344 SOILING CROPS AND THE SILO. 



food from the walls of the silo, and air will thus be 

 admitted with the result that much of the mass on 

 the outer edges will be spoiled. This condition is 

 even more aggravated when such food as clover, for 

 instance, is thus put into the silo with the horse-fork. 

 Loss from this source may be prevented by first dis- 

 tributing the food evenly during the filling of the 

 silo, and then tramping it so that the impaction of the 

 mass will be about equal in all parts of the silo. The 

 amount of tramping required will be least in the 

 center of the silo and greatest on the outer edges. 

 In the square or rectangular silo, particular pains 

 should be taken to tramp down the mass firmly in the 

 corners, or harm will follow from the admission of 

 air. The amount of tramping required will vary 

 with the nature of the food, the shape of the silo and 

 the depth of the same. The less succulent the food 

 and the more woody it is in character, the more 

 should it be tramped. More tramping on the whole 

 is necessary in a square or rectangular silo than in a 

 round one, since the food settles more readily in the 

 latter. Less tramping is needed in a deep silo than 

 in a shallow one, since when the silo is deep, the 

 silage sinks more under the pressure, as it were, of 

 its own weight. It is evident therefore that much 

 care should be taken to tramp down firmly the food, 

 in the upper portion of a silo whatever its shape may 

 be or the extent of its depth. 



In a large silo the distribution of the food may 

 be facilitated by the introduction of a simple device. 

 It consists of a platform or table made of boards and 

 suspended far upward in the silo and equally distant 

 from its walls. The food falls from the carriers 



