8 August, 1907.] Silos and Silage. 501 



gated paddocks. Various methods were adopted for preserving the silage. 

 A 500 ton silo was built, on the plan introduced by Dr. Cherry, and 

 filled with the above materials after they had been passed through a 

 chaffcutter. Pits were scooped out of a sandhill, and stacks of silage 

 were built, with and without additional weighting. As a result of the 

 feeding, not only has the station maintained all its own live stock through 

 the drought, but 5,000 sheep from another property have been drafted to 

 it. The condition of the stock has been well maintained, and lambing is 

 progressing with satisfactory results. The average cost of making the 

 silage was about 5s. per ton, and, allowing a similar amount for the 

 cost of feeding it to the sheep, the total expense works out at less than 

 6d. per month per sheep. If this silage had not been available it would 

 have been necessary to have trucked nearlv all the stock for at least 200 

 miles tO' get it out of the drought area. Recent rain has started the grass, 

 which is now assured for this season. Dr. Cherry is satisfied that in 

 another year considerable improvement may be made in the quality of 

 the silage. So far the sheep have not eaten it so well as the cattle, but 

 the success of this year's work shows the possibilities of future developments 

 along similar lines. It is probable that the peculiar nature of the silage 

 was due to its being made at a time when the barley grass which forms 

 a great part of its bulk was in a green and very watery condition. This 

 accords with similar experience elsewhere. The success of the experi- 

 ment may, however, l)e measured by the fact that through its aid, accord- 

 ing to the General Manager of the Company, in Melbourne, an outlay 

 of ;^io,ooo was saved. 



The results of silage making at the Government P'arm, Wyuna, are 

 detailed in another part of this issue. 



Mr. J. Briggs, Cudgewa, built his silo himself. He writes: — ■ 



I built my silo, and it is a great success. I put in about 40 tons chaffed maize 

 and it is in splendid order, no waste at all, being sound and sweet right up to 

 the iron. I made an improvement on the tinsmith's rivets. I found it very 

 difficult to make a close joint, so in the last two rows of horizontal joints, I 

 filled in between the studs with short pieces of 4 x 2, well fitted and nailed, and 

 those two joints will never leak as I nailed them with the clout nails and made 

 a splendid job of it. This is where the value of \w\ innovation comes in. The 

 silage below the three bottom rows of iron is all perfectly sound right up to the 

 iron, while all above that was mouldy five or six inches in. It must be obvious 

 to the most casual observer, that a solid nailed joint must be much more sure 

 of being air-tight than any tinsmith's rivets could make it, and, whatever silos I 

 may build in the future will be built that way. The studding presented a wider 

 space outside than in. I dressed the corners of? with a sharp tomahawk, and 

 thus got the struts in fair and square, and they also brace the whole structure 

 and make it very firm. 



Although it appears from this that the present system of making the 

 horizontal joints of the iron is not perfect, yet the many examples of 

 successful silage with joints made in the usual way with rivets _ tell a 

 contrary tale. It is intended, however, to put the hoops opposite the 

 horizontal joints of the iron inside instead of outside the studs as usual, 

 and to nail the joints to the hoops. With such an arrangement any doubt 

 as to the air-tightness of the joints ought to disappear. The extra cost 

 will be trifling. 



Mr. J. F. Reedy, Dandenong, has an experience which is against a 

 suggestion fornierh put forward that the sun's heat affected the silage 

 through the iron walls. He writes : — 



We have got on very well with our silage. We are feeding 28 cows twice a 

 day and they do well on it, both as a warm feed and for milking. We had 



