Koesfeld to Dortmund it is in direct communication with the Westphalian coalfields. Enschede possesses several churches, an industrial trade school, and a large park intended for the benefit of the working classes. About two-thirds of the town was burnt down in 1862.
ENSENADA, CENON DE SOMODEVILLA, Marques de la
(1702–1781), Spanish statesman, was born at Alesanco near
Logroño on the 2nd of June 1702. When he had risen to high
office it was said that his pedigree was distinguished, but nothing
is known of his parents—Francisco de Somodevilla and his wife
Francisca de Bengoechea,—nor is anything known of his own
life before he entered the civil administration of the Spanish
navy as a clerk in 1720. He served in administrative capacities
at the relief of Ceuta in that year and in the reoccupation of
Oran in 1731. His ability was recognized by Don Jose Patiños,
the chief minister of King Philip V. Somodevilla was much
employed during the various expeditions undertaken by the
Spanish government to put the king’s sons by his second marriage
with Elizabeth Farnese, Charles and Philip, on the thrones of
Naples and Parma. In 1736 Charles, afterwards King Charles
III. of Spain, conferred on him the Neapolitan title of Marques
de la Ensenada. The name can be resolved into the three
Spanish words “en se nada,” meaning “in himself nothing.”
The courtly flattery of the time, and the envy of the nobles who
disliked the rise of men of Ensenada’s class, seized upon this poor
play on words; an Ensenada is, however, a roadstead or small
bay. In 1742 he became secretary of state and war to Philip,
duke of Parma. In the following year (11th of April 1743),
on the death of Patiños’s successor Campillo, he was chosen by
Philip V. as minister of finance, war, the navy and the Indies
(i.e. the Colonies). Ensenada met the nomination with a becoming
nolo episcopari, professing that he was incapable of filling
the four posts at once. His reluctance was overborne by the
king, and he became in fact prime minister at the age of forty-one.
During the remainder of the king’s reign, which lasted till the
11th of July 1746, and under his successor Ferdinand VI. until
1754, Ensenada was the effective prime minister. His administration
is notable in Spanish history for the vigour of his
policy of internal reform. The reports on the finances and general
condition of the country, which he drew up for the new king
on his accession, and again after peace was made with England
at Aix-la-Chapelle on the 18th of October 1748, are very able and
clear-sighted. Under his direction the despotism of the Bourbon
kings became paternal. Public works were undertaken, shipping
was encouraged, trade was fostered, numbers of young Spaniards
were sent abroad for education. Many of them abused their
opportunity, but on the whole the prosperity of the country
revived, and the way was cleared for the more sweeping innovations
of the following reign. Ensenada was a strong partizan
of a French alliance and of a policy hostile to England. Sir B.
Keene, the English minister, supported the Spanish court party
opposed to him, and succeeded in preventing him from adding
the foreign office to others which he held. Ensenada would
probably have fallen sooner but for the support he received from
the Portuguese queen, Barbara. In 1754 he offended her by
opposing an exchange of Spanish and Portuguese colonial
possessions in America which she favoured. On the 20th of
July of that year he was arrested by the king’s order, and sent
into mild confinement at Granada, which he was afterwards
allowed to exchange for Puerto de Santa Maria. On the accession
of Charles III. in 1759, he was released from arrest and allowed
to return to Madrid. The new king named him as member of a
commission appointed to reform the system of taxation. Ensenada
could not renounce the hope of again becoming minister,
and entered into intrigues which offended the king. On the
18th of April 1766 he was again exiled from court, and ordered
to go to Medina del Campo. He had no further share in public
life, and died on the 2nd of December 1781. Ensenada acquired
wealth in office, but he was never accused of corruption. Though,
like most of his countrymen, he suffered from the mania for
grandeur, and was too fond of imposing schemes out of all proportion
with the resources of the state, he was undoubtedly
an able and patriotic man, whose administration was beneficial to Spain.
For his administration see W. Coxe, Memoirs of the Kings of Spain of the House of Bourbon (London, 1815), but the only complete account of Ensenada is by Don Antonio Rodriguez Villa, Don Cenon de Somodevilla, Marques de la Ensenada (Madrid, 1878). (D. H.)
ENSIGN (through the Fr. enseigne from the Latin plural
insignia), a distinguishing token, emblem or badge such as
symbols of office, or in heraldry, the ornament or sign, such as
the crown, coronet or mitre borne above the charge or arms.
The word is more particularly used of a military or naval standard
or banner. In the British navy, ensign has a specific meaning,
and is the name of a flag having a red, white or blue ground,
with the Union Jack in the upper corner next the staff. The
white ensign (which is sometimes further distinguished by having
the St George’s Cross quartered upon it) is only used in the
royal navy and the royal yacht squadron, while the blue and
red ensigns are the badges of the naval reserve, some privileged
companies, and the merchant service respectively (see Flag).
Until 1871 the lowest grade of commissioned officers in infantry
regiments of the British army had the title of ensign (now
replaced by that of second lieutenant). It is the duty of the
officers of this rank to carry the colours of the regiment (see
Colours, Military). In the 16th century ensign was corrupted
into “ancient,” and was used in the two senses of a banner
and the bearer of the banner. In the United States navy, the
title ensign superseded in 1862 that of passed midshipman. It
designates an officer ranking with second lieutenant in the army.
ENSILAGE, the process of preserving green food for cattle
in an undried condition in a silo (from Gr. σιρός, Lat. sirus,
a pit for holding grain), i.e. a pit, an erection above ground, or
stack, from which air has been as far as possible excluded.
The fodder which is the result of the process is called silage.
In various parts of Germany a method of preserving green fodder
precisely similar to that used in the case of Sauerkraut has prevailed
for upwards of a century. Special attention was first
directed to the practice of ensilage by a French agriculturist,
Auguste Goffart of the district of Sologne, near Orleans, who in
1877 published a work (Manuel de la culture et de l’ensilage des
maïs et autres fourrages verts) detailing the experiences of many
years in preserving green crops in silos. An English translation
of Goffart’s book by J. B. Brown was published in New York in
1879, and, as various experiments had been previously made
in the United States in the way of preserving green crops in pits,
Goffart’s experience attracted considerable attention. The
conditions of American dairy farming proved eminently suitable
for the ensiling of green maize fodder; and the success of the
method was soon indisputably demonstrated among the New
England farmers. The favourable results obtained in America
led to much discussion and to the introduction of the system
in the United Kingdom, where, with different conditions, success
has been more qualified.
It has been abundantly proved that ensilage forms a wholesome and nutritious food for cattle. It can be substituted for root crops with advantage, because it is succulent and digestible; milk resulting from it is good in quality and taste; it can be secured largely irrespective of weather; it carries over grass from the period of great abundance and waste to times when none would otherwise be available; and a larger number of cattle can be supported on a given area by the use of ensilage than is possible by the use of green crops.
Early silos were made of stone or concrete either above or below ground, but it is recognized that air may be sufficiently excluded in a tightly pressed stack, though in this case a few inches of the fodder round the sides is generally useless owing to mildew. In America round erections made of wood and 35 or 40 ft. in depth are most commonly used. The crops suitable for ensilage are the ordinary grasses, clovers, lucerne, vetches, oats, rye and maize, the latter being the most important silage crop in America; various weeds may also be stored in silos with good results, notably spurrey (Spergula arvensis), a most troublesome plant in poor light soils. As a rule the crop should be mown
