixture of short straw with leaves and stalks ; second, 
 a division of the stalks in short pieces makes them more easy 
 for the animals' to masticate, and with less waste ; third, a 
 packing down more regalar and more effective in the mass. 
 
 Note. — The further description of the process of ensilage is omitted, as the pre- 
 ceding directions are the result of later experience, by which the author learned to 
 avoid all fermentation. 
 
 The fodder has an alcoholic odor, quite marked and 
 slightly acid. It is eaten with avidity by the cows, and con- 
 stitutes their sole food since the commencement of winter. 
 We were struck by the healthy appearance of the 28 or 30 
 cows — their eyes were bright, the skin soft, and they were 
 in good condition. But the point that above all attracted our 
 attention was the sucking calves, which are the most delicate, 
 and are always the first to suffer from any deficient or bad 
 food given to their mothers. We did not see a single one 
 that had hair in bad condition, or that was scouring. The 
 fodder that produced this excellent result contained neither 
 salt nor oilcake, and one would naturally inquire if it would 
 be sufficient in all cases. It is probable that for very good 
 milkers, where the quantity per day is 25 to 30 litres, it 
 would be necessary to add some meal or oilcake to the ra- 
 tion of maize which we saw distributed, and which weighed 
 28 kilogrammes per day; but for the cows in the stable of M. 
 Goffart, weighing alive 400 to 500 kilogrammes, this ration 
 seemed to be sufficient for them and their calves. In order to 
 show the importance of the preservation of maize, I will give 
 only one figure, which is, that a crop of 120,000 kilogrammes 
 per hectare corresponds to about one-fifth its weight of dry 
 
48 CULTUEE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 substance per hectare — a magnificent result, superior by far to 
 that which can be obtained even with beets raised for food ot 
 cattle in the lands similar to those of the domain of Burtin. 
 The stock produces a great mass of manure. These facts 
 have had a very happy influence upon the business at 
 Burtin, and which perhaps will serve as an example to a 
 country which, notwithstanding the immense amelioration 
 which it has derived from railroads, by bringing to it marl 
 and phosphate fertilizers, has need to pass beyond the uncer- 
 tainty in which it has for a long time languished. We have 
 not thought best to enter into a discussion as to net profits, 
 always quite delicate, because the price varies so much, ac- 
 cording to the commercial circumstances of the locality, and 
 the local management of each business. It is evident that a 
 cultivation of maize which produces 60,000 to 100,000 kilo- 
 grammes of stalks per hectare, which must be carried to the 
 machine, cut, carried, and packed into silos, and afterward 
 taken out, involves a considerable expense. But it is evident 
 also that a plant which produces such quantities of excellent 
 fodder is the base of a profitable cultivation. It is not less 
 evident that, if the business is laid out in a judicious manner, 
 so as to avoid all unnecessary manoeuvres and portage, as is 
 observed by factories, the cost can be reduced to an almost 
 incredibly small figure. 
 
 It is not well to advise farmers, whose means are often 
 already insufficient, to invest an important part of their capital 
 in constructions ; but we should call their attention to the 
 consequences of the continual elevation of the price of hand 
 labor, and the scarcity and increasing worthlessness of farm 
 hands. We cannot operate to-day as we formerly did, be- 
 cause the successive operations of opening and covering the 
 silos in a distant field, the time lost in going and coming 
 without overseeing, and the force wasted in transportation in 
 bad weather, have become too costly. We see no reason why 
 a silo under shelter may not be constructed with such economy 
 
CULTUEE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 49 
 
 that the ensilage of 1,000 kilogrammes of fodder may net as 
 low a cost as in silos made in the ground. 
 
 We hope also to report soon to the Society some figm:es 
 which concern another sort of granary, and which prove that 
 1,000 kilogrammes of oats ma}^ be kept in chests of iron, which 
 protect it from all risks at less cost than in the usual grain bin. 
 
 Finally, our conclusion can only be very favorable to the 
 efforts of M. Groifart. We find that he has made a remarkable 
 success, in having created a business based upon the cultiva- 
 tion and preservation in silos of maize fodder. He has creat- 
 ed in the midst of poor Sologne a type of agriculture which 
 should be cited as an example, even to those parts of the 
 country that are better conditioned. He merits, therefore, the 
 thanks and congratulations of the Central Agricultural Society 
 of France. 
 
 These resolutions were put to vote, and unanimously 
 carried. 
 
 Note. — One of the expenses incident to this culture in France does not apply to 
 the United States, viz., the purchase of seed-corn, which there must be imported, as 
 in the South of France, where the grain matures, there is no more produced than is 
 needed for local consumption. 
 
 II. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE JOURNAL DE L' AGRICULTURE, 
 OCTOBER 23, 1875. 
 
 As we had announced, we visited, Oct. 18, the farm Bur- 
 tin of M. Goffart, to assist at the ensilage of maize. We met 
 there the G-eneral Inspectors of Agricultm-e, the Vice-Presi- 
 dent of the Agi'icultural Commission of Blois, the Director of 
 the Agricultural Colony of St. Maurice, the Baron of Coriolis, 
 several members of the Greneral Council, several engineers of 
 arts and manufactures, and othor noricnlturists. We watched 
 
50 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE 
 
 the operation for half a day, and we are able to render an ac- 
 coimt of the work. A steam-engine, heated with wood, ran a 
 feed-cutter, near to which a cart brought the maize as it was 
 cut in the field. 
 
 Two workmen fed the maize to the machine, which cut it 
 one centimetre in length. One shovelled cut straw upon the cut 
 maize in the proportion of about one-sixth in volume. Two 
 men shovelled the mixture into the silo, Avhero two more spread 
 and packed it. Including the fireman and teamster, nine men 
 were emploA'ed in the cutting. Besides these, two other teams 
 were employed in bringing from the field, where four women 
 and two men were cutting and loading. Thus seventeen per- 
 sons were employed at the work, and about 5,000 kilogrammes 
 were ensilaged per horn*. We brought away for analysis some 
 samples of maize cut before us, and also some that we cut in 
 the field. From the weights and measures that we have taken, 
 M. Groffart, who has made four hectares of maize, Dent de 
 Cheval, will harvest at least 100,000 kilogranmies per hectare. 
 On one field that we visited the product will be 15 kilogrammes 
 per square metre. In thirteen stalks that we measured, weigh- 
 ing 162 kilogrammes, the average length was 3.07 metres. 
 
 We shall return to this subject when we shall have ana- 
 lyzed the maize, and afterward when we have returned to Bur- 
 tin, in order to take some of the maize from the silo that we 
 saw filled. 
 
 III. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE JOURNAL DE L' AGRICULTURE OF 
 
 MAY 27, 1876. 
 
 We have been invited, May 16, to visit and state the con- 
 dition of preservation of maize, cut green, of which we saw 
 the ensilage in October last, in company with many prominent 
 agriculturists. 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 51 
 
 With such men the discussions could not fail to possess a 
 lively interest, and we will return to them. At present we 
 only wish to state three things. 
 
 First — The perfect preservation of the maize cut green, 
 after seven months of ensilage, Avithout any elevation of tem- 
 perature, without fermentation of any kind, the rapidity with 
 which it takes, upon exposure, the alcoholic odor, the avidity 
 with which the bovine beasts proceed to eat it, even when it is 
 offered to them by the side of new-mown grass. 
 
 Second. — Putting in silos 2,000 kilogrammes of rye, cut 
 gi'een, and cut in machine. 
 
 Third. — The excellent condition of the animals which had 
 been exclusively fed on the ensilaged maize. 
 
 We congratulate M. Groffart upon the remarkable results 
 that he has obtained. 
 
 IV. 
 
 THE ANALYSIS AND COMPOSITION OF MAIZE CUT IN 
 GREEN STATE. 
 
 From a letter to M. A. Goffart, from J. A. Ban-al, Perpetual 
 Secretary of the Central Agricultural Society of France, editor 
 of Journal de P Agriculture : 
 
 You do not seek to produce a fermentation in the cut fod- 
 der. You propose to maintain all its parts in a condition 
 as near as possible like that of the plant at the moment that 
 it is cut. I have undertaken the solution of a question of 
 vegetable physiology which presents a scientific interest, and 
 also a practical interest of the first order. 
 
 It is important to ascertain what is the distribution of min- 
 eral and organic matter in the difi'erent parts of the stalk of 
 maize. When it is cut for the silo it l^ecomes a mixture of all 
 
52 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 parts of the plant in sucli a manner as to give to the stock 
 those that are richest in nourishment as well as those that are 
 poorest. This is one of the advantages of the method which 
 you have used so many years. If you give the corn plant to 
 the stock in the natural state, they will eat first the tender 
 parts, and will leave the hard parts, which offer the most resist- 
 ance to the teeth and which have the least flavor. 
 
 I have taken thhi;een stalks of maize, weighing altogether 
 IG.""^ kilogrammes, and have cut them up into six lots, as fol- 
 lows : Each of these lots has been desiccated at 100 degrees (K). 
 The stalks were cut into three parts. The length of each por- 
 tion was, Upper part, 0.65 m. ; middle part, 0.88m. ; lower 
 part, 0.80m. ; the average total length of each stalk, without 
 tassels, being 2.33m. 
 
 Weight in green Weight after de- Water, or Loss, 
 state. siccation. per cent. 
 
 Grammes. Grammes. 
 
 Leaves 4.805 L315 72.63 
 
 Tassel 102 .047 56.07 
 
 Ear, with stem 3.026 .752 75.14 
 
 Upper part of stalk 1.270 .125 90.15 
 
 3Iiddle part of stalk 2.446 .341 80.06 
 
 Lower part of stalk 5.146 .661 87.15 
 
 The thirteen stalks 16.795 3.241 80.76 
 
 Thus, the water was quite unequally distributed in the 
 stalk. They were more watery at the upper part, but the 
 flowering portion was much less ; the grain was still milky. 
 The relations between the different parts of the plant are 
 found to be as follows : 
 
 Normal state. Dry state. 
 
 Leaves 29.20) 40.57) 
 
 Tassel 66 [> 47.87 1.42 [> 65.19 
 
 Ear, with stem 18.01 ) 23.20 ) 
 
 Upper part stalk 7.56 ) 3.85 ) 
 
 Middle part stalk 14.86^ 52.13 10.52^ 34.81 
 
 Lower part stalk 30.01) 20.44) 
 
 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 53 
 
 This shows that the stalks, when fresh, surpass in weight 
 the remainder of the organs of the plant. They contain, how- 
 ever, a less proportion of dry matter, and less than the leaves, 
 which have in the fresh state a much less weight. I have 
 analyzed separately each of the six lots, and I have obtained 
 the following composition in organic substance and ashes, or 
 mineral substance : 
 
 
 Leaves. 
 
 Tassel. 
 
 Ears. 
 
 Upper. 
 
 — stalk — 
 Middle. 
 
 Lower. 
 
 Entire 
 riaut. 
 
 Organic substance. 
 
 89.01 
 
 94.80 
 
 98.30 
 
 95.43 
 
 97.31 
 
 98.26 
 
 94.26 
 
 Ashes or mineral 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 siibstance 
 
 10.99 
 
 5.20 
 
 1.70 
 
 4.57 
 
 2.69 
 
 1.74 
 
 .■3.74 
 
 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 
 
 Thus it is seen that the mineral substance is accumulated 
 in the leaves and upper part of stalk. 
 
 Here are the exact proportions of the mineral substance 
 in the different organs of maize : 
 
 Middle part of stalk 4.87 
 
 Lower part of stalk 0.29 
 
 Leaves 77.70 
 
 Tassel 1.22 
 
 Ear and stem 6.79 
 
 Upper part of stalk 3.13 100.00 
 
 Thus, more than 77 per cent of mineral substance is ac- 
 cumulated in the leaves, more than 14 per cent in the stalk, 
 and only about 6 per cent in the ear. 
 
 We will now ascertain the composition of the different 
 parts of the plant, as appears when desiccated : 
 
 Leaves. 
 
 Tassels. 
 
 Ears. 
 
 Upper. 
 
 —stalk.— 
 Middle. 
 
 Lower. 
 
 Eatire 
 Plant. 
 
 6.28 
 
 6.27 
 
 11.09 
 
 4.34 
 
 3.86 
 
 3.37 
 
 0.47 
 
 Nitrogenous substances. 
 
 Fatty matter soluble in 
 
 ether 1.30 1.90 2.50 1.00 .40 .30 1.28 
 
 Saccharine matter solu- 
 ble in alcohol 6.50 4.70 
 
 Starch 64.33 25.23 
 
 Cellulose 10.60 56.70 
 
 Mineral substance 10.99 5.20 
 
 8.30 
 
 17.50 
 
 20.60 
 
 21.00 
 
 11.77 
 
 73.51 
 
 39.49 
 
 38.65 
 
 35.79 
 
 56.35 
 
 2.90 
 
 33.10 
 
 33.80 
 
 38.00 
 
 18.37 
 
 1.70 
 
 4.57 
 
 2.69 
 
 1.74 
 
 5.74 
 
 Total 100.00 iOO.OO 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 
 
 Nitrogenous (per cent). 1.004 1.004 1.775 .694 .617 .540 1.033 
 
54 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 The ear is found, as we would expect, much richer in 
 nitrogenous substance than the other parts of the plant. The 
 nutritive power, as it is agreed to define it, by the relation of 
 azotic substance to the sum of the fatty matter, sugar, and 
 starch, is quite inferior in the stalks to that of the other organs, 
 as the following table shows : 
 
 Taking the ear as unity, 
 the proportionate nutritive power Nutritive value of 
 is as follows: whole plant. 
 
 Leaves .66 2.54 
 
 Tassel 1.49 .09 
 
 Ears 1.00 2.57 
 
 Upper part stalk .57 17 
 
 Middle part stalk 49 .41 
 
 Lower part stalk .45 69 
 
 6.47 
 
 The stalk, however, shows that it is very rich, and, above 
 all, the leaves, which therefore should be taken care of for 
 the cattle. The fatty matter is concentrated in the leaves and 
 in the ear; the saccharine matter in the leaves and stalk, and 
 mostly in the lower part of the stalk. 
 
 The following table indicates the concentration of saccha- 
 rine matter in the leaves and stalk : 
 
 Each part contriluites The different parts to whole. 
 
 Leaves 2.64 22.36 
 
 Tassel 07 59 
 
 Ears 1.93 16.41 
 
 Upper part stalk .67 5.69 
 
 Middle part stalk 2.17 18.45 
 
 Lower part stalk. 4.29 36.50 
 
 U.77 100.00 
 
 Cellulose substance is, as we would expect, in large pro- 
 portion in the stalk, and mostly toward the lower part of it. 
 It is principally in the leaves and ear, with stem, that the 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 55 
 
 starch and tlie other principles which are neither cellulose 
 nor nitrogenous nor mineral, are found. 
 
 CENTESIMAL COMPOSITION OF THE ASHES OF EACH PAET OF THE 
 PLANT, AND DISTEIBUTION OF THE SAME. 
 
 Phosplioric' Acid 
 
 Sulphuric Acid 
 
 Chlorine 
 
 Potash 
 
 Soda 
 
 Lime 
 
 Magnesia 
 
 Iron 
 
 Silex - 
 
 Carbonic Acid and Waste 
 
 Entire 
 Plant. 
 
 7.17 
 
 3.81 
 1.35 
 4.41 
 8.20 
 
 12.96 
 6.60 
 0.51 
 
 54.75 
 0.18 
 
 100.00 
 
 Leaves. 
 
 3.97 
 3.21 
 1.04 
 L23 
 6.78 
 
 13.78 
 5.64 
 0.46 
 
 63.76 
 0.13 
 
 Tassels. Ears. 
 
 10.011 
 
 6.13 
 
 2.73 
 
 7.88 
 
 10.37 
 
 11.87 
 
 15.03 
 
 0.11 
 
 35.83 
 
 0.03 
 
 33.50 
 3.58 
 3.52 
 
 27.11 
 
 21.36 
 3.46 
 7.04 
 
 trace. 
 0.34 
 0.09 
 
 Upper 
 Part 
 
 Stalk. 
 
 9.07 
 
 5.61 
 
 2.15 
 
 14.61 
 
 12.57 
 
 10.29 
 
 10.52 
 
 2.08 
 
 29.83 
 
 3.27 
 
 100.00 lOO.OOjlOO.OOj 100.00 
 
 Middle. 
 
 14.02 
 8.65 
 
 trace. 
 2.41 
 8.39 
 
 14.31 
 8.73 
 0.63 
 
 41.37 
 1.49 
 
 Lower. 
 
 7.17 
 3.81 
 
 1.35 
 4.41 
 8.26 
 
 12.96 
 6.60 
 0.51 
 
 54.75 
 0.18 
 
 100.00 100.00 
 
 The above table shows that the ears are the richest in 
 phosphoric acid and potash. These also contain the largest 
 percentage of soda, the least of lime and silex. As to the 
 distribution of each mineral element in the different parts of 
 the plant, it is necessary, in order to study it thoroughly, to 
 enter into a more detailed and separate examination. Plios- 
 phoric acid or phosphorus plays an important part in agricul- 
 ture, not because it is more indispensable to vegetation than 
 several other elements, but because natm*e has not distributed 
 it with so much profusion in all lands or in the atmosphere as 
 certain other elements that on that account are considered sec- 
 ondary. Indeed, there is not any one element in vegetation 
 of any greater importance than another, and if any person 
 judges otherwise it is because he places himself at the point of 
 view of an agriculturist who, having need to produce certain 
 crops of a special kind, needs to accumulate such elements as 
 enter specially into their organization. Therefore, in order to 
 obtain abundant food, in order to produce with rapidity do- 
 mestic animals, whose organs require much phosphorus, it is 
 
50 (JULTUKE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 necessary to seek methods for increasing the supply of phos- 
 phates, more or less assimilable, that the plants may find in 
 the bed where their roots develop. To indicate the sources of 
 the supply, whether in the residuum of factories or of the 
 household, or in the numerous repositories, has been one of the 
 greatest services rendered in modern times to agriculture by 
 chemistry and geology. But there our knowledge ends. We 
 are entirely ignorant as to how the phosphorus distributes itself 
 in the vegetable, by what processes it penetrates and circu- 
 lates, and accumulates in certain organs, or exactly what these 
 organs are. 
 
 As to the relative distribution of these elements, the fol- 
 lowing tables show, as far as concerns maize fodder intended 
 for green preservation by ensilage : 
 
 PHOSPHORIC AGED. 
 
 Amount In each part. Proportion in different parts. 
 
 Leaves, Grrammes, 0.177 42.96 
 
 Tassel '' 0.007 1.70 
 
 Ears " 0.132 32.04 
 
 Upper part stalk " 0,020 485 
 
 Middle part stalk " 0.026 631 
 
 Lower part stalk " 0.050 12.14 
 
 Whole plant, dry " 0.412 100.00 
 
 SULPHUEIC ACID. 
 
 The role of sulphur in vegetation is nearly unknown. All 
 that we know is that it is absolutely necessary. It is generally 
 found in less proportion than phosphorus ; in maize as 88 to 
 180. 
 
 Quantity in eacli part. Proportion iu different parts. 
 
 Leaves Grammes, 0.144 65.75 
 
 Tassel 1 " 0.005 2.28 
 
 Ears " 0.014 6.39 
 
 Upper part stalk " 0.009 4.11 
 
 Middle part stalk " 0.016 7.30 
 
 Lower part stalk « 0.031 14.17 
 
 Whole plant, dry « 0.219 100.00 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 57 
 
 CHLORINE. 
 
 By the conclusive experiments of Prince de Salon-Horst- 
 raar, we know that chlorine is indispensable to the regular 
 operations of the different phases of vegetation, but the most 
 complete obscurity rests upon its real action. 
 
 Quantity in eacli pari . Proportion in different parts. 
 
 Leaves Grammes, 0.047 60.26 
 
 Tassel '' 0.002 2.56 
 
 Ears " 0.014 17.95 
 
 Upper part stalk ", 0.009 11.54 
 
 Middle '• " ' 0.006 7.69 
 
 Lower " " traces traces 
 
 Whole plant dry " 0.078 100.00 
 
 POTASH. 
 
 Berthier's saying, "No plant without potash," has become 
 a maxim. 
 
 Quantity in each part. Proportion in different parts. 
 
 Leaves Grammes, 0.055 21.94 
 
 Tassel " 0.006 2.27 
 
 Ears " 0.107 42.29 
 
 Upper part stalk " 0.036 14.23 
 
 Middle " " 0.041 16.20 
 
 Lower " " 0.008 3.17 
 
 Whole plant dry « 0.253 100.00 
 
 SODA IN MAIZE. 
 
 In the whole plant dry, 0.475 grammes, of which two- 
 thirds is accumulated in the leaves, and one-sixth in the ears. 
 
 LIME IN MAIZE. 
 
 Lime has been considered necessary to plant growth fi'om 
 a very ancient period. More than four-fifths are found in the 
 leaves, only two per cent in the ear, and the quantity in- 
 creases in descending the stalk. 
 
58 CULTUEP: and ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 MAGNESIA IN MAIZE. 
 
 The role of magnesia in vegetation has been but little 
 studied. There is no doubt, however, after experiments made 
 in Grermany, that its presence is indispensable to plants. Two- 
 thirds of it is found in the leaves, and the remainder equally 
 divided in the other five parts of the plant. 
 
 lEON IN MAIZE. 
 
 Iron is evidently of great importance to the life of ani- 
 mals who are nourished by vegetation ; as with sulphur, chlo- 
 rine, soda, lime, and magnesia, the greatest accumulation is in 
 the leaves. But it is a noticeable fact that it is absent from 
 the ear, which would seem to explain the opinion of physicians 
 as to the insufficiency of corn-meal for exclusive human food. 
 As to maize liarvested green in order to be fed to cattle after 
 ensilage, the lack of it in the ear is equalized by its presence 
 in the other parts of the plant. 
 
 SILICA. 
 
 It is probable that all silica enters the organs of vegeta- 
 tion in the soluble state. The quantity found is very con- 
 siderable. 
 
 Quantity in each part. Proportion in different parts. 
 
 Leaves Grammes, 2.843 90.45 
 
 Tassel ' '' 0.026 0.82 
 
 Ears '' 0.001 0.03 
 
 Upper part stalk " 0.042 133 
 
 Middle " " 0.084 2.67 
 
 Lower " " 0.147 4.70 
 
 Whole plant dry " 3.143 100.00 
 
 Thus the stalk contains only about one-tenth part of the 
 amount contained in the leaves, which contain 90 per cent of 
 the whole plant. 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 59 
 
 y. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT OF THE AGRICULURAL CLUB 
 OF EOMORANTIN, Oct. 12, 1876. 
 
 By M. Rousseau. 
 
 The discovery of the phosphates was a happy event for 
 Sologne, but that depends upon our taking for an objective 
 point the production of grass. Their misuse without this rem- 
 edy would lead us quickly to sterility. It is necessary for us 
 to produce from grass fodder for stall feeding. The two years 
 of tenible di^ought that we have just passed through demon- 
 strates this necessity. Until the present time oui* resources in 
 fodder were limited to our natural meadows, clover, and ray- 
 grass. Our natural meadows, where we cannot uTigate them, 
 yield very feebly, and the grasses that they produce possess a 
 very moderate nutritive quality. The clover, puss-grass and 
 ray-grass leave us very often in embarrassment Om* soil is 
 light, retains but scantily the moistm-e that is necessary for the 
 abundant production of fodder ; we have seen this sad experi- 
 ence this year, for in all the farms that we have visited, the 
 gi'eatest production that we found was only thirty to thirty- 
 five wagon loads. These results are afflicting, and would 
 retard indefinitely any progress in agriculture, if some sup- 
 plementary resoui'ces were not just now offered to us. A dis- 
 tinguished agricultm'ist of Sologne has brought to us a com- 
 plement to our needs. 
 
 Since M. Goffart has demonstrated by works and experi- 
 ments for more than ten years that maize fodder, easily cul- 
 tivated, gives in our lands an abundant crop, which, in his 
 case, has exceeded 120,000 kilogrammes to the hectare, we 
 can truly say that our country is safe from the scarcity of 
 fodder. Since he has shown by repeated successful efforts 
 that this mass of vegetation was not only a resoiu'ce for the 
 
60 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 summer and autumn, but by ensilage it can be made almost 
 an inexhaustible provision for the winter, we can say that the 
 agriculture of Sologne has found its proper direction. The 
 beet, which does not do well with us, is the wealth of the de- 
 partments of the north. It permits them to support and to fatten 
 a great number of animals, and thereby to produce a great 
 amount of fertilizers by which to maintain and to increase the ' 
 fertility of their soil. Since the beet fails us, we will have the 
 maize ; and if we give it abundant manure, and that which it 
 prefers above all, superphosphates, if we are wise enough to 
 make use of the process that has been shown us (ensilage), we 
 will see a second agricultural movement which will have a 
 wider scope, without the same danger, as the discovery of the 
 phosphates. 
 
 VI. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE REPORT TO THE CENTRAL AGRICUL- 
 TURAL COMMITTEE OF SOLOGNE, Oct. 31, 1875. 
 
 By M. Julien, President or the Club of Romorantin. 
 
 Gentlemen : The question of maize fodder, and above all 
 of its preservation by the means of ensilage, has made too 
 much noise in the agricultural world to permit this club to re- 
 main a stranger to it. You have learned of the profit that the 
 country might draw from this innovation, and it will not be 
 one of your least titles to the public gratitude to possess 
 among you the pioneers who have aided to find the methods 
 for bringing into practical use an idea that is destined to work 
 a revolution in the agriculture of central France. One of the 
 greatest difficulties that is presented to the enterprising agri- 
 culturist in a coiintry analogous to ours is the uncertainty of 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. CI 
 
 the crop of fodder. Our irregular climate, passing from great 
 humidity to extreme dryness, puts his enterprise always in 
 peril. He can never count upon the resources which he has 
 prepared so long in advance. To-day, however, thanks to the 
 introduction of maize fodder in our variety of crops, tlie live 
 stock will find a provision as sure for the winter as for the 
 summer. Maize is for our central departments what the beet 
 is for the countries with rich soil, and like that precious sugar 
 bearer, it places at our service an immense supply of pulp. 
 [The description of the processes and of the silos is omitted, 
 as the improvements made by M. Groffart, in 1876-7, an- 
 tiquates it.] 
 
 The maize may be ensilaged without cutting it, but it is 
 necessary to use more precaution to obtain a proper compres- 
 sion ; there may remain some air inclosed, which necessarily 
 causes some of it to be more or less injured. It is better to 
 cut it before ensilage, which also dispenses with doing it after- 
 ward. It is not necessary to choose fine weather for ensilage ; 
 on the other hand, humidity is rather an advantage than other- 
 wise. The introduction of salt is not necessary. It aids noth- 
 ing in the preservation, which is due rather to a sort of slow 
 boiling produced by the high temperature that is developed in 
 the silo. 
 
 Note. — This idea was proven to be a mistake by later experience. 
 
 It is unnecessary to add that this method of preser- 
 vation is also applicable to many other kinds of fodder, such 
 as rye, rape, buckwheat before maturity of the straw, the 
 stalks of Jerusalem artichokes, the leaves of beets, even clover 
 and lucern, but above all, the aftermath, which it is sometimes 
 impossible to cure. 
 
 It is indeed a new era opened for poor countries. Let us 
 hope that our Sologne will profit by it more than all others, 
 which would be its just right, since from its bosom the impulse 
 went forth. We can also congratulate ourselves that this rev- 
 
62 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAI2E. 
 
 olution is due to the successful and persevering efforts of a 
 member of our Society, M. Auguste Goffart. 
 
 VII. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE SPEECH TO THE CENTRAL AGRICUL- 
 TURAL COMMITTEE OF SOLOGNE, JUNE 25, 1876. 
 
 By M. Boinyilliers, President. 
 
 The preservation of maize as a green fodder by ensilage 
 is a fixed fact, thanks to the persevering and happy experi- 
 ments of our colleague, M. Goffart It is an immense benefit 
 accrued to France, and especially to our Sologne ; therefore I 
 have asked from the Minister of Agriculture for M. Goffart the 
 decoration of the Legion of Honor. This reward, so well de- 
 served, was not delayed. 
 
 (This news was received by prolonged and unanimous 
 applause.) 
 
OULTUEE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 63 
 
 INTRODUCTION OF ENSILAGE IN THE UNITED 
 
 STATES. 
 
 By Mr. Francis Morris, 
 
 OF OAKLAND MANOR, HOWARD COUNTY, MARYLAND. 
 
 I HAVE been requested to give my experience in growing 
 com fodder, preser^dng it in silos, or trenches, and feeding it 
 to stock. 
 
 In the early summer of 1876, I received from France a 
 newspaper containing an account of the plan they had adopted 
 of raising maize, or Indian corn, cutting the same when in tas- 
 sel, and burying it in trenches, covering it with earth, and 
 feeding it out to their stock in the following winter or spring. 
 This statement induced me to make the experiment. I sowed, 
 on the 1st of August, 1876, about five acres, in drills three feet 
 apart, and about a bushel of corn to the acre. This was worked 
 twice with a cultivator, and was in tassel in the first days of 
 October. We cut the same with a mowing-machine, carried 
 it in wagons to the feed-cutter, cut it up in one-inch pieces, 
 and added to it an amount of wheat straw, cut up in the same 
 manner, equal to one-fifth of the com fodder. I had three 
 silos bricked up inside a stone barn. The silos were about ten 
 feet deep and four feet wide, and twenty-four feet long. The 
 fodder was well packed down by trampling while the mix- 
 ture was put away, and then covered with boards with large 
 and heavy stones upon them. After the weights had pressed 
 it down very considerably, they were taken ofi", the boards 
 covered with straw, and then with clay ; the latter were 
 thoroughly packed, and the whole was made a perfect protec- 
 tion against the oxygen of the atmosphere penetrating through 
 the clay or earth. The first silo was opened for use on Chiist- 
 mas, and I fed all my milking cows with the same. Two of 
 them refused to eat their portion, and when they left their 
 stalls the other cows ate it; and from that day I have 
 
64 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 never fed it to an animal that has refused it — horses, mules, 
 oxen, cows, sheep, and pigs will all leave any other feed and 
 eat this by choice. 
 
 In the year 1877, from want of personal attention and 
 from a very dry time, my corn fodder was not as large a crop 
 as it should have been, but it was sufficient to feed nearly a 
 thousand head of stock for over two months ; it was equally 
 good in quality as it was in 1876. 
 
 For this year I have more than double the quantity of 
 this fodder. I have made and filled a very large silo out of 
 doors, which will probably hold from fifty to seventy-five 
 tons, besides filling the three silos in my barn. I have a very 
 large herd of stock dependent on my corn fodder for their 
 winter feed, and I feel every confidence that it will furnish 
 me all the feed I require. 
 
 In a very long experience in raising stock, I have found 
 corn fodder preserved as above stated the best food for milk- 
 ing cows that I ever used. It is equal if not superior to 
 June grass, and its cultivation is so easy, its preservation so 
 inexpensive, that to-day no one can estimate its advantage to 
 the agriculturist. The average hay crop of this State (New 
 York) is not equal to one ton per acre, and every farmer 
 knows what a costly crop it is to raise, to cure, and to preserve 
 after it is raised, while our Indian corn crop will grow and 
 flourish and tassel with the most ordinary care and tillage. 
 Twenty-five tons to the acre, with a light dressing of barnyard 
 manure, and working it twice with a cultivator, is a small crop. 
 Add to the barnyard manure a dressing of guano, and more 
 than double that quantity can be raised to the acre — I am al- 
 most afraid to state the quantity that can be raised per acre. 
 Suppose, however, we put the produce down to twenty-five 
 tons per acre — and every one who has raised corn sowed broad- 
 cast will recognize that this is a small crop — what will be the 
 result in this good State of New York if one-tenth of her 
 arable land is used in this way? Where is the stock to feed 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 65 
 
 upon the new supply of food ? It is not here. We should 
 have to double the number of our horses, cows, sheep, and all 
 our stock, and after we have done that we should have to 
 double them again. In fact, the amount of stock that could 
 be maintained is so great that we should be wholly indepen- 
 dent of the West, for the most liberal supply of beef and mut- 
 ton will be supplied by the cultivation of our own lands. The 
 beef that we shall have when we make a proper use of pre- 
 served green food will be very different from the beef fatted 
 on slops procured from the whiskey stills of Chicago and other 
 cities of the West. The old adage, '^ No cattle no corn," is 
 fully verified by our wheat production in this State. The 
 lands are all so indifferent in quality that he must be a bold 
 farmer who now sows a field of wheat ; but the corn-fodder, 
 which it is now proposed to raise, will give such a yearly 
 amount of manm*e as will enable every farmer to get a Avheat 
 crop of thirty to forty bushels of wheat to the acre, and suc- 
 ceed that by good clover. After that is done, his progress to 
 a maximum yield of cereals will be very rapid, and I have 
 every confidence that the crops of this country, blessed with 
 its tropical sun, will exceed in value and importance that of 
 any other agricultural country that can be named. 
 
 Feancis Morris. 
 
 Beceniber, 1878. 
 
 [Translation.] 
 
 LETTER FROM MONS. GOFFART. 
 
 BuRTiN, December 4, 1878. 
 
 Monsieur J. B. Brown, at Neiv York: 
 
 I learn with pleasm-e that you have undertaken to translate 
 into English my Manual on Ensilage. I have never had but 
 one desire concerning it : that is to see the greatest possible 
 publicity given to my work, and I devoutly hope for the sue- 
 
66 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 cess of your translation. Since I commenced my crusade in 
 favor of maize, and of my method of ensilage , the cultivation of 
 that gigantic grass has increased more than ten-fold in France, 
 and the commerce of New York will find with us an immense 
 channel of export, if it can deliver to us seed in good order; 
 for too often the maize coming from America has been heated 
 by a long sojourn upon the ship, and has more or less lost its 
 germinative power. Whoever can guarantee us against that 
 damage, and insure the sending us the best species, that is to 
 say, the variety that is most productive as forage, will render 
 us ;in immense service. See if you can come to our aid in 
 this matter. 
 
 My latest experiments have induced me to mix my fine 
 straw and my cut straw with the maize at the time of ensilage. 
 Mixed at the time of consumption, these straws are eaten with- 
 out difficulty by the stock, but a very large proportion of them 
 is to be found in the manure. It is not so when the straws 
 have been softened and decomposed hy a sojourn of a few 
 weeks or months with the maize in the silo. I do not exceed, 
 hoAvever, five per cent of the weight of the maize. 
 
 Sheep and cattle fatten with wonderful rapidity upon maize 
 ensilage, with the addition of 8 to 10 per cent in weight of oil- 
 cake meal. 
 
 Two of my disciples cut and ensilaged last autumn, one 
 120,000 kilogrammes of maize, the other 125,000, in one day's 
 work. The more rapid the work the less it costs; and in 
 America, where farming operations are upon an immense scale, 
 there mil be needed powerful cutters that will exceed 12,000 
 kilogrammes per hour. 
 
 I continue to publish from time to time articles upon en- 
 silage, which can be found in Le Journal d'' Agriculture of Paris. 
 Be pleased to accept, Monsieur, the expression of my dis- 
 tinguished sentiments. 
 
 Aug. Goffart. 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 CONCLUSIONS OF THE TRANSLATOR. 
 
 In England, all cereals used as food for man are called 
 ''corn," but those who first landed in America from that 
 country found a new cereal used as food by the aborigines. 
 They added it to their catalogue of corn with the prefix of In- 
 dian. It is raised from Canada to Patagonia ; in Africa from 
 the Mediterranean to the Cape of Good Hope ; in Central Asia ; 
 in Australia ; in Europe, in Hungary, France, and Spain. No 
 other cereal, except rice, is so extensively cultivated, and in 
 every part of the world alike the most valuable portion of the 
 plant has been wasted. 
 
 It is remarkable that the corn plant, after having been cul- 
 tivated mostly for its fruit since its discovery in America, 
 should have been, so to speak, rediscovered in Central France. 
 For it seems by the foregoing that far more animal as well as 
 human life can be suj)ported by the culture and preservation of 
 the whole plant than by the fruit alone. The dried or partially 
 dried stalk that our farmers have endeavored to compel their 
 animals to eat, by adding to it la,bor and meal, is a pitiful 
 nourishment as compared mth the sweet, fresh, juicy, preserved 
 plant that they might have had for all these centuries, if they 
 had only happened to think of it. It was a veritable inspira- 
 tion that came to Monsieur Ooffart when he piled upon his en- 
 silage the stocks and stones, and solved the problem by means 
 of continuous ^pressure. These two words should become as 
 famous as the Eureka of the Grreek philosopher. The first 
 notice of this matter in this country seems to have been made 
 in the American Agriculturist of June, 1875, with illustrations 
 of the best methods then known, and quite a full description ; 
 but at that time Monsieur Ooffart had not made his final dis- 
 covery of continuous pressure, and my own experience, as 
 well as I doubt not that of many others (and the author of the 
 article himself was exceedingly doubtful as to the extent of the 
 
68 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 preservation or the value of the method), was that green fodder 
 laid down in that way was sure to be more or less spoiled ; at 
 any rate the loss would be sure to discourag-e anybody. Mr. 
 Morris seems to have come at once very close to the correct 
 method, and by frequent trampling- down he expelled suffi- 
 cient air to very nearly prevent the forming of alcoholic fer- 
 mentation ; but if Mr. Morris had happened to have made his 
 experiment in such a way or in such a climate that the super- 
 imposed earth had frozen too hard to settle, it would have been 
 some time longer (if ever) before the world would have heard 
 of his success. By such small accidents are great discoveries 
 hastened or retarded in every field of evolution. A frozen 
 arch of earth, from which the green-cut forage has settled 
 aAvay, is not the proper way to preserve ensilage, as the writer 
 has learned to his cost. The outdoor silo, as well as the in- 
 door, should be so made and covered that the air can be expelled 
 by continuous pressure, and rain and surface-water kept out; 
 and a thatched roof will be found better than any other kind. 
 
 And now that the proper way has been found, adapted to 
 all countries wherever the plant can be grown — and no other 
 has a wider domain — and which is also adapted to every other 
 species of green crop that is capable of compression, what a 
 future seems to be opening before the human race ! If he is 
 held honorable who causes two blades of grass to grow where 
 but one grew before, how much more should we honor the man 
 who has shown us the way to make four animals thrive where 
 scarcely one did before I A cow to an acre is a reasonable 
 result of the practice of ensilage. The labor of mere exist- 
 ence seems to have been almost annihilated. Our barns are to 
 be turned upside down, and our mows located in the cellar. 
 
 The unlimited production of meat, butter, cheese, milk, 
 hides, horns, and all other animal products, ought to produce 
 an immense increase of human comfort, population, and the 
 knowledge, science, art, cultivation, and refinement that can 
 only come from leisure and freedom from carking care. 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 69 
 
 And now, lest the universal Yankee nation (and the South- 
 em people are nowadays quite as proportionately prolific in 
 inventions as the Northern) shall seek to load this discovery 
 with patents and patent rights, and j^atent lawsuits, I would 
 say that I have invented, and give freely to the world, ever}' 
 possible method of extracting air from the ensilage, whether 
 by suction or pressure, chemical or mechanical exhaustion. 
 Sheathing paper above the covering straw beneath the planks, 
 has been used by Mr. Morris with excellent result. Baling, 
 under pressure for transportation, with chemically-prepared 
 cloths, has also been suggested, and I believe tried. 
 
 As one of the greatest of its results, may we not look forward 
 for a speedy advance in the value of real estate, for a levelling 
 up of the value of lands to the mortgages that rest upon 
 them? True, there will not be so much of it needed, as the 
 cattle upon a thousand hills can be supported in a few valleys ; 
 but with increasing wealth, the desire of ownersliip may retm-n 
 to the people here as it is in England. And as the happiest of 
 its results, may we not look forward to the use of this new- 
 found leisure in the improvement of our politics, in the wrest- 
 ing of all our governments from the trading politician, who 
 pretends to represent one constituency while robbing every 
 other, and assisting to rob his own*? 
 
 Without a governing class or family, with legislators ayIio 
 are patriotic rather than professional, and with office-holders 
 who are servants rather than rulers of the people, may not this 
 whole nation look forward to lighter taxes and an easier life as 
 the grand ultimate result of the great invention of ensilage? 
 Those of our people who have been driven by dire necessity 
 to remove to Texas, Florida, and other outposts of civilization, 
 may return to live again in the older sections of the country. 
 We can raise cattle in New York cheaper than they can be 
 driven in Texas to the railroad shipping point. 
 
 A growth of farming villages, with all the social privileges, 
 rather than a stupid life in scattered farm-houses, may be an- 
 
70 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 ticipated as one of the happy results of preserving the summer 
 fatness of our land, hitherto wasted. 
 
 The heat and hurry of haying will be avoided, for our 
 new crop can be harvested on a wet as well as on a dry day. 
 The danger of lightning to the fresh-filled steaming hay-barn 
 will be avoided; the incendiary's torch will not avail him 
 on this stored wealth ; the tramp, indifferent to the danger, 
 can no longer smoke his pipe in the warm hay-mow. 
 
 The grass crop of the United States has been of late years 
 esteemed as more important and valuable than the cotton crop. 
 '* Grass is king," is sometimes said. But for half the j^ear its 
 throne has been the dry and dusty hay-mow. How much more 
 royal will be its position henceforth, when fifty to one hundred 
 tons per acre of juicy food can be surely and safely stored 
 away each and every autumn ? The cattle fed unlimitedly 
 will respond with sleek and well-fattened sides, and the excess 
 of supply can be returned with little waste of labor to the field 
 that bore it. 
 
 The simplest and surest of all agricultural processes is 
 the production of the stalk, and the use of this part of the 
 plant for food, except by grazing, is quite modern. Tide- 
 water meadows were until within a few generations the j)rin- 
 cipal reliance for winter food of cattle by the farmers of the 
 Coast States, and still are so in Florida and other Southern 
 States. 
 
 The ownership of a tide-water meadow was considered a 
 very valuable adjunct to any farm ; the farmers along the 
 Hudson River made quite a point of owning one not many 
 years ago. I conclude that the proper winter sustenance of 
 cattle in cold climates is a modern improvement. 
 
 It may be found that the increase of pastoral life (history 
 repeating itself with improvements) is the sole and true escape 
 from the cloud of poverty and misery that seems to be settling 
 down upon the richest and oldest as well as the poorest 
 nations of the earth. 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF .MAIZE. 71 
 
 Civilization, pushed too rapidly in the direction of mecha- 
 nism and commerce, languishes. A complement is needed in an 
 improved and widely adaptable agricultural system. At this 
 epoch the world is startled with the news of a method for 
 placing untold pastoral wealth, liitherto wasted, at the door of 
 every rm*al dweller of the temperate zones. Does it not seem 
 Hke the harbinger of better times, with ample food and cloth- 
 ing for all I 
 
 COMPOSITION OF MAIZE (GRAIN). 
 
 Albuminoid Sugar, Cellulose Ash 
 
 Water. Fat. or Starcli or or 
 
 Flesh forming, and Gum. "Wood. Minerals. 
 
 Mass. Golden 8-rowed 1251 494 1025 6937 135 158 
 
 Mass. White Flint 1361 362 910 6910 313 135 
 
 Mass. Red Flint 1134 460 881 7290 128 107 
 
 Illinois 1022 340 922 7425 147 144 
 
 Kansas 1195 340 1206 6947 202 110 
 
 Burr's Sweet 1068 777 1169 6270 494 222 
 
 Stowell's Evergreen Sweet. 1086 766 1110 6586 263 189 
 
 EXTRACT FROM AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, JAN., 1879, SHOW- 
 ING THE DISADVANTAGE OF DRYING CORN-FODDER. 
 
 Bi/ the Author of " Walks and Talks on the Farm^^^ "■ Harris on the Pig^' etc. 
 
 A LAEGE farmer in Michigan writes that he has 20 acres of 
 clover which it will not pay to mow. He wants to put it in 
 wheat next fall, and asks, "How would it do to drill in com for 
 fodder previously ? Can it be cut with a reaper and cured in 
 time to sow wheat"?" — I wrote him, " No." Corn-fodder can be 
 cut with a reaper, better and far cheaper than by hand. But 
 it cannot be cured and removed from the land in time for wheat. 
 Some time ago I made a few stacks of corn-fodder to see how 
 
72 CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 it would keep, and we are now feeding it. I cannot recom- 
 mend the plan. We never had a dryer and hotter or better 
 time to cm.-e corn-fodder than the past fall. The fodder was 
 cut with a reaper and made into sheaves like wheat, and stuck 
 up in small stooks to cure. Nicer fodder I never saw. It was 
 as diy as we can ever hope to get it. Two or three acres of 
 it was on low land, and we drew off the fodder and put it in 
 six or seven stacks. It was in prime order. But it heated more 
 or less in the stacks. The cows eat it with avidity, preferring 
 it to hay, but the sheep do not like it as well as hay, while the 
 corn-fodder that is now standing in large stooks in the field is 
 highly relished by the slieej). I conclude, therefore, that the 
 only way to preserve corij-fodder is to make it into large well- 
 shaped stooks in the field where it grew, and draw it in as 
 wanted during the winter. Or rather, di'aw in enough at a 
 time during favorable weather to last a week or ten days. 
 
 FOOD INGREDIENTS— CHEMICAL TERMS EXPLAINED. 
 
 Water. — If a piece of wood or wisp of hay be diied some 
 time in a hot oven, more or less water will be driven off. The 
 water in feeding-stuffs varies from 80 or 90 lbs. in every 100 
 lbs. of young grass or fodder-corn, to only 8 or 10 lbs. to the 
 100 in dry straw or hay. 
 
 Organic Substance. — If the dried wood or hay be burned, 
 most of it will pass off as gas, vapor, or smoke. The part thus 
 burned away is the organic substance. The residue, 
 
 The Ash contains the mineral matters — that is, potash, 
 lime, phosphoric acid, etc., of the plant. The most important 
 part for our present j)urpose, is the organic, the combustible 
 matter. This consists of three kinds of ingredients : albumin- 
 oids, carbohydrates, and fats. The main point in economical 
 
CULTURE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 73 
 
 feeding is to secure the right proportions of these at the lowest 
 cost. 
 
 Albuminoids ; also called protein compounds, proteids and 
 flesh-formers, contain carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen. 
 They thus differ from the carbohydrates and fats which con- 
 tain no nitrogen. The name albuminoids comes from albumen, 
 which we know very well as the white of eggs, and it is found 
 in milk. The fibrin of blood and muscle (lean meat), and the 
 casein (curd) of milk, are also albuminoids. Indeed, the solid 
 parts of blood, nerves, lean meat, gristle, skin, etc., consist 
 chiefly of albuminoids. In plants they are equally important. 
 Plant albumen occurs in nearly all vegetable juices, especially 
 in potatoes and wheat, casein or legumin in beans and peas, 
 and fibrin in the gluten of wheat, the basis of what farmer-boys 
 call "wheat gum." Clover, bran, beans, peas, oil-cake, and 
 flesh and meat scrap, are rich in albuminoids. 
 
 Carbohydrates consist of carbon and hydrogen. The most 
 important are starch, sugar, and cellulose (woody fibre). They 
 make up a larger part of the solids of plants, but only a little 
 of them is stored in the animal body. Potatoes, wheat, poor 
 hay, straw, and corn-stalks consist largely of carbohydi'ates. 
 
 Fats have more carbon than carbohydrates, and, like them, 
 have no nitrogen. Fat meat, tallow, lard, fish oil, the fat (but- 
 ter) of milk, and linseed oil are familiar examples of fats. In- 
 dian corn, oil-cake, cotton-seed and linseed, are rich in fatty 
 matters. — From American Agriculturist, Jan., 1879. 
 
 FARMING FOR PROFIT. 
 
 The most profitable farming is that which gives the largest 
 returns for the smallest comparative outlay. This statement 
 is based on business principles, but it is not always apparently 
 true, for sometimes a farmer gets large crops with small out- 
 
74 CULTUKE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 
 
 lay by the use of means which draw heavily u^^on the re- 
 serve forces of the soil. The latter should be reckoned into 
 the expense account, but usually is not, though if such a course 
 is continued, it results in exhaustion. To revise the first state- 
 ment then : that kind of farming is most profitable which gives 
 the largest returns for the expense incurred, without decreas- 
 ing one's capital by exhausting the soil. 
 
 English agriculture dates its rise from the beginning of 
 the fattening of animals for market. The most fertile farms in 
 the Eastern States to-day, are, as a rule, those that are devoted 
 to stock and dairy-farming. The production and sale of large 
 crops of grain, potatoes, and other field crops, without any re- 
 turn of fertility, has caused the present sterility of the many 
 thousand acres of comparatively exhausted farm lands, West, 
 South, and East. If their owners had kept live stock for the 
 consumption of the crops, and sold only the animal products 
 and the surplus grain, etc., they might have been even more 
 productive to-day than in the beginning. The growth of 
 plants does not exhaust the soil, but on the contrary makes it 
 richer, so long as the mineral and nitrogenous elements of 
 plant-food are returned to the land. The action of the roots 
 is to extract food material from the rocks (as we may regard 
 the inorganic matter of the soil), and of the leaves to draw it 
 from the air, and to store it in the soil; but if more than the 
 material thus obtained is removed and not returned, exhaustion 
 necessarily follows. 
 
 By feeding crops to animals, the larger portion of the es- 
 sential mineral and nitrogenous portions are returned to the 
 soil in the resulting manure ; particularly is this the case in 
 fattening mature animals, and in the production of butter and 
 pork. An animal extracts from its food, nitrogen for its mus- 
 cles, phosphate for its bones, some potash, and the vegetable 
 oils and other carbonaceous matter for its fatty tissues and for 
 respiration. The nitrogen, phosphates and potash, we must 
 supply to the soil, as plants seldom obtain these materials from 
 
CULTUEE AND ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 75 
 
 natural sources so rapidly as we remove them in crops sold ; 
 the material for oils, sugar, starch, and other carbonaceous 
 matters are furnished to the plants from air and soil in ample 
 quantities to meet all demands. Now, a growing- animal stores 
 up the first three of these food materials. A mature animal, 
 on the contrary, only uses enough of them to make good the 
 wastes of the body, but these wastes are all found in the ex- 
 crements ; so that practically a fattening animal removes none 
 of those constituents of its food that are valuable for manure. 
 We can, therefore, feed the home-grown crops and purchased 
 food to matm-e animals, and get nearly or quite its full value 
 twice over, in beef and in manure for the production of more 
 crops. 
 
 Similar principles apply in feeding swine. Pork is for the 
 most part composed of the fatty matter which costs nothing in 
 the crop. Hence the value of hog-manure, with which every 
 farmer is familiar. In butter-making also, very little if any 
 fertility is removed from the farm in the butter sold, at it is 
 composed wholly of fatty compounds. This fact is illustrated 
 in practice by the exceptional fertility of butter dairy farms, 
 which, instead of becoming sterile are continually growing 
 more fertile. These facts indicate that the profitable farming 
 of the futm^e in many sections, is to be, as it is to-day, in in- 
 creased attention to fattening animals and dairying. — From 
 American Agriculturist, Jan., 1879. 
 

 ■ '-t-/v. y. 
 
 This new fodder plant may be found to be even more productive than the corn-plant, on account of the several cut- 
 tings that may be made in one season. If properly ensilaged itwill doubtless be more attractive and nutritious than if 
 dried ; and the same method will undoubtedly preserve this also. 
 
 The following- article is from the pen of the well-known Horticulturist, Peter Henderson: 
 
 Pearl Millet has been cultivated for some years as a forage plant in some of the Southern States, as "African Cane," 
 ■Egyptian Millet," "Japan Milh-t," and in some places as "Horse Millet," but little was known of it at the North be- 
 fore last year, and then only in such small quantities as to hardly allow of a fair trial. From what we saw of it in 1877, 
 we determined to give it a thorough trial this season. A piece of good strong loamy ground was prepared as if for a beet 
 or turnip crop, by manuring with stable-manure, at the rate cf 10 tons to the acre, plowing 10 inches deep, and thorough- 
 ly harrowing. The Millet was then sown in drills 18 inches apart, at the rate of S quarts to the acre. We sowed on the 
 15th of May; in 12 days the plants were up so that a cultivator could be run between the rows, after which no further 
 culture was necessary, for the growth became so rapid and luxuriant as to crowd down every weed that attempted to get 
 a foothold. The first cutting was made Tuly ist— 45 days after sowing; itwas then 7 feet high, covering the whole ground, 
 and the crop, cut 3 inches above the ground, weighed, orrecn. at the rate of 30 tons per acre ; this, when rfrzVrf, gave 614 
 tons per acre as hay. After cutting, a second growth started, and was cut August 15—45 days from time of the first cut- 
 ting. Its height was 9 feet ; it weighed this time at the rate of 55 tons to the acre, green, and S tons dried. The third 
 crop started as rapidly as the second, but the cool September nights lessened its tropical luxuriance, so that this crop, 
 which was cut on October ist. only weighed 10 tons green, and 1)^ ton dried. The growth was simply enormous, thus : 
 Ist crop in 45 days, gave 30 tons green, or ey^ tons dry ; 2nd crop in 45 days, gave 55 tons green, or 8 tons dry ; 3d crop 
 in 45 days, gave 10 tons green, or ij^ ton dry. The aggregate weight being 95 tons of green fodder in 135 days from date 
 of sowing, and 16 tons when dried to hay. This exceeds the clover meadows of Mid-Lothian, which, when irrigated by 
 the sewerage from the City of Edinburgh, and cut every four weeks, gave an aggregate of 75 tons of green clover per 
 acre. There is little doubt that Pearl Millet is equally as nutritious as corn-fodder, which it resembles even more than it 
 does any of the other Millets. We found that all our horses and cattle ate it greedily, whether green or dry. If sowing 
 in drills is not practicable, it may be sown broadcast, using double the quantity of seed — say 16 quarts per acre. The 
 ground should be smoothed by the harrow, and again lightly harrowed after sowing ; if rolled after harrowing, all the bet- 
 ter. I know of no farm crop that will better repay high manuring, but so great is its luxuriance, that it will produce a 
 better crop without manure than any other plant I know of. In those parts of the Southern States where hay cannot be 
 raised, this is a substitute of the easiest culture, and being of tropical origin, it will luxuriate in their long hot summers. 
 Even though our Northern seasons may be too short to mature the seeds, our experiments in New Tersey this summer 
 show what abundant crops may be expected if the similar conditions are secured. Pearl Millet as a fodder-plant presents 
 a new feature in our agriculture, and I feel sure that within ten years we shall wonder how we ever got on without it. 
 Besides our own testimony given above, we have received the most satisfactory letters from experienced men in differ- 
 ent parts of the country to whom we sent seed of Pearl Millet for trial, and all are unanimous as to its enormous produc- 
 tiveness and great value. From all we have seen and can learn, we are fully convinced that Pearl Millet is to be one of 
 the great fodder plants of the future. 
 
THE ENSILAGE CUTTER 
 
 OF THE NEW YORK PLOW COMPANY. 
 
 This machine has been arranged especially for the purpose of cut- 
 ting large quantities of green crops, such as green corn-stalks, millet, 
 &c. It can be run with a good two-horse power or with portable 
 engine, and do a great amount of work. 
 
 Of course smaller cutters can be used, with more or less execution, 
 but in providing the proper machinery for the new method of preserving 
 winter fodder, it is all important to have it operate rapidly, and there- 
 fore economically. 
 
 This machine feeds itself, without danger to the o])erator, and is so 
 strong that it cannot be broken or worn out with honest usage. It 
 will cut seven, different lengths, from tV to 3 inches, by changing the 
 pulleys in. accordance with the directions attached. It will cut four to 
 five tons per hour of green corn-stalks of the length of -1*0-0 of an inch. 
 It will also cut one to two tons per hour of dry fodder. It is also valu- 
 able in cutting straw to spread upon land for manure. 
 
 THE ENSILAGE CUTTER. 
 
 INSTRUCTIONS FOE. CUTTING FODDER DIFFERENT LENGTHS. 
 
 All the pxiUeys in thia list go on the end of pulley shaft next to 12i-inoh piiUey. 
 25 inch pulley will make the machine cut i of an inch long. 
 
 * • " " " 42-1(10 " " 
 
 
 linch 
 2 inches 
 
 The machine is set up to cut 42-100 of an inch long. 
 Purtlier informatioa suppUed Ij the NEW YORE PLOW COMPANYj 55 Beekman St., New York. 
 
EECENT IMPROVEMENTS IN PLOWS. 
 
 The improved American plow holds a high rank among 
 the implements of modern husbandry, not only at home, but 
 in the foreign market. In form, materials and construction, it 
 appears to be all that it is capable of being, and yet there are 
 constant developments of new points of excellence. The most 
 obvious improvements within the last few years consist in the 
 use of hard metal, first for the edge, and later for the entire 
 wearing surface. Chilling the edges and point of the share 
 and the bottom of the land-side, was the first step in the line 
 of progress, made about thirty years ago, but within the last 
 ten years attention has been du'ected to the importance of re- 
 ducing the friction of the mold-board. Hardened steel was in- 
 troduced for this pui'pose, and is still recognized as the best ma- 
 terial where soil is wholly free from grit, but it was found that 
 a chilled sm-face of cast iron, in combination with the chilled 
 share and land-side, was more easily and economically kept 
 in repair in all soils containing grit. The well-known process 
 of chilling first resorted to, consisted in rmming the molten 
 metal against the surface of cold iron. This method, while 
 rendering the metal harder, made it correspondingly brittle, 
 and required great care in the mixture of the iron to make the 
 chill penetrate uniformly. This plan also required a method 
 of annealing, sometimes with hot water, or by building fires 
 on the back of the mold-board, and sometimes by covering 
 with heated sand. 
 
 Later improvements in mixing metal have been success- 
 fully made, so as to secure entire hardness throughout, without 
 the chilling process. Plows made in this way are usually 
 known by appropriate names, such as " Adamant," &c. We 
 learn through a large plow-making establishment in New 
 
UECENT IMPROVEMENTS IN PLOWS. 79 
 
 York (the New York Plow Company), that long experience 
 has taug-ht them that steel in a certain condition will mix with 
 melted pig iron, and with the addition of certain chemicals 
 will make a homogeneous metal by pouring it into molds at 
 the right time, wliich time is ascertained by means of its color. 
 In this way the result is '4iardness, uniformity and strength." 
 
 In former years, plows made of cast iron were so rough 
 that farmers were severely tried in keeping them bright. As 
 plows have grown harder, the polish is more difficult to pro- 
 duce, as well as more durable, and on the metal here referi'ed 
 to, is said to suffer little from coiTosion. As the friction of 
 the plow is equal to about thu^ty-five per cent of the whole 
 force of the draught, every expedient to reduce it is important 
 to the plowman. 
 
 A still better improvement in this direction was recently 
 achieved by the introduction of a reversible point in the share, 
 which thus becomes self-sharpening, and enables the farmer to 
 keep the bottom of the plow level, there- 
 by avoiding the friction that arises from a 
 projection of the point of the share below 
 the general level. It has been found that 
 the effect of a sharp point is to sharpen 
 the wing also. Among other improve- 
 ments is the setting of the beam in the 
 centre instead of one side of the line of 
 resistance, which is adjustable at the standard so as to produce 
 a balance, avoiding side draughts. — From Iron Age. 
 
 N. B. — All these improvements are contained in the 
 Adamant Plows of the New York Plow Company. 
 

 o 
 
 o 
 
 o 
 
 Ph 
 
 g a 
 
 1=1 ,a 
 
 
 iC 
 
 .9 ^ 
 
 •+= ® 
 
 M o 
 
 . ^ 
 
 n' IS 
 
 "S ^^ 
 
 M 2 
 
 >^ S 
 
 H-i 
 
 ^ S 
 
 O 
 
 M 
 P^ 
 O 
 
 w 
 
 Eh 
 
 !8 .3 
 
 ^ 3 r2 
 
 ® -^ g 
 
 rt *<-< c 
 
 a o tc 
 
 OQ ^3^ i-H 
 
 §^ 'S 
 
 •X) . w 
 
 ■^ fee bJD 
 
 *" fl C 
 
 J I |« 
 
 bC fl * 
 
 n =3 ® 
 
 .a .§ " 
 
 4) o ^ 
 
 be 
 
 a, t-i be 
 
 •'-< rrj S 
 
 bC fl « 
 
 fl «3 V< 
 
 s &» ^ 
 
 a 
 
 5 P^ 
 
 .2 =5 g 
 
 ® P lO 
 
 '^ o '^ 
 
 a ■£ 
 
JUNE 1, 1.879 
 
 ADDEN^DA 
 
 To ACCOMPANY "ENSILAGE OF MAIZE," by J. B. BROWN, 
 
 55 Beekman Steeet, New York. 
 
 EXTEAOT FROM JOURNAL DE L'AGRICULTURE, 
 
 October 19, 1878. 
 
 M. A. GOFFART, desirous of making kuown the remarkable results that he has ob- 
 tained from the cultivation and preservation of maize-forage, invited to his celebrated 
 farm at Burtin, on Oct. 12, many agriculturists who are interested in this important 
 question. A hundred accepted liis invitation, and they received at Burtin the most 
 generous hospitality. Among those present we should mention the Prince Catacuzene, 
 alarge agriculturist of Southern Russia aud Russian Commissioner to the ExjDosition ; 
 M. Fernandez de Neda, Cominissiouer from Spain ; M. Rob Runeberg, Commissioner 
 from Finland ; M. Deutch, large agriculturist in Hungary ; M. Boitel, Inspector-Gen- 
 eral of Agriculture of France ; M. J. A. Barral, Secretary of National Society of Agri- 
 culture of France; aud the oflSicers of eight other agricultural societies of France. 
 There were also a director of a school-farm, a director of a penal colony, proprietors 
 of estates in different parts of France, mayors of cities, manufactui-ers of agricultural 
 macliinery ; also Monsieur de FontenailJes, a distinguished silvi-cultivator (forest tree 
 cultivator, a braucLi of industry now attracting much attention in Europe, as a re- 
 medy for drouglit). We left Paris in the morning by vspecial train to Nouan-le-Fuze- 
 lier. A few minutes' ride by carriage and we are at Burtin, where a magnificent ban- 
 quet, i)repared under an elegant tent, awaits the guests. The first toast is to M. Gof- 
 fart, the last to Sologue, "too little kuown, and which the skillful pioneers of the 
 thirty years last x)ast have so happily transformed." After the banquet came the 
 more important business. The oijeration of gathering and ensilaging the maize had 
 been under way for several days. One of the silos was already full, the second was 
 being filled. The gigantic maize is brought from the field in wagons, which stop just 
 behind the feed-cutter. The stalks .are fed to the machine, which is run by a steam- 
 engine. They^are cut into disks of one centimetre long (about 4-10 inch), and car- 
 ried by an elevator above the wall of the silo, and fall within it. A man spreads the 
 layer, a woman tramples around the silo. When it is full it will be covered with 
 plank, which will be loaded with large stones about 400 kilogrammes (about 900 lbs.) 
 per square metre (about 10^ square feet). It will be perfectly preserved, without fer- 
 mentation, until the time when it is needed for use. In the month of May we took 
 from the last silo at Burtin the last layer of maize. It had the same temperature that 
 it had at the time of ensilage, and it presented not a trace of any deterioration. 
 There is no doubt that the result will be the same this year. All the agriculturists 
 
82 ADDENDA TO 
 
 who have followed exactly the directions of M. Goffart have obtained the same re- 
 sult, and their numerous testimonials bear witness to it. (For full description of M. 
 Goffart's process, see Ensilage of Maize, &c.) There are three silos for maize, and one 
 for oats, cut green, which was filled in tbe Spring, and which has been fed out to 
 the working animals. 
 
 M. Goffart has to-day 68 horned cattle in his stables, six horses, and one'mule. 
 With his resources of maize fodder, he can not only support for seven months 150 
 horned cattle, but also put them in condition for the butcher, upon 32 hectares (about 
 79 acres). After having visited the fields of maize, the numerous guests departed, de- 
 lighted with what they had seen. 
 
 THE CULTIVATION AND PEESERVATION OF MAIZE-FODDEE. 
 
 Letter from Monsieur A. Goffart, April 28, 1878. 
 
 My last silo, more than 300 cubic metres in capacity, will be emptied by May 
 10th. You will remember how my fiosted maize last September had to be cut as 
 quickly as possible, when it had only attained two-thirds of its growth. The frost had 
 completely stopped its growth, and the blackened stalks would have fallen to the 
 grouud at the first rain. I cut it, as I always do, one centimetre (about 4-10 inch) 
 long, and I ensilaged it without any addition of salt or straw or cut hay. The preser- 
 vation has been, and is still, perfect; not a kilogramme of it has been wasted. Hav- 
 ing been cut when so very young, it has produced a very tender fodder, the nutritive 
 power of which was evidently superior to that of my previous ensilage. The question 
 arises, whether this increase of nutritive value compensates for the loss of weight in 
 a crop cut ^prematurely. I do not think it does. It would need to be 30 per cent, at 
 least superior to that of maize cut when the ear is in the milky state, for the loss of 
 weight is at least in that proportion. 
 
 Comparative experiuieuts and analyses of our skillful chemists will soon enlighten 
 us on this important subject. 
 
 Another very remarkable eff'ect upon ensilage by frosted vegetation is this : while 
 maize ensilaged in ordinary condition takes on the alcoholic fermentation in twelve to 
 fifteen hours after contact with the air, the frosted maize required two, and some- 
 times three days. The farmer, therefore, need not be alarmed at these premature 
 frosts, but should be ready to ensilage his crop immediately upon their appearance. 1 
 find that the tall Mexican corn becomes exceedingly hard, and quickly dulls the 
 knives of the cutting machine. I shall not use that kind again. 
 
 Fel). 1, 1879. — I now give you the facts which I have gained from the experience of 
 the past year, at my farm at Burtiu. I find that I was mistaken when I advised that 
 the silo should be filled as quickly as possible. The shrinkage or subsidence which 
 takes place in the first few days of the compression, is so considerable that the upper 
 half of our silos are soon empty, and therefore we lose one-half of the capacity, and 
 the expense of establishing them is just doubled. I now advise that the silos should 
 not be filled too quickly. In recharging a silo that has been commenced with a layer 
 
THE ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 83 
 
 of fresh maize of fifty centimetres (20 inches) each day, yon will keep sufficiently ahead 
 of the fermentation during the ensilage, and the spontaneous slirinkage will have been 
 sufficient at the end of eight or ten days, of daily refilling, so that the subsequent suhsi- 
 dence will not exceed one-tenth of the total height. My silos, filled this Aiituum, are 
 more than five metres high, and only show a void at the top of half a metre. By hav- 
 ing two or several silos of a certain capacity, the work can go on continuously. Some 
 farmers have ensilaged this year 100,000 to 120,000 kilogrammes per day (220,000 to 
 264,000 lbs.). 
 
 My maize is cut in the field by women, with sickles. Tliey have great skill in the 
 use of that implement, and eight women will cut easily one liectare a day (2^ acres). 
 They receive 15 francs per hectare, and therefore earn about two francs a day each. I 
 found a difficulty in roofing over my three united silos, on account of the great size of 
 the group thus formed. On this account I would prefer to unite only two silos, and in- 
 crease the length, while preserving the other dimensions, so as to obtain the same 
 capacity. Something would be gained also by replacing the semicircnlar ends with 
 arcs of a circle of a greater radius, which would diminish the exi)ense of roofing, and 
 increase the capacity, without, I think, endangering the preservation of the maize. 
 
 The proximity of the silos to the stables is important, as to economy of labor, but 
 it is an advantage sometimes to put them at a distance, as the land may be more suit- 
 able. The solidity and the smooth working of the cutting machine are of great im- 
 portance. The French machine, with eight horse-power, will cut 100,000 to 120,000 
 kilogrammes per day, in pieces of one centimetre lung (4-10 inch), and costs 800 francs. 
 If water invades a silo, whether it enters frotn without or from compression upon 
 maize that is very wet at time of ensilage, it should not be wasted ; cattle will drink 
 that kind of grass-soup with great avidity. 
 
 When I opened, last October, the silo in which I had enclosed in May about 60,- 
 
 000 kilogrammes of green rye, I found it darker in color than usual, and it exhaled a 
 disagreeable odor, indicating the presence of butyric acid. Although this odor is dis- 
 agreeable to man, it does not cause to auimals the same repugnance, and my rye -W^as 
 eaten entirely, and without the least hesitation. Never before had my ensilaged rye 
 presented this kind of alteration. The alcoholic fermentation, though less than in 
 maize, had always before developed sufficiently to make it agreeable, both iu taste 
 and smell, to both man and beast. 
 
 There was, therefore, an abnormal effect, a special alteration, which it is import- 
 ant to avoid, since, when it passes certain limits, it will disgust the animals and also 
 injure their health, if we persist in feeding it to them. At the time this rye was cut 
 down for ensilage it had been fallen for a long time, and the foot for more than eight 
 inches had yellowed ; it was already undergoing the commencement of decomposition. 
 To prevent this I used salt iu considerable quantity, but it had not served to neutral- 
 ize the effect of the evil ; the butyric fermentation had already invaded the ensilaged 
 vegetation, and this fermentation remained, notwithstanding the presence of the salt. 
 
 1 believe, however, that iu this case salt was useful, suspending by its antiseptic 
 qualities the decomposition, and assisting to excite the appetite of the animals, who, 
 perhaps, without the salt, would have refused it, since the more important condiment, 
 alcohol, was absent. 
 
 I ensilaged iu September several wagon loads of clover that was fully ripe and 
 had fallen for several weeks, and though I took special care with it, and compressed 
 it very energetically, and mixed salt with it, viz., 3 kilogrammes to the thousand, on 
 discharging the silo a.t the end of December, I found a blackened mass, viscous, and 
 nearly insipid. 
 
84 ADDENDA TO 
 
 This ensilage was entirely eaten by tlie animals without any aversion, but it 
 quickly contracted butyric acid, and if it had been exposed to the air for a consider- 
 able time the animals would have manifested an increasing aversion, and finished by 
 refusing to eat it. I have frequently observed this in ensilaging whole maize. I give 
 this explanation witli hesitation, because so much obscurity still rests upon the science 
 of fermentations. When the butyric fermentation permeates an ensilaged mass, and 
 this mass is exposed to the air, does there not form, to the detriment of the nitrogen 
 contained in tljat mass, a liberation of butyrate of ammonia, which impoverishes the 
 alimentary matter and finishes by taking away all its nutritive power? The animals 
 thereupon refuse to take into their stomachs a food which is fictitious, its nourishment 
 being exhausted. 
 
 Vegetation which has been attacked by butyric acid, before cutting, in the field, 
 needs also to be covered and compressed at once, or the air that is not expelled will 
 increase the activity of the pre-existing acid. Prickly comfrey, notwithstanding great 
 pains taken, I have found refractory to alcoholic fermentation, and when exposed to 
 the air quickly becomes invaded by butyric acid, requiring quick consumption in 
 order to save it. While this plant is a very excellent fodder, it is well known to be 
 poor in saccharine matter. Therefore, alcoholic fermentation may fail in two cases: 
 when sugar is not abundant in the ensilaged material ; when a considerable altera- 
 tion existing at the time of ensilage prevents its development. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM A LETTER OF M. De BEAUQUESNE, 
 
 One of the Most Distinguished Agricultuhists of France, 
 
 December 17, 1878. 
 
 " I am preparing a series of articles on ensilage. I send you the part relative to the 
 cost. I have a feed-cutter, with three knives, cost 800 francs ($160). I tie the stalks 
 in bundles of about 10 kilogrammes, using for that one of the stalks. Two men take 
 the maize from the unloaders and place it on a narrow table prolonging the box of the 
 cutter; another man passes it along to the man that feeds it to the machine. T have 
 two men in the silo. Thus I make the cost : 
 
 Five laborers at 3.5 cents $1 75 
 
 One mechanic at cutter - 50 
 
 One engineer 70 
 
 Coal, 330 lbs - 1 50 
 
 Oil 15 
 
 Use of engine . 2 00 
 
 Use of feed-cutter 1 00 
 
 Incidentals 40 
 
 $8 00 
 
THE ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 85 
 
 " Ten bundles pass easily per miniTte, making 225 lbs. or 13,500 lbs. per hour ; but 
 as there is time lost in oiling and examining knives and removing them to sharpen, I 
 only reckon 9,000 lbs. per hour as regular result. This gives a net cost of 20 cents per 
 2,250 lbs. Ce n^est Hen. I have not tried with a horse-power, but I have it from a 
 neighbor that it costs 60 cents for 2,250 lbs. This is still endurable. I am about to 
 make an experiment to determine the comparative nutritive value of hay and ensi- 
 lage. One of my milch cows has fed a montli on the latter. I believe that Us nutri-. 
 tive value is more than one-third, and I shall not be surprised if 220 lbs. of maize are 
 wortli at least 110 lbs. of hay, and probably moi'e. 
 
 " I have just let a farm on shares, and the party stipulated that I should let to him 
 my steam-engine and feed-cutter, because there was a silo, and it was only for that 
 reason that he took the place. I say frankly that I believe we have made a mistake 
 in our successive plantings of maize, in order to feed it green. It would do better to 
 harvest it all at the same time, and ensilage it all. There would be more economy, 
 and the maize that we should use, after being three weeks in the silo, would be more 
 nourishing. I shall do it so nest season. The later planting often gives b?d results, 
 and the ground is not so easily worked." 
 
 Monsieur Gofifart remarks upon this letter ; " My ensilages the past year reached 
 more than 132,000 lbs. per day, and the cost per ton was 25 per cent, less than his 
 figures, which can be explained by the fact that my machinery was more powerful 
 than his. 
 
 " I agree with M. de Beauquesne as to the relative value of ensilaged maize and 
 hay. Ensilaged maize at Burtla is worth in nutritive power one-half that of hay; 
 but our hay in Sologne is poor, and in other countries the relative value of maize may 
 decline to one -third. 
 
 "M. de Beauquesne, after giving in detail the different expenses of ensilage, 
 adds, 'it is nothing.' I will go farther than he, and I will say, this expense consti- 
 tutes a considerable saving. The expense of cutting and ensilaging a million of kilo- 
 grammes of maize is, at most, a thousand francs. Instead of proceeding, from day 
 to day, to cut up the maize for the day's sustenance of your animals, you prepare in 
 15 days the food for 200 days ; you have put your maize in such a condition that the 
 stable-man has no other trouble but to fill his basket in the silo and empty it in the 
 manger. Here are some figures in proof of this statement. 
 
 " On a farm in the valley of the Loire are fattened each winter a certain number 
 of animals, with beets, haj^, and oil meal. Twelve animals on this diet require the 
 steady work of a strong laborer, who washes and cuts the beets and chops the hay 
 or straw. This laborer is paid 45 cents per day. He receives, therefore, 3| cents per 
 head. At Burtin, with the ensilage at three steps from the stable, two men, at the 
 same wages, take care of 80 animals, making a daily expense of 11 cents per head. The 
 difference in favor of Burtin is more than 10 francs per day, and this saving is more 
 than double the sum expended for ensilage. 
 
 " The last paragraph of the letter, relative to the advantage of feeding only en- 
 silaged maize, even in summer, agrees perfectly with my ideas. I wrote in 1875, in 
 one of my pami^hlets, 'It should never be lost sight of that to cut, and to ensilage 
 in a way to obtain a good fermentation, is to increase enormously the alimentary 
 value of maize; and I ask if, even in autumn, when the fresh maize is abundant, it 
 would not be an advantage to pass it through the silo.' 
 
 " In order to settle this question careful and intelligent experiments are necessary, 
 and no one is better able to resolve it with authority than M. de Beauquesne." 
 
86 ADDENDA TO 
 
 FROM M. GOFFART'S SECOND EDITION. 
 
 Great care should be taken in the construction of silos. The walls should be 
 capable of I'esisting the pressure from the loaded mass when full, and from the sur- 
 rounding earth when empty. Too much economy in their construction is unprofitable. 
 Wheu the underground portion is cemented (which costs only half as much as brick 
 wall), great care should be taken as to the material as well as the workmanship^ 
 Those who have a convenient declivity can save much expense by building the silo 
 so that the upper portion will be level with a platform on which the loads can be dis- 
 charoed, and on which the cutter can be set up, so that the cut fodder can fall into 
 the silo, thereby avoiding the expense and use of an elevator. The entrance to each 
 silo I formerly closed with boards fitted in grooves in the masonry, but I now close 
 them with a temporary wall of dry masonry plastered inside, to be removed wheu the 
 silo is opened for use. One hour of a mason to each port is sufficient. 
 
 The most important question is the covering of the ensilage. It should be a layer 
 of dry straw not cut, six to twelve inches thick, spread evenly. Do not use aftermath 
 or short, soft straw, as it is liable to become impermeable and to imprison any vapor 
 which may issue. Eye straw is best ; after that, wheat and oat. It is important that 
 the vapor should escape, as there always will be more or less from the upper portion 
 of the mass. 
 
 Boards are more suitable than planks to lay upon this, because they conform more 
 readily to the inequalities of the surface in settling ; the centre always becomes more 
 depressed than the portions near the walls. But I expect to use bricks instead of 
 boards, so as to form a compact layer, and of sufficient height to give the necessary 
 weight. Iron weights with a ring cast in will be still better, in those countries wherj 
 iron is cheap, ou account of convenience of handling. When removed they should 
 not be thrown down, but piled on the walls. I shall also use sacks of phosphates in- 
 tended for manure. 
 
 EXTRACT FROM A LETTER FROM M. GOFFAET, 
 
 May 13, 1879. 
 
 The fields of France present at this time a sad aspect. We shall apparently har- 
 vest in 1879 little hay and very little grain. I have lost by water all the rye that I 
 intended to feed green this spring, but I find that I have sufficient ensilage to last till 
 August. I have fattened this winter 43 animals, which I have sold in the markets of 
 Paris and Orleans. They are of the large races of Niveruaise and Charolaise, and 
 have averaged 1,80U lbs. I added to their rations of ensilaged maize 10 per cent of 
 palm, peanut or cotton-seed cake. I feed also 2|- lbs. per day to the milch cows, 
 which has wonderfully increased the yield of milk, and about 1| lb. per day to ani- 
 mals under 18 months. In America you can use to good advantage distillery grains 
 for this purpose. Say to your countrymen that such of them as would like to visit 
 France, and study the ensilages of Burtin upon the spot, may feel sure of meeting 
 a kind reception there. 
 
THE ENSILAGE OF MAIZE. 87 
 
 EXTRACT FROM LETTER OF EDWARD H. KNIGHT, • 
 
 Author of Mechanical Dictionary, Commissioner to Paris Exposition. 
 
 Washington, March, 1879. 
 " Your book came safely to hand. I have read it through, and although I had 
 seen the models of the silos at the Paris Exposition, and heard a great deal of occa- 
 sional chat on the subject, I had no adequate idea of its imjiortance. 1 have a farm 
 on a river bottom, and buildings in which silos can be conveniently erected, and I am 
 heartily glad that I met a leading spirit." 
 
 REMARKS 
 
 One question that cannot as yet be answered by experience is the degree of cold 
 that a silo filled above ground can be subjected to without injury. I presume that 
 the chemical action which exists even in the compressed material, will be sufficient to 
 prevent any injury from this cause, but probably a small protection on the outside, or 
 north side of wall will insure its safety. 
 
 It is probable that maize sown broadcast is not proper matter for ensilage, as its 
 saccharine capacity is less developed than when plan ted in drills; no sugar, no alcohol. 
 There is a French maxim, " Who has hay has bread." Since fodder supports cattle, 
 cattle yield manure which brings fertility to the soil and abundance to the harvest. 
 The one thing lacking to the South aiul East of this great country is cattle. I be- 
 lieve that " silos " and " ensilage" will supply this lack, and that everywhere and all 
 over^ cattle raising and fattening will take tlie front rank in agricultural iudustr3^* 
 
 The price of Ensilage Cutter is $125 at New York. It is strong enough for any 
 kind of power, while it can be run even by one horse. Weight about 1,000 lbs. 
 
 I shall be happy to receive and to print any additional facts that may be ascer- 
 tained upon this subject. It certainly seems to promise to contribute more to the 
 happiuess of the human race than any other physical discovery that has ever been 
 made. The suggestion that green grass or green fodder is not the most economical or 
 profitable food for cattle iu the summer season is certainly a revolutionarj' idea. 
 
 M. Goffart states that the processes which have been recommended by a certain 
 French writer, and whicli were unfortunately published extensively in this country, 
 were defective, and have caused the loss of much money to several agriculturists in 
 France, who to-day do not like to hear the subject mentioned. It is greatly to be de- 
 sired that American agriculturists should start on the right track aud not be misled 
 or discouraged by careless or superficial articles on the subject. 
 
 Ensilage may be not only a store for winter use, but against drought as well. 
 
 J. B. BROWN, 
 
 55 Beekman Street, New York. 
 
 * Kansas exhibited, at Centennial Exposition, a stalk of maize 21 feet high. A man, by 
 reaching up with umbrella or cane, could touch the lowest ear. 
 
THE NEW YORK PLOW CO.'S 
 
 R0CKIN6-TEETH SMOOTHING HARROW 
 
 And BROADCAST WEEDER. 
 
 Patented June 25, 1878. 
 
 When drawn from one end, the teeth are perpendicnlar ; it is then a pulverizer. 
 When drawn from the opposite end, the teeth incline backward, which makes it a 
 smoothing harrow ; hence, it is of double the value of other smoothing harrows. 
 
 Other smoothing harrows have fixed teeth, which flatten and bevel off on one side 
 and do not cover seed or clear themselves as well as these rocking-teeth do. 
 
 The teeth of this harrow are made of |-inch round steel, tempered in oil„and 
 coiled around a stud, which gives them sufficient elasticity to prevent breakage even 
 in rough land. They are attached to the frame by bolts, and can be easily removed 
 if necessary. The frame is made of the best w^hite oak or ash, well braced, and bolted 
 together so that i\ny piece can be easily and cheaply replaced. 
 
 By means of the adjustable draft bar, this harrow can be adjusted so that the 
 teeth will have a greater or less angle to the line of draft ; i. e., they will cut under 
 more or less as desired. On this account it is better adapted to both weeding and 
 pulverizing than any other harrow. 
 
 Single Frame, width of track H feet, weight 115 lbs $15.00 
 
 Double " " "9 " " 220 lbs. 25.00 
 
 It is very easy to save the cost of this Harrow by the increased yield of grain or 
 clover in a single dav's work. We send the Double unless ordered Single. 
 
 MANUFACTURED BY 
 
 THE 
 
 NEW YORK PLOW CO., 
 
 55 Beekman Street, 
 
 IsTE'V^ "SrORIC. 
 
 1 
 
THE NEW YORK PLOW CO.'S 
 ADAMANT PLOWS. 
 
 Hard Metal, but Kot Chilled, and Not Brittle. 
 
 ADJUSTABLE BEAM. BALANCED CENTRAL DRAFT. 
 
 Excelling In Scourii Oualllles LiiMness of Draft, anl Perfect Fitting Renalrs. 
 
 The metal, of whicli they are made, is of uniform hardness — so hard that it cajst- 
 NOT BE DRILLED OR FILED — SO FINE in GRAIN that it will polish like a mirror. The 
 polished surface of the mold-board will not roughen any more than glass. Eust does 
 not eat into it ; and when coated with rust it will re-polish in the ground in two min- 
 utes as bright as silver. One mold- board of this metal will wear at least as long as 
 three of steel. The hardness of this metal causes these plows to drmv much easier than 
 ordinary cast-iron or steel plows. The metal is uniform, and not liable to soft spots, as 
 chilled plows always are ; a piece suspended rings like a bell. 
 
 We have alundant testimony that this metal will clear itself in soil tvheresome steel plows 
 loill not work at all. 
 
 FBONT VIEW OF ADAMANT PLOW. 
 
 REAR VIEW OF APAMANT PLOW. 
 
 A New Principle.— The beam is placed in the middle of the work, giving the 
 plow a central draft, and avoiding all underneath and side friction. This is also 
 desirable for one-horse plows, as it permits the horse to walk in the furrow. The beam 
 being movable at the points of attachment, the central draft can always be kept per- 
 fect. The adjusting is done at the heel of the beam, which can be moved from or to 
 the land, as desired, which brings the work under exact control of the plowman. 
 Even if the beam warps or springs, he can correct it. This adjustment is a great advan- 
 tage in plowing among trees and through rows of corn. The beam is easy to replace if 
 broken. The handles are straight, and can be easily replaced by the farmer. It is high 
 
THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 
 
 under the beam aud not liable to choke. The landside sloping inward relieves the 
 pressure, and when in use, the plow glides through the soil with great ease, and with 
 such steadiness, that wheu properly adjusted, a child might hold it. The adjustment 
 of the IRON BEAM Pi-OW is made at the slotted clevis; both the wood and iron beam 
 PLOWS, when properly adjusted, run so steady as to scarcely require holding at all. 
 
 SHARE OF ADAMANT PLOWS. 
 
 EOLLING COULTER. 
 
 The slips, by being reversed when worn, restore the level and the land. 
 
 Eeversible self-sharpening shares enable the farmer at all times to make his 
 plow ruu level and true. 
 
 The eiiect of a sharp point to a plowshare is to sharpen the wing also. These re- 
 versible slip points sharpen themselves by being reversed, saving at least one-third the 
 drait, as the plow does not require to be tipped up. 
 
 The etiect of a sharp and level-bottom share is to make the bottom of furrow level, 
 and to save draft by cutting instead of scraping with the edge of wing. 
 
 These shares are so constructed that the point (which we call slip) can be detached 
 from the main body of the share, into which it is fastened with a common cut nail 
 driven in as a key, with the wedge of the nail driven up and down the share, which 
 draws the slip up tight, and broken off top and bottom downwards. It can be readily 
 driven out from the bottom with aiiothernail. This enables the plowman to turn it 
 over at any time. 
 
 These shares being always sharp do not require the hollow or dip which is neces' 
 sary in the solid shares in order to make them penetrate when dull, and which not 
 onfy requires more power, but more labor to hold the plow ; at first, to keep it from 
 running IN, and when dull, to keep it fjom ruiming out. Every plowman will appre- 
 ciate this. 
 
 These shares also preserve the wing as the plow runs level, and the wing wears 
 sharp instead of growing thick and dull, as they must do in all plows that do not run 
 level. "Where the plowman uses the precaution to wear oue side of two or three slips 
 before turning any of them, and thus preserves the correct lines, the wing of the share 
 has a cutting edge as sharp as if ground on a grindstone. 
 
 Reversing the slip also keeps it true on the landside corner. 
 
 With sharp shares and level running plows, land is more thoroughly broken up, 
 with a saving of labor and time, and with a uniformity of depth which is not possible 
 with a solid share, consequently a larger yield of crops. 
 
 The wings of these shares are wider, and thinner, and harder than usual, aud level 
 on the bottom. 
 
 By actual test we know that there is more service in oue of these Reversible 
 Slip Shares with three extra Slips, than in eight solid shares, while the draft of the 
 plow is reduced at least one-fifth, and the cost of shares about two-thirds. 
 
THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 
 
 tii 
 
 ADAMANT A. 
 
 Two-Horse* 
 
 This is a largk two-horse plow, suitable for both SOD and stubble ground, 
 and for both SMOOTH and stony land. It is sufficiently strong for an ox team or for 
 three horses. It makes a furrow 12 to 14 inches wide by 7 to 8 inches deep. Height 
 nnderbeam, 17} inches. 
 
 Its draft is about as light as that of the Pkekskill Plow — 19^ — which makes a 
 furrow 4 inches narrower than Adamant A, and is known as an exceedingly light 
 draft plow for two horses. 
 
 It turns the furrow slice well over, pulverizes and loosens the soil, and covers 
 weeds, manure, etc., in a manner that surprises a man using it the first time. It is a 
 cheap plow to keep in repair, and saves at least one-fourth of the power requii^d to 
 operate other plows. It catches in quick in stony soil. It has slip shares, as also do 
 all sizes. The Coulter and Jointer are attached to standard, so as to be adjustable. 
 
 Sent with wheel and coulter, unless otherwise ordered. The wheel is good 
 on sod ground. A circular coulter is recommended for rooty or very stiff sward. 
 The jointer or skim plow is desirable in burying clover, &c. ; it does not increase 
 draft. The cross-brace is of wrought iron. 
 
 Stubble molds sent on A and K, without extra charge, when so ordered, instead 
 of regular molds. Stubble molds are 2 inches shorter and 1^ lower, and a little less 
 curved in rear. 
 
 The cutter share is better for stony ground than the coulter. 
 
 We also make A and B with a special thick front standard, 20 inches high under 
 beam, for choky lands in Virginia. &c., called Virginia Adamant. 
 Weight, plain, 110 lbs.; cut, 10^ inches. 
 Adamant K, left-hand, same size and price as A. 
 N. B. — We always send right-hand plows, unless ordered left. 
 
IV 
 
 THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 
 
 ADAMANT B. 
 
 Ligflit Tvi^o-Horse. 
 
 Adamant B is a very light draft two-horse plow (cau be drawn by one stout 
 horse), and at the same time is strong enough for all land that is free from fast rocks. 
 It is very light lo handle, and turns a very clean, flat furrow 13 by 6 inches. Height 
 under beam, 16 inches It, is a plow that will give better satisfaction in the light 
 lauds of Long Island, New Jersey, and elsewhere, than any steel plow whatever. 
 Sent with wlieel nud coulter, uuless otherwise ordered. All of these plows only re- 
 quire the proper adjustment of beam, coulter, traces and whiffletrees to do the work 
 with the utmost possible ease to man and beast. The Coulter and Skim Plow are at- 
 tached to standard as shown in cut of A. Weight, plain, 80 lbs. ; cat, 9^- inches. 
 
 Adamant M, Left Hand, same size as B. 
 
 Adamant T, Eight hand, size between A and B, same shape as B. 
 
 ADAMANT C. 
 
 Heavy One-Horse. 
 
 The draft of this plow is about the same as that of Peekskill No. 19, but it does 
 much more work, viz., making a furrow 5 to 6 inches deep, 11 to 12 inches wide, 
 which is nearly as much work as ordinary two-horse plows do ; in fact, the in- 
 creased ease of draft, on account of hard metal, shape, and steadiness, is very 
 nearly a saving of 07ie-horse power. It runs so steadily that it can be held by a small 
 boy, and does not fret the horse. With traces and whiftietrees the right length, 
 and beam set to proper land, it ivill do the work. It is a surprise, doing so much work; 
 at one trial 6i x 13 inches, in heavy, tough sod, draft only 450 lbs. With it, a man 
 has a corn plow and breakiug-up plow in one. The horse walks in the furrow. 
 
 Height under beam, 15^ inches ; weight, 66 lbs. ; cut, 9 inches. This plow has 
 E. S. share also. 
 
THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 
 
 ADAMANT E. 
 
 liig^ht One-Horse. 
 
 Weight, 54 lbs.; cut, 8| inclies; turus fiirrow 10 to 11 inches wide and 5 to 
 6 inches deep. Height under beam, 16 inches. 
 
 ADAMANT H. 
 
 liig^ht One-Horse. 
 
 Adamant H and E are more satisfactory than any of the cast-iron and steel 
 PLOWS used in the southern states, as they will scour in the stickiest soils, have 
 a very high standard, and are light and durable. They are also excellent corn 
 plows for the northern states, making a good furrow without any choking or 
 sticking in any soils. The central draft principle enables the horse to walk in the 
 furrow, which is a great improvement on common one-horse plows with straiglit 
 standard. Height under beam, 16 inches. H is also made with cut-off mold for cab- 
 bage plowing. They both run very steady and light. Weight, 48 lbs. ; cut, 7 inches. 
 They are also made with w rouglit standards and stationary side attached beams, 
 when so desired. 
 
VI 
 
 THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 
 
 ADAMANT L. 
 
 Two-Horse Iron Seam. 
 
 'J'his plow is very handsoiiie, aud it works as well as it looks. The adjustment of 
 both land and pitch is done to perfection by a slotted clevis iu connectiou with a 
 gauge bolt. It draws quite as easy, as steady, and makes about the same size furrow 
 as Adamant A: the beam is abotit six inches shorter. The draft-rod prevents break- 
 age of the beam, aud by its elasticity protects all parts of the plow from hreakage. 
 We have made furrows with it 1.^x9 inches, 14 x 8 inches, 12 x 6 inches, running 
 with great steadiness. Changes are made iu a moment, by adjusting the clevis. The 
 standard is very high. It is exceedingly satisfactory in tough, heavy sod, or sticky 
 soil, and is a perfect ])ulverizer in stubble ground. Weight, complete, 125 lbs. Sent 
 without wheel and coulter, unless otherwise ordered. Height under beam, 17 inches. 
 Weight, plain, 113 lbs.; cut 10 Inches. 
 
 KEDUCED PRICES, SEPTEMBEE, 1878. 
 
 Adamant H, Light One Horse 
 
 E, Medium 
 
 " C, Heavy 
 
 '■ B, Light Two-Horse 
 
 T, Medium " 
 
 " A, Heavy '' 
 
 '• M, Light " Left Hand .. 
 
 K, Heavy " '• " .. 
 
 '• L. Heavy Two-Horse, Iron Beam. 
 
 Plain 
 Plow. 
 
 Plow with 
 Wbeel. 
 
 $5.00 
 6.00 
 7.50 
 10,00 
 11.00 
 12.00 
 10.00 
 12.00 
 11.00 
 
 Plowwitli 
 Coulter. 
 
 $8.50 
 11.00 
 12.00 
 13.00 
 11.00 
 13.00 
 12.00 
 
 $9.00 
 11.50 
 12.75 
 14.00 
 11.50 
 14.00 
 13.0O 
 
 Plow witli 
 Wheel & 
 Coulter. 
 
 $10.00 
 12.00 
 13.50 
 15.00 
 12.0U 
 15.00 
 14.00 
 
 REPAIRS. 
 
 No. PLOW. 
 
 
 ft 
 
 11 '-^ 
 
 1 
 
 heel 
 arae. 
 
 niter. 
 
 S§3ft 
 
 ." S OS 
 
 2 
 
 6 
 
 X! 
 
 i 
 
 43 
 
 -2 
 
 11 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 O 
 
 03 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 SSS 
 
 s 
 
 J 
 
 2 
 
 05 
 
 cJas 
 
 P? 
 
 Adamant H . . . 
 
 i 
 
 .35 
 
 8 
 
 
 
 .. 
 
 ,75 
 
 ,35 
 
 .30 
 
 .30 1 1.25 
 
 .30 
 
 .6(1 
 
 E... 
 
 ^ 
 
 ..50 
 
 .60 
 
 8 
 
 .. 
 
 
 
 
 1.00 
 
 .40 
 
 .30 
 
 ,30 1.25 
 
 .30 
 
 .75 
 
 C... 
 
 2 
 
 .60 
 
 .70 
 
 .10 
 
 .30 
 
 .70 
 
 1.00 
 
 .50 
 
 1.50 
 
 .60 
 
 .40 
 
 .40 1.50 
 
 .40 
 
 .85 
 
 B... 
 
 24 
 
 .65 
 
 .80 
 
 .12 
 
 .30 
 
 ,70 
 
 1.00 
 
 .r.o 
 
 2.00 
 
 .70 
 
 .50 
 
 .50 i 1.75 
 
 .40 1 1.00 
 
 T ... 
 
 n 
 
 .70 
 
 .90 
 
 .12 
 
 .30 
 
 .70 
 
 1.25 
 
 ,50 
 
 2.-<:5 
 
 .80 
 
 .60 
 
 .50 
 
 2.00 
 
 .50 1.25 
 
 A... 
 
 3" 
 
 .HO 
 
 1.00 
 
 .14 
 
 .30 
 
 .70 
 
 1.50 
 
 ,50 2.50 
 
 1.00 
 
 .60 
 
 .60 
 
 2.00 
 
 .50 1.50 
 
 M... 
 
 24 
 
 .65 
 
 .80 
 
 .12 
 
 .30 
 
 .70 
 
 1.00 
 
 ,50 2.00 
 
 .70 
 
 .50 
 
 .50 
 
 1.75 
 
 .40 ; 1.00 
 
 K... 
 
 3 
 
 .80 
 
 1.00 
 
 .14 
 
 .30 
 
 .70 
 
 1.50 
 
 .50 2,50 
 
 1.00 
 
 .60 
 
 .60 
 
 2.00 
 
 .50 1.50 
 
 L... 
 
 3 
 
 .80 
 
 1.00 1.14 
 
 .30 
 
 .70 
 
 1.50 .50 1 2,50 
 
 .cO 
 
 
 .- 
 
 ... 
 
 .50 1 3.00 
 
THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 
 
 vu 
 
 Plain plow is without wheel and coulter. Plow complete includes wheel and 
 coulter. We put skim plow in place of coulter on A, L and K, when ordered, without 
 any extra charge. All plows have an extra slip. Extra long sod mold for A, and K, 
 $3. Eolling circular coulter for B, A, L, M or K, $3. A, K, B and M are also made 
 with EXTRA HIGH STANDARDS for trashy land, called Virginia Adamants. A and K 
 are made with higher molds and arranged for three horses, $1.50 extra. Truck mold 
 for H, ,50 cts. All of the ahove plows have adjustable beams. We also have a cab- 
 bage PLOW, $5.00; this metal is very desirable in garden soil. 
 
 All repairs ground ready for use. 
 
 Adamant sled shoes ground, 5 cents per lb. These have the same advantage 
 over common iron sled shoes as to saving of friction. 
 
 These cuts show the bottom line of a solid point and a slip share plow, the former 
 requiring a hollow under the point to compensate for the rounding up of the poiut, 
 which in the slip share is sharpened by turning over. 
 
 ONE METHOD OF PLOWING WITH ADAMANT PLOWS. 
 
viii THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 
 
 UNSOIilCITED. 
 
 " Broadway, Warren Co., N. J., September 5, 1878, 
 " i have thoroughly tested the Adamant plow with reversible slip shares. I have 
 broken up twenty-five acres of sod and fallow, also plowed eight acres of corn, with the 
 one shai-e and eight slips (inclnding the one on the share), whicb I have sent you. My 
 soil has more or less grit, part is very gravelly and fast undergrouncl stone, which is 
 hard to jilow in dry time. I have tried other improved plows this summer, but prefer 
 the Adamant. N. WARNE." 
 
 This share and slips are to be seen at our office. — N. Y. P. Co. 
 
 EXPERIENCES. 
 
 " Westbury, L. I., 4th mo., 5, 1878. 
 
 " At thy request I herewith give thee an account of the working of the plow. I 
 have used the Adamant A in a sod, a part of the field generally unscourable with a 
 cast-iron plow of ordinary construction, but with the Adamantine I saw no difference 
 in this sticky soil or in tlie more sandy places, clearing itself perfectly all the time, and 
 I am highly pleased with its working in every respect. In draft, very easy, consider- 
 ing the depth and breadth of furrow, also easy for the holder. 
 
 " I have had a great many different kinds of plows in my time, but I think I never 
 had one so much to my liking as this. Eespectfully, WM. P. TITUS. 
 
 "P. S. — I did not need a two-horse plow when I bought this, but I liked the looks 
 of it 80 well that I could not go away -without it." 
 
 "Office American Agriculturist, 
 " New York, May 7, 1878. 
 " I promised to let you know how the Adamantplow works. I tried it in wet sticky 
 clay where I was opening some drains, and it turned a perfectly clean furrow even in 
 that soil without any adhering to the mold-board. I don't think it would clog in any 
 soil ; it draws very easily and handles very nicely. It is certainly the best plow I have 
 used. The arrangement for adjusting the line of draft and width of furrow works very 
 ■well. I am very, very much pleased with it. 
 
 "Yours, very truly, H.STEWART, 
 
 " Assistant Editor Ammcan Agriculturist." 
 
 " Closter, N. J., June 12th, 1878. 
 " I have been using the share with reversible point for all the plowing I have done 
 this season, with great satisfaction. My soil is a sharp, gravelly loam which cuts 
 away plowshares at a great rate, so that a share is virtually ruined in half a day's 
 
THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 
 
 plowing sometimes. We wear them longer of course, bnt add not a little to the labor 
 of the horses; your one share has worn up to this time, wearing out several slips and 
 the whole share is still sharp and sound. It has struck heavy stones repeatedly, and 
 the beam has been carried away once by such a collision, but the share is all right. 
 It is an invaluable ' institution.' Truly Yours, 
 
 "M. C. WELD." 
 
 " Hopewell, N. J., June Ist, 1878. 
 '* I cannot speak too highly of the plow (Adamant B) I bought of you this spring ; 
 it far exceeds my expectations. I have tried it in both sod and stubble, and find it to 
 be the easiest and nicest working plow I have ever used. A son of mine, who would 
 hardly have managed another plow, did the most of my plowing in the very best 
 manner. One of my neighbors borrowed it to plow a tough sod very heavily manured, 
 and the way it turned every particle of grass and manure under, entirely out of sight, 
 was surprising. The Adamants are certainly superior to any plows ever made. The 
 centre draft and reversible points are the greatest improvements ever made in plows. 
 The better a farmer plows and pulverizes his soil, the better his crops will be ; there- 
 fore, I believe it will pay them to lay aside their old-style plows and iise the Ada- 
 mants. ' ASHER H. SNOOK." 
 
 " Hopewell, N. J., June 6tb, 1878. 
 "The pair of Adamant Plows I bought of you one year ago last March, give the 
 best of satisfaction ; I used them all last season, have done all my plowing with them 
 this spring, and find them to be the best plows I have ever used. I can do one-third 
 more work with them, with the same amount of labor for the team, than any plow I 
 have seen or used. They are easy to handle ; any boy can manage them ; they are so 
 well balanced that they need no guiding ; they turn the sod and manure well under, 
 and thoroughly pulverize the soil, leaving it so mellow that it saves miich labor in 
 harrowing. Last season I used three plows in plowing afield of sod for corn — the two 
 
 Adamants and one . I coiild see a difference in the corn the whole season ; 
 
 where I used the Adamants, the crop was considerably the best ; it was also less labor 
 to work. I can heartily recommend them to any farmer wanting a good plow. What 
 they will save in horse-flesh and repairs will soon pay for a plow. The reversible slip 
 shares, I think, are a wonderful improvement ; by using them you not only save in 
 cost for shares, but have a sharp and level running plow all the time. If I could not 
 get others like them, I would not take five times for them what they cost me. 
 
 ",TOHN S. VANDYKE." 
 
 "Montana, Warren Co., N. J., May 25th, 1878. 
 " I have fully tested your Adamant Plow with the reversible point, and take pleasure 
 in recommending them to the farmers of this community for good work, lightness of 
 draft, easy on plowman, save fifty per cent, on repairs. I plowed ten acres, wore out 
 two points, and commenced on a third one, while the share is not more than one-half 
 worn out. My ground is a greasy, sticky, and stony soil, very difiBcult to get a plow 
 to scour, but the Adamant does scour in it without difficulty. 
 
 " JAMES P. KENT." 
 
THE NEW YORK PLOW 00., 55 BEEKMAIST ST. 
 
 WROUGHT BEAM DOUBLE MOLD PLOW. 
 
 WITH SHOE. 
 
 For Cultivating and Ridging or Hilling Corn, Potatoes, &c. 
 
 Holds easy, runs, steady, and is not liable to clog. Works different widths of rows 
 by using long and short wings. The centre piece increases the height of the mold- 
 board when desired. 
 
 In the cultivation of the potato, hand hoeing can he entirely dispensed with. Even 
 quack-grass, however troublesome, can be subdued without the use of the hoe, and 
 a large crop of potatoes realized by pursuing the following course, which is no exper- 
 iment, but an established method, which is now being generally adopted by farmers 
 who prefer this way to any other, believing that a tetter crop can thus be realized 
 with less labor. 
 
 After the ground is plowed and thoroughly harrowed, let the furrows be made 
 deep and of as equal distance apart as possible, and when the potatoes first make 
 their appearance, or when they are one or two inches high, use the double-mold plow 
 arranged wide enougli, and, if necessary, with the centre-piece in, to bury the potatoes 
 entirely under by passing once between the rows ; but if the sod is very stiff and un- 
 rotted, it may be necessary to use an ordinary two-horse plow, turning one furrow on 
 the top of each row of potatoes, then with the harrow drag over the same way (no 
 danger of injuring the potatoes), which leave the ground freshly plowed and har- 
 rowed, and very soon the potatoes will again make their appearance, free from grass, 
 and with as much ground on the hill as is necessary. Then cross-plow with the dou- 
 ble-mold plow as often as desirable, keeping the ground well stirred, and a large crop 
 of potatoes will be the result. 
 
 Where potatoes are planted in drills, the same course is pursued in burying them 
 under when they first make their appearance above the ground, and then dragging; 
 after which an ordinary corn-plow is run as near the row as convenient, throwing 
 the ground from the row; or a cuU.ivator may be used for this purpose. The double- 
 mold plow is afterwards used for throwing the ground toward the row. Let this 
 operation be repeated, and the result will be satisfactory. 
 
 IT WILL SAVE ITS COST BVT A FEW DAYS' USE. 
 
 Price, complete , $8 00 
 
 Extra shares, 50 cents. 
 
THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 
 
 XI 
 
 THE NEW YORK CORN AND SEED PLANTER. 
 
 One man and a horse can plant from seven to ten acres of corn in a day with 
 the planter, at a cost of from $3.50 to $5, while to plant the same by hand would cost 
 $25 at least. 
 
 This Planter, at one peockss, opeks its furrow, gauges, drops, covers the 
 seeds and rolls them down. Also measures and marks off tlf distance for the 
 next ROW or drill co be planted. 
 
 It WILL PLANT ALL KINDS of SEEDS, from corn. beaiis, peas, etc., to the smallest 
 KINDS of GARDEN SEEDS, in HILLS or DRILLS, at ANY DISTANCE between the seeds or 
 hills, from one inch to seventy-two inches. Also measures the quantity of seeds to 
 the hill, drill, or acre. 
 
 Any of these changes may be made in five minutes' time to adapt it to the 
 work required, and the seeding action may be instantly thrown out of gear 
 and stopped in turning at head-lands, or for moving from tield to field. By being- 
 careful about throwing out of and in gear, at the end of the rows, the hills may be 
 made to row both way.s. 
 
 Recent improvements have increased its strength and quality of workmanship. 
 
 Price $20 00 
 
xii THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 
 
 GARDEN ROLLER. 
 
 Weights Keep Handle Erect. 
 
 2 Sec, 71 inch face, 15 i 
 
 1 " 12 
 
 20 
 
 1 " 20 
 
 20 
 
 2 " 12 
 
 20 
 
 3 " 12 
 
 20 
 
 1 " 12 
 
 24 
 
 2 " 12 
 
 • 24 
 
 1 " 12 
 
 28 
 
 2 •• 12 
 
 •28 
 
 3 " 12 
 
 28 
 
 face, 15 inclies diameter, with weights about 125 lbs. 
 
 " 140 « 
 
 " 220 « 
 
 " . " " 300 " 
 
 «' 450 " 
 
 " 200 " 
 
 " " " 400 " 
 
 " 250 " 
 
 " 500 " 
 
 " 700 " 
 
THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. xiii 
 
 WOOD FRAME JERSEY CULTIVATOR. 
 
 It is made with wrougbt-iron standard, polished reversible steel plates, and ad- 
 justable draft-rod. It is light to handle, draws steady, easy for the horse, and loosens 
 and pulverizes the soil. 
 
 Weight 48 lbs. 
 
 Price $6 00 
 
 WROUGHT-IRON FRAME JERSEY CULTIVATOR. 
 
 It is made in a thoroughly workmanlike manner, of the very best materials, is 
 strong, very durable, and superior to the wood frame, as it is not liable to clog iu fou] 
 or weedy ground. 
 
 Weight 46 lbs. 
 
 Price |7 00 
 
XIV 
 
 THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 
 
 SO^SSSKSK.--*.-*. 
 
 THE FIELD ROLLER 
 
 Is a valuable machine for crushing sods and lumps remaining after the harrow has 
 passed, pressing down stones, and rendering the field smooth for the mowing-machine, 
 &c. By pressing the earth close about the seed, a more sure and quick germination 
 is effected. This iron roller is the most approved kind, as it clears better and is more 
 durable than the wooden roller. The stone box is convenient for taking off loose 
 stones. By rolling early in the Spring, the heaving effect of frost is repressed. 
 
 3 Se 
 
 c, 12 inch 
 
 face 
 
 i>y 
 
 20 inche 
 
 4 " 
 
 12 
 
 " 
 
 
 20 
 
 5 " 
 
 12 
 
 '• 
 
 
 20 
 
 4 " 
 
 12 
 
 
 
 24 
 
 5 " 
 
 12 
 
 " 
 
 
 24 
 
 6 " 
 
 12 
 
 " 
 
 
 24 
 
 4 " 
 
 12 
 
 .i 
 
 
 28 
 
 5 " 
 
 12 
 
 u 
 
 
 28 
 
 6 '■ 
 
 12 
 
 " 
 
 
 28 
 
 4 " 
 
 12 
 
 •• 
 
 
 36 
 
 5 '■ 
 
 12 
 
 " 
 
 
 36 
 
 6 " 
 
 12 
 
 a 
 
 
 36 
 
 lbs. 
 
 650 
 
 750 
 
 850 
 
 1,000 
 
 1,200 
 
 950 
 
 1,150 
 
 1,350 
 
 1,400 
 
 1,700 
 
 2,000 
 
THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. xv 
 
 THE NISHWITZ HARROW. 
 
 The Disk Harrow is the ouly harrow fit for sod and the best in use to prepare 
 laud for seeding. It is a thorough cultivator, which implies pulverization of soil and 
 intermixture of fertilizers, and cultivates before the crop is put in, vrhich is the best 
 time to do it. 
 
 It consists of a series of revolving, sharp-edged, circular, concave disks, set at 
 such an angle in relation to the line of draft, that they fully pulverize the soil by cut- 
 ting, lifting, and turning it over in fine, small furrows. The frame consists of two 
 pieces of wood, hinged together in front, which are secured at any desirable distance 
 apart by means of a cross-bar, bolted across the centre of the frame. To this cross- 
 bar is attached a comfortable spring seat. For purposes of storing or transportation, 
 the frame can be folded together. It is extremely simple in construction, and not 
 liable to get out of order. 
 
 The dislcs are now held on hy journals headed, and not ly scrapers only, as formerly 
 made. This is a great improvement, saving friction and wear; the wearing parts being 
 pins and washers are replaced at very small cost* 
 
 The advantage of this ^ shaped harrow, with the disks following each other 
 over those, like those where disks are arranged nearly on a line, is, that in crossing 
 the furrows they do not all strike at once, and therefore draw more uniformly. The 
 steel journals, which are readily replaced when worn, are the very cheapest kind of 
 journals to keep in repair, though not looking so durable as larger cast-iron axles, and 
 they are not so liable to clog in sticky soils. The journals can be replaced by any 
 blacksmith. The disks last a long time, and, being concave, are not liable to break. 
 
 By means of a scraper, against which the concave circular disk or tooth revolves, 
 it is kept clean or scoured in the most adhesive soils. 
 
 It will not catch weeds, stubble, coarse manure, or roots, and clog up like a com- 
 mon harrow or cultivator, but will cut and mix them with the soil. 
 
XVI 
 
 THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 
 
 It will not turn ap the sod when using it on sward land. 
 
 It will thoroughly prepare land for the seed drill. 
 
 It will work on wet land where no other implement will, and save much valuable 
 time in putting crops in the ground in proper season. 
 
 It will more than save its cost in preparing five acres of sward land for corn. 
 
 It will produce a better crop, by thoroughly loosening and mixing the soil. 
 
 It will actually save plowing in many instances. 
 
 Land plowed in the Fall can be prepared for crops in the Spring without re- 
 plowing. 
 
 It is the best implement for pulverizing newly-broken land. 
 
 It is just the thing for summer-fallowing land; it will work up the soil, and is 
 sure to kill all weeds. 
 
 It is a good clod-crusher. 
 
 Most hnportant of all, in putting in grain, covering it well, leaving it in little 
 drills, and at the proper depth for germination. 
 
 For cross cultivating prairie sod, those who use them say they save $1 per acre in 
 one cultivation. 
 
 The tongue is desirable on large fields, and is useful when cultivating corn or 
 grapes, which is done by removing the forward disk so as to straddle the rows, for 
 Avhich this harrow is very highly recommended ; while the clevis without tongue is 
 desirable in small fields. 
 
 Nos. 3 and 4 Harrows are very large, with 15-inch disks, used with three or four 
 horses, principally for general cultivation on the largest farms, and on the Western 
 prairies, in place of second sowing, to cut up the prairie sods, a,nd on the Southern 
 plantations as a gang plow, where it does the work of many plows, saving much time 
 and expense. 
 
 Foe Flax Ground. — One agent sold over one himdred in the flax regions of In- 
 diana in one season. 
 
 Land infested with corn or cotton stalks, grass, clods, or roots, is by the use of 
 this harrow nicely prepared for cultivation. The harrow is adjustable both for width 
 and depth of its track. 
 
 For harrowing between rows of sugar cane they are exceedingly satisfactory. 
 
 Size. 
 
 Horses required 
 to operate it. 
 
 Numl)er of 
 Disks. 
 
 Diameter of 
 Disks. 
 
 Weight 
 Complete. 
 
 No. 1 
 " 2 
 " 3 
 it 4 
 
 2 
 
 2 
 
 3 or 4 
 
 4 
 
 11 
 13 
 11 
 13 
 
 11 in. 
 11 in. 
 15 ill. 
 15 in. 
 
 200 lbs. 
 225 " 
 400 " 
 450 " 
 
 The No. 1 (11 disks) Harrow without pole, is the most popular size for all general 
 purposes, and is the size we sell the most of, and always send unless specially ordered 
 otherwise. 
 
THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. xvii 
 
 THE COPPER STEIP FEED CUTTER. 
 
 This is umloubtedly the easiest cutter by hacd power, because it has excellent 
 uiomeutum without beiug speeded up. The 5^, 8, 9, will cut stalks as well as hay 
 about two inches in length, and accomplish more than can be done by hand power on 
 anj' other principle. These sizes can also be run by power if desired. 
 
 By means of cutting against flanges, instead of a roller, it is made perfectly self- 
 feeding, and a large volume of feed is allowed to pass the knives without clogging 
 the machine. 
 
 These flanges enable the smallest sized machines to cut the largest corn-stalks as 
 easily as hay or straw, whereas a roller (raw-hide or other), by choking up the throat, 
 passes but a small depth of feed and clogs. 
 
 As the machine is turned the flanged cylinder and knife grasp the feed, draw it 
 forward, and cut it oif as the two meet; cutting a volume of feed three to six inches 
 deep, of uniform length without clogging, and without the friction that arises from 
 the use of a multitude of gear wheels. 
 
 All parts of the machines are easily and cheaply replaced by the farmer, and the 
 knives and coppers are made so that, if they are ever broken or worn out, they can for 
 a few cents each be duplicated and put on at home. 
 
 The Copper does not dull the Knives, and is Durable. 
 
 We make a variety of sizes from $9 to $35. Descriptive circular sent on ap- 
 plication. 
 
 THE BEST LENGTH TO CUT FEED. 
 
 On this subject the Editor of the American Agriculturist, December number, 1865, 
 page 371, says : 
 
 " It is not necessary to cut corn-stalks as short as some have recommended. For 
 fourteen years the writer has been accustomed to cut all his corn-stalks, and for sever- 
 al years some were cut about half an inch long, though, for the most part, two inches 
 Mas the usual length. Neat cattle and horses will eat them quite as well when cut 
 two inches long as if half an inch long. And it is much safer to cut them two inches 
 long than half an inch, because, when short, hard pieces are often crowded endwise be- 
 tween the teeth of animals, will wound the gums, making the mouth so sore that ani- 
 mals sometimes will sufl'er with hunger before they will venture to eat cut stalks. 
 Moreover it is highly probable that these thin, short, flinty edges injure the intestines," 
 
xviii THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 
 
 In the Report of the United States Commissioner of Agriculture for 1866, page 280, 
 the Commissioner says : 
 
 " A large number of devices for chafiSng coarse fodder have been patented, but 
 the number of cutters that are likely to come into general use, or give satisfaction, is 
 exceedingJy small. Many good machines are too complicated for common farmers and 
 their laborers, who possess only ordinary ability to keep machinery in running order, 
 and to operate such implements with skill and efficiency. 
 
 "Some manufacturers have erred seriously in constructing foddei' cutters, by not under- 
 standing ivhat is required of a machine for cutting stalks, straw and hay. Men who have 
 a correct understanding of the management of domestic animals, and of preparing 
 their food, know that the fodder cutter that cuts hay or straw finest or shortest is by 
 no means the most effective cutter. Experience proves that fodder digests much bet- 
 ter after being macerated by the teeth of animals than when it is reduced so fine by a 
 straw-cutter that they swallow it without iirst crushing it between their teeth. The 
 stalks of Indian corn or sorghum should never be cut less than two inches long." 
 
 THE BURRALL CORN SHELLER OF 1878. 
 
 Wrought Shafts. Right-Hand. 
 
 This Shelter Separates the Cobs from the 
 Shelled Corn. 
 
 It has wooden (instead of iron) legs, 
 which are not liable to break, and are 
 more easily repaired when broken. 
 
 IMPROVEMENTS FOR 1878. 
 
 SKVEfiAL NEW PATENTS APPLIED FOE. 
 
 Open front hopper makes it right-handed. Wrought Shafts. (Cast shafts always 
 break.; Excellent improved spring. Runs smooth and easy. Longer ie^s, which make 
 sheller several inches higher than formerly. Flat balance ivheel; can use belt, if de- 
 sired. 
 
 The swell at the throat in combination with the patented spring-plate admits 
 larger ears without clogging, and without scraping or breaking the cob. It shells 
 clean. The gearing has been changed, making it stronger, and causing it to turn very 
 much easier than any other sheller in the market, and much easier than those that we 
 made last year. The spreading of the feet causes it to stand entirely firm, and the in- 
 creased weight adds much to its durability. 
 
 These improvements make it entirely satisfactory for every section of this coun- 
 try and other countries. 
 
 Weight 125 lbs. 
 
 Price $8 00 
 
THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. xix 
 
 NEW ENGLAND ROOT CUTTER AND TEARER. 
 
 The cnt represents a machine 
 which every farmer should have. 
 
 It is strong and durable, very 
 simple in its construction, and not 
 liable to get out of order. 
 
 The cylinder or cutting appa- 
 ratus is composed of a nnuiber 
 of hooked or flat curved teeth, 
 which, in revolving, pass between 
 stationary knives, and catch hold 
 and tear to pieces the roots, etc., 
 in small sections for safety. 
 
 The hopper holds about a bush- 
 el of turnips, which can be cut in 
 one minute. 
 
 With this machine Pumpkins, 
 Turnips, Beets, Carrots, etc., can 
 be cut and fed to Horses, Cattle, 
 Sheep and Calves, without danger 
 of choking. 
 
 Weight 120 lbs. 
 
 Price $12 00 
 
 ENDLESS CHAIN DOG POWER. 
 
 This power is intended principally for 
 dairy purposes, but can be made use of 
 wherever a light and portable power is 
 desired. 
 
 The principle of construction is ma- 
 terially the same as that of the large rail- 
 way powers, with such modifications, 
 diminution of friction, etc., as are need- 
 ed to fit it to be moved by small animals. 
 A dog, sheep or goat is sufficient to 
 work it. The wheels are larger than in 
 other dog powers, and are of iron instead 
 of wood. This power runs with less fric- 
 tion, and is more diirable than any other. 
 The floor is matched and grooved, which 
 dispenses with the clumsy buttons, which 
 
 are liable to break and come off. 'J'he 
 
 lever is adjustable, so that the churn can be placed in any position. It is not desir- 
 able to have the churn under the dog's mouth. 
 It has also a belt wheel. 
 
 It is three feet and nine inches high, five feet and nine inches long, and two feet 
 wide ; weighs 110 lbs. 
 
 Price, complete ,,,.,, $30 00 
 
XX THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 
 
 RAILWAY HORSE POWER. 
 
 i^^ 
 
 This power, Ellis Patent, we have proven by actual tests, gives more power with 
 same elevation and same weight of animals than any other horse-power yet invented. 
 
 The seven recent patent claims are very important. It has a ratchet gear instead 
 of the common spur gear, witli the advantage of increased firmness ; the uniform 
 length and width of lags, in connection with the ratchet gear, gives steadiness and 
 firmness to the whole track, which is not the case with spur gear. The new arrange- 
 ment for oiling the I'ods on which the carrying wheels revolve, is a labor-saving fea- 
 ture. These improvements are new, and they reduce the friction, and therefore increase 
 the driving power to an extent hitherto unknown in any kind of animal power. 
 
 One-horse power, with patent governor, belt, wrench, oil-can and extras $100 00 
 
 Two " " " '^ " " •' 150 00 
 
 Three " " " " " " '• 200 00 
 
 PLOWS FOR SPECIAL PURPOSES. 
 
 For Root Cutting we have a Steel Plow witli steel share, that can be gi'ound 
 to a sharp edge, $15 00 ; Wheel and Coulter, |3 00 ; Circular Coulter, $4 00. 
 
 For very Stony Ground, where better plows are not profitable to use, short 
 and catching quick, Rough and Ready, No. 2^, Cast Beam, $7 00 ; Rough and Ready, 
 Wrought Beam, |9 00. 
 
 Side Hill or Swivel Plows, Leveler Wood Beam, No. 2 $8 00 
 
 " " " " " " " No. 3 10 00 
 
 " '' " " Automatic Iron Beam, with Coulter 12 00 
 
 " " " " Wrought Beam, without Coulter 9 00 
 
 " " " " One-Horse, also cheaper qualities. 
 
 Double-Mold Plows for Ridging, Hilling and Cultivating Corn, Potatoes, &g,, 
 
 Wrought Beam 8 00 
 
 " " " Wood Beam 4 00 
 
 Subsoil Plows, Deep Trenching Plows for Asparagus, Ditching, &c., Road Plows, 
 Garden or Hand Plows, Potato Diggers ; Cast-iron Plows in infinite variety from 
 $1 50 upward. 
 
 MACHINES FOR SPECIAL PURPOSES. 
 
 Riding Hay Rakes, Cider Mills, Lard Presses, Wine Presses, Farmers' Boilers, Ice 
 Crushers, Horse Radish Graters, Seed Drills, Grain Drills, Corn Planters, Garden, 
 Field and Road Rollers, Lawn Mowers, Horse Powers, Threshers and Cleaners, Wind- 
 mills for Pumping, &c., Fanning Mills, Dog Powers, Corn Shellers, Road Scrapers, 
 Root Cutters, Wheelbarrows, Water Drawers, Stable Furniture, Wagon Jacks, Hand 
 Cultivators, Cultivator and Pulverizer Combined. 
 
THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 
 
 XXI 
 
 We ask dealers and cultivators of the soil to examine carefully the peculiarities in 
 constructiou of the Champion Hoe in all of its varieties, including the Centennial 
 Double Blade, the Centennial Common, the Centennial Planter's and the Centennial 
 Garden, of which we represent a full line, decide on their merits, whether our claims to 
 superiority over all others in use are or are not well founded. 
 
 By a uew process our steel is all rolled heavier in the shank and tapering towards 
 the edge, giving strength where most needed and symmetry of form. 
 
 The Champion Hoe is the common lioe radically improved. For the first time the 
 tuhular principle is applied to the Hoe, giving immense strength without unnecessary 
 weight of metal, both to the large and small blades. The entire implement, including 
 the socket or ferule, is made of a single piece of the iest crucible steel, so that the usual 
 difficulty of the shank getting loose is entirely obviated. TIius we combine great 
 strength with lightness, utility and durability. 
 
 The Centennial Hoe combines the leading principle of the Champion Hoe with 
 other marked improvements. The ferule is cut, like the Champion, from the same 
 piece of steel of which the hoe is formed, completing it for the handle without weld or 
 rivet; there is, therefore, nothing to give way. The steel is of the best quality — of 
 trowel temper and rolled by a new process — strong in shank and tapering towards the 
 edge, giving the greatest strength where most required. In cutting out the ferule 
 the perforation is made where the earth always collects and adheres, thereby remov- 
 
xxii THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 
 
 ing a great inconvenience and preventing clogging nest to the handle. Of the Cen- 
 
 tenuial we make 
 
 FOUK LEADING VARIETIES. 
 
 First. — THE TWO-BLADED CENTENNIAL (FigS. 7, 8, 9). 
 
 Which comprises two sizes, six inch and seven inch. This hoe is admired by all 
 who have used it, for the ease and facility with which the operator can execute all 
 kinds of hoeing in farming, (jardemng or in the nursery, the sides as well as the ends 
 being brought readily into use. The perforation prevents the adhesion of the soil. 
 
 Second. — the planter's hoe (Figs. 1 and 12). 
 
 Six, seven and eight-inch blade. 
 
 This hoe is heavi/, strong and made of the best steel, which takes a good cutting 
 edge ; warranted to the dealers and to the purchaser. 
 
 Third. — the single blade centennial hoe (Fig. 2). 
 
 Six-inch and seven-inch blades, warranted of the best material and workmanship. 
 
 Fourth. — THE centennial garden hoe (Figs. 4 and 11). 
 
 A glance at this hoe will satisfy the gardener or the dealer that it is incomparably 
 the best article of the kind in use. There are two varieties, one with a forked, the 
 other with a pointed end. 
 
 N. B. — All of our hoes are of the same kind of steel, and that of the best quality ; all 
 are rolled to order, tapering towards the edge, giving strength and perfection of form. 
 All are warranted. All of them have been carefully perfected, and all objections and 
 defects suggested by practical men removed. 
 
 GARDEN WEEDER 
 
 The simplicity, cheapness, and practical utility of this weeder places it ahead of 
 all the hand cultivators. It will pay for itself, in the saving of labor, several times 
 over in a year. 
 
 The frame is of wrought iron, light, strong, has the parallel adjustment, can be 
 readily opened and closed as desired, also has the same style of slotted teeth as the 
 one-horse cultivator. 
 
 The handles are inserted in sockets, and can be 'easily taken out, making it very 
 compact for shipment. 
 
THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. xxiii 
 
 THE JOHNSON 
 
 PARALLEL EXPANBIN& CULTIVATORS M PULVERIZERS, 
 
 NEW AND IMPORTANT INVENTION. 
 
 MAJSrUFACTURED BY 
 
 THE NEW YORK PLOW CO., 
 
 55 BEEKMAN STREET, NEW YORK. 
 
 ONE-HORSE CULTIVATOR 
 
 The frame consists of a centre Learn and side wings to wliicli the teeth are attach- 
 ed. The -wings are hinged to the beam, so that they saving back and forth, parallel 
 with the beam, narrowing or widening as the space requires, keeping the teeth al- 
 ways in the same line of draft. Either side wing can be moved independent of the 
 other, back or forward, or one back and the other forward, the teeth then being in 
 line. The wings are held in position by means of two draw braces, one end of which 
 is attached to the wings, the other to the centre beam, changed at pleasure, thus va- 
 rying the width as the cultivation requires. For cultivating in very narrow spaces, 
 move one wing forward and the other backward as much as required, and remove the 
 front tooth. 
 
 It is thus adapted to the cultivation of corn, potatoes, beans, cotton, tobacco, tur- 
 nips and other growing plants. It is also peculiarly adapted to the cultivation of nur- 
 series and orange groves, which require shallow cultivation. The teeth being slotted 
 and curved with sharp cutting edges they cut the weeds and grass, and thoroughly 
 break up and pulverize the soil in one operation, and without endangering the roots. 
 The wheel regulates the depth for shallow or deep cultivation. 
 
xxiv THE KEW YORK PLOW CO., 55 BEEKMAN ST. 
 
 TWO-HORSE PARALLEL EXPANDING PULVER- 
 IZER OR GANG PLOW. 
 
 This is made ou the same parallel fokliiig principle as the one-horse cultivator, 
 with extra side-beams and teeth ; and with side-wheels to regulate the depth. The 
 wheels are secured to the side-wings, and open and close with the frame. It is easily 
 adjusted to any desired Avidth. 
 
 Although called a pulverizer for convenience, it is, in fact, a neiv implement, per- 
 forming, in most cases, the work both of a Gang Plow and a Cultivator, and doing a 
 larger amount of work in much greater perfection than either the Gang Plow or old- 
 fashioned Cultivator, or both combined. 
 
 For the work accomplished it is of remarkably easy draft. It is readily adjusted 
 for running near the surface of the ground, cutting and destroying every weed and 
 thistle ; or for entering the ground to the depth desired for piilverizing. It works up 
 and pulverizes the soil to a greater degree of perfection than any other implement 
 known to the cultivator of the ground. 
 
 It can be readily folded into a small compass for shipping or storing. 
 
 These implements all have slotted teeth which, in shallow cultivation, move the 
 weeds from their bed, and in deep cultivation throughly pulverize the soil. They are 
 all well protected by patents. 
 
 One-Horse Cultivator $8 00 
 
 One-Horse Ctiltivator with Hiller 11 00 
 
 Hand Weeder 4 50 
 
 Two-Horse Pulverizer 20 00 
 
 Extra Teeth for One Horse, per set 2 00 
 
 Extra Teeth for Two Horses, per set ■. 5 00 
 
 Accurate Chemical Analysis of COALS, Metai.S, Ores, FERTI- 
 LIZERS, Soaps, Waters, etc., made by FRANCIS M. ROGERS, 
 
 Analytical Chemist, 95 Liberty Street, New York. 
 
■ ] 
 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 DDDE7bblflt.5 
 
 •