492 THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



Second. The pits should be of such form and dimensions as will best facilitate the set 

 tling and compacting of the food into a solid mass, and when opened for feeding will expose 

 as small a part of the surface to the atmosphere as practicable. 



Third. The fodder must be cut green when in the best condition or in bloom, passed 

 immediately through the cutting-machine to reduce it to uniform short lengths of not more 

 than one inch, and at once be deposited and trod firmly into the pit, sufficient salt being used 

 to render it palatable, but no more. As fermentation, which will commence at once, proceeds 

 and the mass settles, the cutting and treading in of fresh fodder must be continued at inter 

 vals of thirty-six to forty-eight hours (depending upon the rapidity with which fermentation 

 and settling proceeds) until settling has ceased, and no more can be trod into the pit. 



Fourth. The pit, as soon as completely filled and settling has ceased, must be securely 

 sealed to exclude the air wholly and arrest fermentation, and must be kept so sealed until 

 opened for use. My own practice is as follows: 



I make my pits of hard brick, with twelve-inch perpendicular walls, well laid in cement 

 with smooth joints. If the ground is sandy or gravelly, the outside of the wall next the 

 earth is covered with a coat of cement, or the walls are filled in behind with clay or clayey 

 earth to prevent the passage of the air through them. The bottoms are also laid with 

 brick upon the flat in cement. The pits are made from eight to ten feet wide, from six 

 teen to twenty feet long, and about fifteen feet deep. The deeper the pits, the more they will 

 contain in proportion to measurement, owing to greater density of the contents from the 

 weight of the mass above. In all cases where practicable, pits should be made at least twenty 

 feet deep. The walls are made so smooth upon their inner sides as to offer no obstacle to the 

 settling or compacting of the food by friction of the sides. These pits are made either open 

 at the top and covered with a roof, or arched over, and covered underground, with two necks 

 to each coming up to within one foot of the surface of the ground, through which they are 

 filled, and the necks then sealed with earth. This last construction I have found most con 

 venient in connection with basement stables, to which the food is carried or wheeled by a 

 passage from the pits through the foundation walls of the stable. In this construction I 

 make one pit parallel with this foundation wall, and from the side of this pit most distant 

 from the stable, other rows of pits are made at right angles with and connecting with this, 

 and with each other by doorways. 



It will be seen from this construction, that as many tiers of pits may be made, end to 

 end, at right angles to the first or entrance pit, as may be required and space allow, and 

 that after the contents of this first or entrance pit are fed out, each of the other rows of pits 

 may be opened and fed out, one pit at a time, and that only the surface of the food at the 

 end of the one pit which is being fed will at any time be exposed to the air until the whole 

 are fed out and this without opening or disturbing the necks of the pits above, which 

 remain sealed. Any other form of construction of pits which answers the conditions may 

 be used. Pits or wells open only at the top, either round, elliptical, or rectangular, may be 

 used, the food being put in and taken out through the top only. Such pits would have one 

 advantage, that successive croppings might be put in the same pit, one above the other, each 

 being sealed with a layer of earth when put in. &quot;Where sufficient depth cannot be got above 

 water, pits may be made partly above and partly below the surface, the earth excavated being 

 used to make a broad and firm embankment around them to their tops. 



It is important that the pits be so constructed and located, that the fodder as drawn from 

 the field may be deposited conveniently at or over the top of the pits, and the cutting-machine 

 m.iy be so placed that the fodder when cut will fall as readily as possible into the pits. The 

 fodder when green, being very heavy, it is quite important to avoid handling it unnecessarily.&quot; 



Mr. Potter objects to silos built above ground, having tested those built partly above and 

 partly below ground, and those constructed entirely below ground thoroughly, and gives the 



