II Oct., 1909.] S/los and Sdagc. 661 



— remained stationary for seven fortnightly pays. 1 am quite convinced, if I 

 had started to feed before Christmas, they would have remained at the flush. I 

 hope In be able to feed by that time this season. With my maize silage I am 

 not so pleased. The cows do not seem so fond of it, and it does not smell so 

 sweet, having more a smell of brewed hops. I have some which is a mi.xture 

 of green oats and maize, but the cows do not like it at all. 1 put it down to 

 the cats being too green when cut. The cows prefer the maize by itself. 1 

 think a mistake I made with my maize was that I let it get too old, owing to 

 waiting for it to partly ripen the cobs, for the stems are very hard, although 

 fairly sappy. Ne.xt season I will try it just as the cobs are formed. Taking 

 it on the wdiole, I am very pleased with the silo, and intend to go in for more 

 of a mixture of grain and peas, beans, e^c." 



Messrs. Savin Bros., JNIacarthur, record a failure. There is very little 

 doubt that the crop in the second silo was cut too ripe. Water should 

 have been added. 



" One of our silos turned out splendidly, but the other was a complete failure. 

 It was burnt from top to bottom. It was filled up within 3 feet of the top. 

 The cause of it we do not know, but we think the stuff was a little too dry. 

 The good silage the cows ate well and milked well. We gave them two cart 

 loads night and morning to 40 cows. Each cow gave about I5 gallons per day, 

 which, we think, was very good for that time of the year. There was very little 

 loss around the sides. We filled the silo with oats, and used no weights for 

 weighting it. We think the older the silo gets the more air tight it gets. Our 

 first silo cured better this year than it did the first year." 



Mr. Cilasson, Kiewa, made a rather unusual mixture with success : — 



" I had about 10 acres of amber cane, but fed about half of it to the cows 

 before the silo was finished, and it did not grow again after it was once cut. 

 I only had about 30 tons to put in the silo, and I mixed about five good dray 

 loads of pea hay with the cane, using plenty of water to damp it as it fell in 

 the silo. I fed it to 20 cows, and it lasted three months. They liked it very much, 

 leaving good oaten hay chaff for the silage. There was no loss or damaged 

 stuff around the sides or mouldv patches worth speaking of." 



Mr. Alex. MacKenzie. C.E.. Kngineer to the Geelong Harbor Tru.st, 

 describes its concrete silos and the results : — 



'■ The two reinforced concrete silos erected at Sparrovale Irrigation Farm 

 are each 35 feet in height and 20 feet internal diameter. The cost of each silo 

 was ;!^2io. The reinforcement consisted of ^-in. diameter rods placed verticallv 

 having 12-in. pitch; and |-in. and g-in. diameter rods placed horizontallv, the 

 pitch varying from 4 inches to 2^ inches. The concrete consists of sand and blue- 

 stone screenings in the following proportions : — 



I cask of cement ... = 4^ cubic feet 



f-in. bhiestone screenings = 15 075 cubic feet 



Sand ... ... ... = 9 • 48 6 cu bic feet 



'■ Tests made showed that these proportions, when mixed wet and well rammed, 

 made 18 cubic feet of concrete. The concrete in the walls was 4 inches thick at 

 the bottom and 3 inches thick at the top, the floor having 6 inches of concrete, and 

 was reinforced with ^^-in. diameter rods, g-in. pitch in both directions. On 

 No. I silo the interior and exterior surfaces of the concrete were left as thev 

 were stripped from the moulds, no rendering or cement washing being clone. This 

 did not prove satisfactory, and the second silo was washed on the inside with 

 neat cement mixed with water. 



" Maize silage was filled into the first silo 29 days after the construction was 

 completed, and in the case of the second silo 23 days after completion. During 

 the filling of the first silo, which extended over a period of two weeks, it was 

 found that the juice from the silage was percolating through the concrete. To 

 prevent this taking place in the second silo the interior surface of the walls was 

 given two coats of neat cement and water, which effectually prevented any 

 percolation, but as this silo was only half filled the efficiency of the cement wash 

 was not fullv tested. Prior to fining, the interior surface of each silo was well 

 coated with lime wash. The filling of the first silo was completed on i8th May, 

 and the silo was opened on qth Julv. The top of silage was covered with 2 



