684 Journal of Agriculture. [10 Nov., 1909. 



there were no mouldy patches except some weeds we cut and put in the bottom ; 

 these were too dry when put in and went mouldv. I used water for pressure. I 

 placed a tank on top and pumped water into it. It weighed about 3 tons. This 

 year I have two tanks made to fit on top when I will be able to put plenty of 

 pressure on, but the tanks add considerably to the expense. I think silage a 

 good summer fodder, as it keeps the cows in good health and keeps up the milk 

 supply when everything is so dry. I feed out in the paddocks, and find very 

 little wasted. I think what we want to study most is what materials to grow 

 for silage, ist, for milk results; and, 2nd, for greatest yield per acre."' 



Mr. G. Perry. Ballarat. writes a mo.st valuable letter. His exjrierience 

 in underground silos is long : — 



" I beg to state that as far as the quality of the silage in the overhead silo^ 

 is concerned, it has turned out satisfactorily, but, unfortunately, the quantity was 

 lacking. Owing to various delays, the silo was not completed until well on in. 

 December, and the crop — barley, beans, vetches, and oats — was much too ripe and 

 dry for making satisfactorv silage, but we rather more than half filled it on that 

 occasion, and by using water freely and treading it well we were agreeably 

 surprised at the quality of the silage. We opened it about the end of January. 

 It was weighted with about 25 tons of bricks, and it had shrunk barely 2 feet, 

 which speaks for the manner in which it was trodden. We used a layer of about 

 6 inches of straw chaff thoroughlv saturated with water on the top of the silage,, 

 then a layer of old bags, and on top of these distributed the bricks evenlv all over. 

 The cows ate it readily, and it was altogether really splendid silage. The waste 

 did not amount to more than about 3 cwt. 



" We have an underground silo in the milking shed put down about seven or 

 eight years ago, with concrete sides, 18 feet deep by 11 ft. 6 in. diameter, which 

 we had previously filled with a mixture of barley, rye, vetches, peas, beans, and 

 oats, a sample of which gained first prize at the Grand National Show held at 

 Ballarat last year, and which was very much admired by all who saw it. We- 

 had a very good crop of maize, about 20 acres, and started to cut it early in 

 March. We filled the underground and half filled the overhead silo. The 

 remainder of the maize (fully half) was scarcely ready, but that very night a 

 severe frost followed by a heavy north wind, cut it down hopelessl)', and frost 

 followed frost until we were reluctantly compelled to turn the cows on to it. 



" We have sown our maize in drills 3 feet apart ever since it was first advocated 

 in the Journal of Agriculture, some four years ago. I think we were the first 

 in this district to adopt it. Most of our neighbours are now convinced that it is 

 the best, although at first they said we were wasting a lot of ground. The maize 

 silage turned out just as satisfactorily as the barley, ..V-c, mixture. The cobs had 

 glazed before cutting. The waste was nil. We are at present feeding with 

 it mixed with a little oaten chaff and a little grains and bran. When filling the 

 silos ^^e used a piece of gas pipe, about g feet long, and kept a thermometer 

 in it. The barley mixture, owing to it being on the dry side, was about 85 deg. 

 at the centre of the pipe and a little less at the bottom, but when the weight was 

 added the temperature quickly dropped to below 70 deg. The temperature of the 

 maize silage never rose above 58 deg. in centre of pipe. It may interest you to 

 know that silage was first made on this farm in 1883 in a big open pit, the 

 material for which was chaffed and trodden in by ponies ridden by boys. Then 

 about seven or eight years ago the silo was sunk in the cow shed immediately below 

 the chaffcutter, which is in the loft above. By simply taking the cover off the silo- 

 the chaffed material falls in. The cover when on forms the floor of the chaff- 

 room, so that we can fill either silo or cut horse or cow chaff at pleasure, without 

 shifting any of the plant. Our power is a Ronaldson oil engine. The experience 

 of a number of years in making silage is that the two greatest factors to success- 

 are (i) that the crop to be treated is in the proper stage of maturity; and (2) that 

 great care is taken in filling to trample it well. We use water freely, and think 

 it a better plan to put the salt in the water in preference to throwing it in loose,, 

 as we think it is more evenly distributed by this means. We throw six or eight 

 bucketfuls on with every 2 or 3 tons of material, using a little more or less according 

 to condition of crop." 



The accompanying illu.stration .show? a .silo elevator connected with- 

 chaffcutter. To get the elevator well under the cutter the ground has been 

 excavated and the cutter elevated. Looking towards the silo the feed is 

 from the right hand, and driving with a chain from a sprocket on the 



