30 



SILOS AND ENSILAGE. 



8 are shown the pits, or silos, as they are filled with the 

 cut corn fodder, then covered with earth and pressed 

 down with its weight, and finally as the cut fodder has 

 shrunk through fermentation to less than half its ori- 

 ginal bulk. These pits are about seventy-five feet long, 

 nine feet wide above, six feet wide at the bottom, and 

 six feet deep. The sides and ends are built up of masonry 

 laid in cement. In these pits the corn-stalks are laid 

 evenly with care in layers of about eight inches thick, 

 after having been cut and exposed to the sun for two or 

 three days. During this time the stalks lose, by expos- 



. 7. PIT AFTER COVERING. 



Fig. 8. PIT AFTER SIX MONTHS. 



tire to the sun, two-fifths of their weight when first cut. 

 A quantity of salt is scattered over every layer equal to 

 about sixty-six pounds for each pit. [N. B. It should 

 be borne in mind that this is an account of the early 

 experiments ; the previous drying and the use of salt are 

 now abandoned. Late experience has shown that the 

 more succulent the fodder, the better it will keep. ED.] 

 The three pits hold about eighty tons, or seventy-five 

 thousand kilos, of green fodder. The fodder is heaped 

 up, as shown in figure 6, to a hight of six feet above the 

 surface of the ground, and then covered with earth to a 

 thickness of two or three feet. On the 14th of Septem- 

 ber, 1872, this work was finished. On the 15th of April 



