40 SILOS AND ENSILAGE. 



at first present is driven off by the carbonic acid gas 

 which is formed, and the mass ceases to ferment, and re- 

 mains as if it were in an air-tight case. There is, how- 

 ever, a slight access of air upon the surface, and its action 

 upon the juices in the straw and upper layer of fodder is 

 just enough to maintain an atmosphere of carbonic gas 

 over the mass, and in the straw, which is like a rubber 

 blanket, confined as it is beneath the planks. The stable 

 will be replaced over the pits, and when the time comes 

 for feeding there will be no going out in storms and 

 " slush" and ice to haul in the fodder from out-of-door 

 pits, but the floor will be taken up over a sufficient space, 

 and enough feed removed from one end for two days, 

 when it will be packed down again and covered closely. 

 I think rubber blankets, tarpaulins, canvas, or any coarse 

 cloth painted with boiled oil, would be excellent to pack 

 close down upon the fodder to exclude the air. One 

 thing strike.3 me as very important, and that is, to know 

 for a certainty that there is no settling of carbonic acid 

 gas in the pit, after a considerable opening is made. A 

 man going into a place filled with this gas, as often occurs 

 in deep wells, is overpowered before he knows it, falls, and 

 drowns as surely as if he were under water, and is even 

 less likely to be resuscitated. The way to know whether 

 a man can enter with safety, is to lower a lantern, which, 

 if it burns freely, shows that there is not a dangerous 

 proportion of gas in the air of the pit. 



