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VOL. XXIII. XO. 3. The Cartersville Express, Established Twenty Years SATES AND TERMS. SUBSCRIPTION. One copy one year $1 50 One copy six months 90 One copy three months 50 Payments invariably in Advance. ADVERTISING RATES. Advertisements will lie inserted at the rates of One Dollar per inch for the first Insertion, and Fifty Cents for each additional insertion Address, S. A. CUNNINGHAM. The Ensilage of Maize. From the Dixie Farmer. Many of your readers have, doubtless, seen frequent mention in the agricultural papeis of late of the term at the head of this article. Many, however, perhaps have not; and, therefore, in order to make an account of a successful experiment at the college farm more intelligible, a few words as to the history and nature of the new process, “The ensilage of maize,” are pre requisite to a correct estimate of the value of the experiment. The term “ ensilage ” is derived from the two French words, “ en ” and “ silo,” (a pit or excavation), and the “ensilage of maize” is the process of preserving, in a fresh, ab solutely unchanged condition, Indian corn, or maize, in silos, or pits. The process, however, can be, and is, applied to other green crops besides maize. Although re cently developed and perfected, it is by no means anew discovery. Many farmers in this country have successfully preserved partially cured, or nearly green, clover by stacking it, layer by layer, with straw. Such methods are frequently referred to in agricultural works, and are especially men tioned by Stephens in his large work on “ The Farm.” In Switzerland green forage has long been kept fresh for months by packing it down tightly in vats and flood ing it with water to prevent the access of air. But to M. Goffart, a Frenchman, un doubtedly belongs the honor of having first developed and perfected this process. His Government, as a reward, bestowed upon him the highest decoration of the State, the badge of the Legion of Honor. This fact is proof conclusive of the great prac tical value of the new process. Its agricul tural importance, however, demands fur ther notice here. From the latest American translation (1879, by J. B. Brown) of M. Goffart’s work, “The Ensilage of Maize,” (Paris, 1877,) —a work singularly crude and ill digested, and thoroughly French in its naive and egotism, and only valuable for its ap pendix—l extract the following summary : Commencing his experiments more than thirty years ago, M. Goffart has, for a quar ter of a century past, labored to develope a system by which green food can be success fully preserved. After “ thousands of ex periments” (to use his own words), involv ing a large expenditure of time, labor, and money, —after innumerable failures and blunders, often repeated, but as often hon estly admitted and patiently corrected, he claims to have at last found a process by which an abundant supply of green, fresh food, more palatable and digestible than when first taken from the field, is insured for the entire year, if need be. His silos are elliptical in shape, with vertical walls and of large size, built of brick, cemented within, and covered with open, shed roofs. Along side of the silo, a powerful cutter is stationed, furnished with an elevator to carry up the cut fodder over the wails of the silo. The corn is cut and immediately carted to the silo, where it is first passed through the cutter, by which it is sliced into disks three-tenths of an inch in length. From thence it is carried up by the elevator and delivered in the silo, in which it is carefully packed away by the continuous trampling of two or three men. The silo, when filled, is covered with straw ; across this loosely-fitting boards are laid, and Gn these weights (stones or old iron), to the amount of about one thousand pounds to the square yard, are placed. The whole secret of the process, if secret there be, lies in the thorough exclusion of the air from the mass. This enormous weight secures a continuous descending pressure, the sine qua non of success. In fact, M. Goffart re gards this continuous pressure as the “final solution of the problem.” His latest theory is that the com, or other fodder, is pre served in this silo in an absolutely unchanged condition ; ihat it comes out unaltered, in sipid to the taste, and that not until after about twelve hours’ exposure to the air, when alcoholic fermentation sets in, does it become palatable and fit for food. This fermentation, he asserts, “ increases the facility of digestion, and, therefore, the nutritive, or assimilative, power of the food.” He shows his faith by his works, for this ensilage is his chief dependence for cattle food. The cost of gathering and ensilaging the maize he estimates (giving the figures) at twenty cents per ton. As the cutting of all long forage is, at all times, advisible, as it economizes food, and, as by this process the food is already cut ready for use, some de duction from these estimates might be safely made. The majority of French agricul turists claim that three hundred pounds of this ensilage are fully equal to one hun dred pounds of the best meadow hay. Many go further, and claim that two hun dred pounds are possessed of equal nutri tive value. M. Goffart has averaged (and that on his entire farm) forty tons of corn per acre for five years past. Morris, of Maryland, who has suc cessfully experimented on this subject — who feeds about one thousand head of cat- tle, and whose letter gives to the appendix of Brown’s translation its chief value — claims that, with skill, fifty tons of green corn per acre can be easily grown. “ With extra care and labor,” he remarks, “ I am almost afraid to stale the quantity that can be raised per acre.” tons of hay per acre is a heavy yield. The land that will produce one and a half tons of hay per acre will as easily yield thirty tons of corn fodder, and yet the ensilaging of these thirty tons makes them equal, in nutritive value, to at least ten tons of the best hay. Since he has “solved his problem” M. Goffart has more than doubled the number of his cattle, the area of his farm (at So loyne, where the soil is thin) remaining the same. Col. Morris asks, “ where is the stock to feed upon the new supply of food?” When it is known that corn in the West In dies attains the height of thirty feet, and that it can be grown and specially devel oped as well for its stem and foliage-pro ducing qualities as for its grain producing ; he may well ask this question. But any in telligent farmer can draw his own conclu sions from such facts, and judge for himself of the promise and value of this new pro cess. As I did not entor upon the discharge of my duties here or take charge of the Col lege Farm until the first of September last, my experiment was necessarily hurried and rough, owing to the limited time and means at my command. A pit was prepared on the north side of a small grove, on the edge of a dry knoll, eleven feet long, eight feet wide and six feet deep. It was neither bricked up nor cemented; by means of the long continued drought the corn at the time of cutting—at the first appearance of the shoots or ears—was dry and wilted. It was cut with sickles, about the middle of Sep tember, and immediately carted to the pit, after being weighed. It was carefully laid lengthwise in the pit and packed down layer by layer. The mass was car ried up in a vertical manner six feet above the surface of the ground in order to allow for its settling. About four feet of dirt was then thrown on the top and it was allowed to stand for twenty-four hours. By that time the mass had settled down almost to the surface. It was then carefully tramped, fresh soil thrown on it and the sides covered. A rough shed was made to protect it from the weather; the pit was closely watched and all cracks cov ered up ; it held 3,000 pounds of green fod der. When opened on the 13th of Decem ber last, after being in the pit three months the mass was found to be sound and fresh, but slightly changed in appearance, the edges and tops alone to the depth of two or three inches being damaged. Only a sec tion of the pit was uncovered ; the fodder when offered to cattle was greedily eaten by them. After short exposure to the air the alcoholic fermentation sets in, and it is then apparently greatly relished by all kinds of stock. It has been fed for the last month to the milk cows along with dry food with the most satisfactory results, and gives promise of keeping for some time yet. From the result of this experiment and from the evidence before me, I feel justified in asserting that the practical value of M Loffart’s discovery cannot well be overesti mated. It is possessed of the highest agri cultural promise, and it is one that bids fair to revolutionize some of the leading branches of agriculture. It is in fine one of the most important our century has wit nessed, and the farmers of our day may yet inscribe on the silos of Goffart the words of the Latin poet, as the embodiment of their verdict —a verdict his vanity forced him to forestall: “ Exegi monumentum acre peren nis.” J. M. Mcßryde. Prof. Agr. Hort. and Bot. University of Tenn., Knoxville, Jau. 16, 1880. —“No sir?” thundered the old farmer to a man soliciting his subscription to a news paper. “Don’t want no paper around here. It’s a waste of money. Catch me fooling away two dollars a year on a newspaper I never read ’em and my folks never does, nuther.” Then he turned to the bogus barb-wire fence agent, who was patiently sitting by, and told him he might put a cheap fence around his farm, and he signed the contract which the agent presented lo him with scarcely a glance. But when, in a few months, the contract turned up again, the old farmer was horrified to find that in some manner it had changed into a note of hand for SSOO, and he had to p a y iL too. But he “doesn’t read any paper.”— Exchange. How to Milk. —This may seem absurd advice to offer to farmers, but our experi ence has shown ug that every farmer does not know how to milk properly, or, rather, that he does not always carry out the knowledge he may have. In the first place, never allow the hands or udder to be wet with milk before milking. When ready to milk, take the pail on the left arm, and with both hands brush off every bit of dust and all particles of bedding from the cow’s udder. If the udder is not readily cleaned in this way, use a sponge and warm water. Milk quickly, and allow no unpracticed hand at the cow, unless you intend to dry the animal. Above all, milk clean. Avery little inattention here will soon render a valuable cow unremunerative in the dairy. The President of the California State Vinicultural Society has reported <50,000 acres covered with vineyards, numbering 45,000,000 vines, and representing, with the land, a capital of $30,000,000. No sprain can be cured without abso lute and entire rest. —The Drew temperance reform is pro gressing finely in Savannah. CARTERSVILLE, GA., FRIDAY, JANUARY 30, 1880. William Arp On Gates. From the Dixie Farmer. Maybe I have struck my talent, and it is making gates. I reckon most every Dixie farmer has made agate,and maybe a better gate than mine; but I don’t know of any so good and so cheap in this neighborhood. I haven’t got any drawings to send you, so will have to draw on my powers of descrip tion, which may not be very luminous. In the first place, you must have a post in fact, two posts; but I want to post you up particularly about one of them —that is, the post the gate is hung to. Now, it ought not to be less than eight inches in diam eter; but please don’t get one as big as a barrel. You can pack a small one just as tight as a large one, and it will last just as long and be a good deal easier to manage. Pack it well at the bottom. You can’t make a gate-poet stand firm by doing the hard packing at the top of the hole. But before you pack this post, you must saw ofl the top with a slight bevel, and turn the lowest side of the slope from the gate. Now, if you can find a piece of good heart tim ber (like a piece of a joist or sleeper) eight inches wide, and two inches thick, and eighteen or twenty inches long, pin it on to the top with three pins, or spikes, letting eight inches project towards the gate and two inches from it. This will answer for a cap and serve another purpose. Now, a gate 5£ feet high is high enough unless you are building a deer park, so that would make your post 7£ feet, leaving two feet to go in the ground. But stop a minute ; —don’t put it in the ground yet. I want you to get a piece of 3x4 scantling two feet long, and slope it down the three inch side to a wedge and pin it on, or spike it on, to the gate side of the post even with the bottom and the big end of the wedge just level with the ground. But hold on ; lam too fast. Before you pin it on, yon must bore an inch and a quarter hole in the upper end. Bore it one inch and a hall deep and a little nearer the gate-side than the post-side. Now bore a similar hole right over it, in the cap-piece. Next thing is the gate. A good, sound 4x6 scantling, 5£ feet long, is the first piece. Round the two edges that are to go next the post with a drawing-knife, and, if the post is not round already, the inside edges must be hewn down with an axe, for the corners will be in the way of the gate open ing wide. Now measure six inches from one end of this 4x6 piece, and saw square down across the four-inch side two inches in depth; then measure two inches further and saw down again two inches. Block out the piece, and do the other end the same way. I tell you, it takes a power of thinking to tell this right, but I think you understand me. These two-inch slots, or mortices, or recesses, or vacancies, or whatever you call them, are to receive the ends of the two long, horizouital 2x4 pieces of scantling that constitute the frame of the gate. Stop now —you needn’t nail them in ; but get a good, stout ten or twelve-inch plank 5£ feet long and nail it on fast to the rai-ls and the upright scantling, and, if it is well done, it will hold all together securely. Do it well, and let the timber be good, for right there is the strength and durability of your gate. But don’t put on any more heavy plank; light weatherboarding is better, though the last plank ought to be stout enough to put a latch to, if you want a latch. I think a good button on the post is better. Now, don’t go and put another upright piece of scantling at the latch-end of the gate, for that is dead weight for nothing. But if your gate is eight feet wide, put in a brace, letting the heel of it fit close where the lower rail joins the 4x6 piece and the point of it just in the middle of the upper rail. Never have a brace any longer than the diagonal of a square. A little shorter even than that is better. I’ve seen a thousand braces running clear across the gate, and so when the gate swags the brace swags with it, and does no good at all. Well, now, if the gate is done, bore an 1| hole in each end of the upright 4x6 piece. Bore the holes three or four inches deep, leaving about an inch space between the hole and the post-edge of the scantling. Put in a couple of good, dry hickory pins, but don’t put in the top pin until you set up the gate, and then drive the pin down through the cap piece. I wouldn’t mention this little matter if I had not have gotten into trouble myself and had hard work to get the pin out again. I have U9ed three of these farm gates for two years, and they are still in good order and hold up well, and I thereby saved the cost of iron hinges, and the gate will open either way that I want them, outside or in side. I warrant these gates to swag a little if a fifty-pound boy rides on them every day, and to come down when a heavy carry log runs against them. Yours, Bill Arp. N. B. —Patent not applied for. Cartersville, Ga., January 10,1880. A dry, cold, airy loft is a good place to store onions. Do not let them lie more than two or three bulbs thick, and often lwok them over and pull out bad ones. Do not remove any of the outer rind but what comes off in handling. The points to observe are a cool, airy situation, warmth and moisture being more inimical to their keeping than frost. Do not remove the straw coverings from plants that have been protected during the winter when the first warm days come. The most dangerous time is during the al nate freezing and thawing of early spring. Let the coverings remain on until all dan ger from cold nights is past. Ohurch Music. An indefinable motive impels me to write to you this evening. 1 will begin by saying that I am passion ately fond of music, although nature has endowed me with no special tal ent for this enchanting art. Instru mental music is my favorite; for be ing neither a lark nor a nightingale, I am disposed to judge of the strains of many others, by my own feeble essays at vocalization, and I can assure you that my verdict is seldom favorable. I speak princi pally of this modern, operatic sing ing, when all that one hears is an affected squeal from the vocalist, while the body is exercised with all imaginable contortions, and the countenance bears the expression of inconceivable distress. It is enough to remind one of the ruralist, who, when he saw a school girl practis ing calisthenics, inquired of a by stander if that girl had fits. “No,” came the answer, with evident dis gust ; “that’s gymnastics.” “It is, eh,” replied the verdant, “how long has she had ’em ? ” The celebrated Dr. Johnson was once listening to an operatic, instrumental perform ance, when a friend whispered to him that the piece under execution was very difficult. “Difficult !J” exclaimed the reverend doctor, “I wish it were impossible.” I think, however, the worst feature of all consists in introducing this style of music in the services of the sanctu ary, thereby rendering the most fa miliar hymns incapable of being recognized. When a foreign mis sionary, a few years since, was in the United States, he sang in public a Chinese hymn, and one of the professors in a theological seminary South, who was present, declared that he understood the words just as well as he did the majority of the hymns sung in oui 1 churches. This is an error to be deeply la mented. We should at least com prehend our hymns sufficiently to determine whether they are written in good old English or in some for eign tongue. A reform in our choirs should at once be effected. “If,” as the New York Observer pertinently remarks, “thoy will not eschew the bewildering flourishes of the holy (?) opera, let them at least be required to sing distinctly.” A single verse of a hymn, as we are told it sounded to a writer for a religious periodical, will only corroborate the need of this reform: “Ww kaw swaw daw aw raw, Thaw saw thaw law aw raw! Haw kaw raw saw raw vaw vaw braw, Aw thaw raw Jaw saw aw !” Imagine the critic’s suprise when subsequently he ascertained that the choir had supposed themselves to be singing: “Welcome, sweet day nf rest, That saw the Lord arise ! Welcome to this reviving breast, And these rejoicing eyes ! ” How refreshing in contrast is the following : A plain old gentleman, a few years since, spent a Sabbath in Baltimore, Maryland, and was politely shown to a seat by the sex ton. He returned to his home de lighted with what he had heard. A poet has described the scene; but more pathetic than all are the patriarch’s impression concerning the singing: “I wish you’d heard the singing, wife, It had the old-time ring ; The preacher said, with trumpet voice, Let all the people sing. Old Coronation was the tune, The music upward rolled, Till I thought I heard the angel choir Strike all their harps of gold. “My deafness seemed to melt away, My spirit caught the tire, I joined my feeble, trembling voice Wiih iliat melodious clioir, And sang, as in ray youthful days, ‘Let angels prostrate fall, Bring forth the royal diadem And crown him Lord of all.’ “ I tell you, wiie, it did me good To sing that hymn once more; I felt like some wrecked mariner Who gets a glimpse of shore. I almost want to lay' aside This weather-beaten form, And anchor in the blessed port, Forever from the storm. —Southern Musical Journal. Draining a Hollow. —To drain a de pression in a field where a clayey or hard pan subsoil prevents the sinking of rain water, and the lay of the land is unfavor able for ordinary methods of drainage, first dig a hole, as if for a well, through the im pervious stratum at the bottom of the hollow, fill it up to the brim with refuse stones, remove the excavated earth so as to allow the surface-water free access to the pit, and standing water will never injure the grass or grain crop in that part of the field. Temperance. The Rum Seller. —Neal Dow, in giving his judgment of these men, says he is only following such as John Wesley, who called them “poisoners general ” ; Lord Chester field, who said, in the House ?of Lords, in 1728, “They are artists in human slaughter; ” old Dr. Beecher, who said, “I defy any man to prove that they are not murderers; ” Can non Farrar, who recently said in Westminster Abbey, “They degrade and hrutify the people; ” Mr. Mor ril, of Maine, in the United States Senate, who said, “The liquor traffic is the gigantic crime of crimes, ” and who, six months after, when spoken to about it, said, “ Yes, I stand by that.” What Strong Drink Does. In the recent address of Chief Justice Davis occurs the following strong indictment of intemperance: “It surrounds us like an atmosphere, as it has our fathers, through count less generations. It perverts judg ment, it poisons habits, it sways pas sions, it taints churches, and sears consciences. It seizes the enginery of our legislation, and by it creates a moral phenomenon of perpetual motion, which nature denies to physics ; for it licenses and empow ers itself to beget in endless rounds the wrongs, vices, and crimes which society is organized to prevent; and worst of all for our country, it en coils parties like the serpents of Laocoon, and crushes in its tolds the spirit of patriotism and virtue.” JSo Longer a Cause of Ridicule. — Fashion as well as appetite is an im portant factor of the drink problem. If in the sphere of what is called “good society” drinking could be rendered absolutely unfashionable, a powerful prop to the liquor traffic would be removed. Even in this most difficult sphere, the tem perance reform has made its im press, and changes most gatifying are to be noted. The time was, not many years ago, when to be an ab stainer in society circles was to be singular and to be the subject of open ridicule. “In these days,” says Dr. Richardson, “it is only the vul gar who comment with levity and insult on the abstaining members of society.” He affirms—thanks to the temperance reform—that it has been made possible that “a man may enjoy every social privilege and favor while acting conscien tiously as a total abstainer,” and adds, that “in all society which is worth cultivating and maintaining there is no adverse remark made upon abstinence.” Let no one longer fear social discredit from be coming a total abstainer.' Intemperance. —We are often too ready to blame the working-classes for their intemperate habits, with out sufficiently taking into account the excuses which are to be made for them. Their education has hitherto been neglected; ' their homes are unhealthy and worse than comfortless; the water sup plied to them is often bad in qual ity and insufficient in quantity; and driven from their homes, they have no resource but the public house. These wants are now ac knowledged, and are gradually be ing met by the agencies which we have described. By degrees, we hope that a higher tone of feeling may be introduced among them, as has been the case in the richer class of society. At the beginning of the present century drunkenness was common among the richer class of society, who now regard it with ab horrence, and there are indications that this better feeling is extending itself; for the committee states that, as a rule, the higher class of arti zans are becoming more sober, and that the apprehensions for drunk enness are becoming more and more confined to the lowest grades of the community. Legislation has done something for the cause of temper ance in the past, and may do some thing more in the future; but we rely rather upon the moral and so cial agencies which we have indi cated than upon any legislative en actments which the wisest Parlia ments could devise. — Report of Com mittee in House of Lords, in Ed in - burgh Review. —, —The moderate weather of the pa*t week prevailed throughout the entire country. S, A. CUNNINGHAM. DESTRUCTION OF THE TAY BRIDGE Rev. J. H. Wilson in Cumberland Presbyte rian. We write to-day under the shadow of a great calamity. The centre part of the far-famed railway bridge across the Tay was blown away on Sabbath night, carrying with it a train of passengers, and burying them all in the quicksand of the river. About a hundred are believed to be drowned. The railway used to continue the traffic from the South to the North by an inland route, but a few years ago construct ed an iron bridge so as to get anew line by the east coast which was jagged by two estuaries called Friths, or indentations, by which the sea from the German ocean met two rivers; over the confluence of one of which the Tay bridge was constructed, tko Forth bridge fur ther south, and nearer to the city of Edinburgh being in progress. The bridge over the Tay was two miles long, and built in the conter on cas sons or rollad cylinders filled with concrete, and resting on sure foundations laid on piles. To meet the requirements of vessels going from the entrance of the river in land, the bridge had to be kept one hundred and thirty feet above high water mark. There were eighty-five spans, of varying width, the narrowest being on the two wings, and the widest in the center, where the lattice work had to be placed above the level of the rails. There were thirteen girders each of two hundred and forty-five feet span, and thus there was a much larger surface exposed to any storm here than at either side. It was at this point where the bridge gave way. The platform, which carries the single line of rails, is only fif teen feet wide. The bridge does not forma straight line; towards the north end it curves eastward to Dundee. The whole structure had a remarkably light and graceful ap pearance. It was so long, so lofty, and yet so narrow, that whon seen from the heights above Newport it looked like a mere cable swung from shore to shore ; and seeing a train puffing along it for the first time excited, we are told, the same kind of nervousness as must have been felt by those who watched Blondin crossing the Niagara. The ill-fated train had left Edinburgh for Dundee in the evening; and when it entered on the bridge, such was the strength of the gale which had come on suddenly, that it could only proceed at the rate of three miles an hour. An eye witness says, “ The train was duly signalled at 7:14 from the south side as hav ing entered on the bridge for Dun dee, and was seen to go slowly along until it suddenly disappeared in a flash of fire ; but such was the noise of the hurricane and the raging of the sea, that no crash was heard on either side of the river.” The train consisted of four third-class, one second and one first-class carriages, a break van, and an engine, and the passengers were nearly all of the working classes who had been visit ing their friends in the Christmas week. The wonder is, tuat so many as seventy-five had been booked, besides children and season ticket holders on a Sunday, for Sunday traveling is not usual in Scotland. Six Bible Names. Say these names over a good many times until you can remember them, and the order in which they are given: Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Solomon, Christ, John. Repeat them again, and then learn the following bit of Bible chronology : 1. From the time Adam was cre ated until the time Enoch was trans lated was a thousand years. 2. From the time Enoch was translated until the time Abraham was born was a thousand years. 3. From the time Abraham was born until the time Solomon dedi cated the temple was a thousand years. 4. From the time Solomon dedi cated the temple until the time Christ was born was a thousand years. 5. From the time Christ was born until the time John died was r hun dred years. This is the Bible history of forty one hundred years divided. yr And “ all over Europe the fever for em igration to America ia at a boiling heat.” j