THE HAY- FIELD AND ENGLISH HAY. 193 



For two years we have tried the experiment of filling a 

 silo without any weights, and the result has been a marked 

 success in both years, and yet there has been enough differ- 

 ence in the degree of success to give us a clew to some of the 

 conditions which have produced the results. When a silo is 

 filled slowly, and each layer allowed to become very solid 

 before the next layer is applied, the loss from decay is very 

 slight indeed ; but when it is filled more rapidly, in thicker 

 layers, so that the fermentation has not reached its extreme 

 point before the next layer is put in, then the loss, as Major 

 Alvord says, may be from a foot to a foot and a half; but 

 we think that the average loss need not necessarily exceed 

 four to six inches, when filled in this way. 



But this is not the most interesting thing in regard to the 

 silo. There is yet another method to be developed which is 

 as yet in the experimental stage. I refer to the stacking of 

 it in the open air. In England a process has been devised 

 of making an open-air stack of ensilage, and by means of 

 levers compressing it into about one-half in bulk, and then 

 leaving it, and the claim is that the loss from decay is very 

 slight. This last summer we had some of the apparatus sent 

 us and we put up a stack of ensilage, and, not having made 

 any preparation for it, we simply filled it with what we 

 could get; some corn, some Hungarian grass, some clover, 

 and anything that we could pick up. We put on a layer 

 about a foot deep and the next day that would be so hot that 

 we could not bear our fingers in it ; then we put on another 

 laj^er, and so built it up day after day. That ensilage is well 

 preserved and is the only absolutely sweet ensilage I have 

 ever yet seen. Now, " one swallow does not make a sum- 

 mer." This is simply one experiment, not enough to draw 

 any conclusion from, and we can simply say that if next 

 month the ensilas-e turns out as we think it is o;oinsr to from 

 the partial examination we have made of it (we took off 

 about four feet and examined it), it will solve the ensilage 

 question as to cheapness, because we can make a compact 

 stack in the open air and not apply any weight to it. It is 

 just like a stack of hay, and the loss will be far less than 

 inside of the silo. I think it is a promising field for future 

 work. 



