SILO MADE AVAILABLE. 189 



and cold is disagreeable. The ensilage must be cut down 

 with a hay-knife, and carried to the place of feeding in quan- 

 tities larger than one is obliged to remove from a pit when 

 the fodder is cut small. 



It is, however, cheap. For ten dollars, material enough 

 can be obtained to enclose a space of two thousand to three 

 thousand cubic feet, — enough to contain thirty to fifty tons 

 of fodder. 



If a silo of this kind be desired for a permanent thing, it 

 can be built of stone near the barn, — the side laid rough, 

 like a wall, but with straight and plumb lines, — and the 

 lining can be put in yearly. No bottom but the ground is 

 necessary. If such a place be made, it could be located, as 

 are many of the barns, on a side-hill, and one end left open ; 

 in which case it would be available for many purposes 

 during those parts of the year when not used for its primary 

 purpose. Covered with a roof, and with a covered way 

 communicating with the barn, it might be as handy as one 

 made in cement, and filled with cut fodder. 



In this way a pit can be made which calls for no labor or 

 material other than that provided by the farm itself. 



As I have described it, any farmer can make use of the 

 silo. I think the chemical processes have been explained 

 in so mechanical a manner, that further explanation is not 

 needed. The result of the fourth experiment you see before 

 you. 



Question. Does the ensilage taint the milk ? 



Dr. Faxoist. I have got, I think, a set of customers that 

 will growl at a suspicion of taint in their milk. I have a 

 few men who take four or five quarts of milk a day. They 

 are pretty tolerably well off; and they want the best things 

 in the market, although they grumble a little when I raise 

 the price. They tell me that my milk is better now than it 

 has been all summer, and they want to know what makes 

 it so. 



Question. Do your cattle eat it all up ? 



Dr. Faxon. Here is the man who feeds it out. He will 

 tell you whether they eat it up clean, or not. I do not see it 

 very often. 



Mr. WiNSHiP. Yes, sir : they eat it all up. 



