1885.] DRY SILOS. 323 



is done by a man standing on the cart shafts in front, with a scrape 

 in his hand to clear the tray. If plenty of line is used, the trays 

 may be filled in the middle of a pond one hundred I'eet across, and 

 drawn up to the derrick by the winch. A trayful of mud weighs 

 about 2 cwts., so that two men are wanted to wind it up. When a 

 portion of the pond has been cleaned out, the derrick is turned down 

 and wheeled to a suitable place for fixing up again ; the wheel is 

 held down by four or five long iron dogs, driven into the ground, 

 which clip over the felloes of the wheel. 



Such is the machine ; but if not used methodically, it will not 

 save the expense sought for. 



Thrift in management is not an agricultural virtue, as the 

 following calculation in time of men and horses wasted at such a 

 job as mud-carting will prove. By the simple arrangement of never 

 having a horse, man, and cart waiting while the cart is being filled, 

 nineteen working days of seven hours a day are saved on four hundred 

 loads of mud, as may be estimated from the following data. It 

 requires twenty minutes to fill a cart with mud, which amounts to 

 nineteen days for four hundred loads. A standing cart for loading 

 into, saves this waste ; two or more, if there is room, are better still, as 

 they can be filled overnight. The water, draining away, makes the 

 loads lighter, and the teams move off at once in the morning, instead 

 of waiting two or three deep and wasting time which cannot be got 

 back by hard driving. 



Farmers who run short of water, may not be aware that by leaving 

 say forty yards of mud at the bottom of a pond, it fills up what 

 might be replaced by nearly seven thousand gallons of water in the 

 same space. 



DBY SILOS. 



BY JOHN CHARLES KING, AGENT TO HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF SOMERSET, 



BULSTRODE, SLOUGH. 



OTHEPi materials than green food considered unlit for cattle food 

 and used mostly for litter, such as straw, fern, etc., may be 

 packed in the dry silo. Eye-straw thus treated in a proper fashion 

 makes an ensilage which all stock like, and is a specially excellent 

 fodder for cows in milk and lambing ewes. Old chalk pits with 

 deep sides, a close-sided shed or building may be easily turned into 

 such a dry silo, or the open stack plan would serve. A silo can be 

 made in the bay of a barn by boarding up the midsty as high as 



