IS ENSILAGE A SUCCESS? 125 



course, be built adjoining, and if desired, communicating 

 by doors at bottom of the partitions. But the silo should 

 not be too small in surface. While I have preserved ensilage 

 pretty v^ell in boxes and barrels, with and without pressure, 

 well housed and exposed to all temperatures of the year, 

 I am convinced that, for best results, a silo should not be 

 less than ten feet in its least dimensions, and prefer twelve 

 feet, or even fifteen. Still, a good rule is to have the silo 

 so suited in size to the quantity of ensilage to be used from 

 it, that at least three inches in depth over its entire surface 

 shall be removed daily, or every other day, at any rate, 

 while the pit is open. Although more labor is involved in 

 the method, unless hoisting apparatus is provided, the best 

 plan seems to be to have no openings in the bottom or 

 walls, and to remove all the ensilage by lifting out. Side 

 doors will often be found convenient, however, and may be 

 used, although a certain cause of more or less loss of ma- 

 terial ; if used, make these doors as small as possible, and 

 take every precaution for their being made air-tight. If 

 circumstances make the use of a door advisable, and thus 

 empty the silo from the bottom, let the silo be built deep 

 and narrow, but long, with the door at the end, instead of 

 deep, narrow and short, where the ensilage is removed 

 from the top. The idea is, to have the least possible sur- 

 face of the packed ensilage exposed to the air, while the 

 silo is open and its contents being daily removed. A 

 curb, apron, or upward extension of the walls should be 

 made, equal to one-third of the depth of the permanent 

 structure, to allow for the settling, and this may be of wood 

 in all cases. In planning the size of a silo, allow twenty 

 cubic feet for every month's feeding of one thousand pounds 

 live-weight of animals to be fed. This is to be for the 

 ■space occupied by the ensilage when fully settled, and 

 makes due allowance for loss and waste, sure to occur to 

 some extent. (For example : A silo ten feet wide, twelve 

 feet long and twenty feet deep, in full, the contents settled 

 to fifteen feet deep, would hold 1,800 cubic feet of packed 

 ensilage, or about forty tons, enough to feed ten cows 

 thirty pounds of ensilage daily, including waste, for nine 

 months.) The silo should be built strong enough to bear 



