750 



THE FARMERS HANDBOOK. 



The actual loss in food material from waste was thus found to be 37 tons. 



The loss of moisture in the curing stage was the difference between 113 

 tons and 109| tons, or 3^ tons. 



No difficulty was experienced in cutting the silage with the ordinary hay 

 knife, as the accompanying illustration (Fig. 5) shows. 



Fig. 5. — View of open cut face of same silage stack, showing benefit of placing material in 

 position in even layers and having a uniform pressure. 



The larger the stack the less the waste in proportion, and hence a large 

 square stack is more economical. A stack may be made of any size, and so 

 can be built to suit the amount or weight of the crop. Avoid making the 

 base too big. 



Cutting and Feeding. 



In opening a stack silo the point to be observed is that silage moulds very 

 rapidly when exposed to the air, and the correct mode of procedure is to 

 expose the smallest portion of the inside surface and to endeavour as far as 

 possible to renew this inside surface daily. It is usual, therefore, to open 

 the stack at one end, and at the same time to disturb the covering and 

 weighting system over as small an area as possible. Only small benches 

 should be opened up, so that they can be cut right out as soon as possible. 

 It is absolutely essential that no more than the day's ration be cut at one 

 time, and that the cutting be clean and free from tearing. For best results 

 the cutting should be done with an ensilage knife, but in the event of this 

 implement not being available, a sharpened spade or an old squaring axe, 

 or even an ordinary chopping axe, may be successfully used. 



