126 FARMING ON FACTORY LINES 



15 ft. has been reached, and the stack settled, the 

 outer edge is trimmed off with a sharp hay knife — 

 starting at a height of 12 ft. from the ground and 

 cutting slightly inwards — the portion trimmed off 

 being placed on top of the stack. This trimming off 

 is done to minimise the waste at the outside. 



The stack should be built as high as possible and, 

 generally speaking, with an ordinary horse fork. 

 This will mean about 15 ft. high when the stack has 

 settled down. In order to allow time for the stack 

 to settle, and with a view to controlling the 

 temperature, it will be found in practice to be a great 

 convenience to build two stacks at the same time. 

 Where there is only sufficient material for one stack 

 of the above dimensions, two smaller stacks should 

 be made, or better still, the operations may be 

 proceeded with at intervals of several days, which in 

 reality means doing the work when weather 

 conditions will not allow of hay-making. 



WEIGHTING THE STACK 



The ensilage stack may be weighted by building on 

 top of it, when settled, a small stack of hay — a layer 

 of waste material being placed between the silage 

 and the hay. When this is not convenient, the 

 silage stack should be finished off about four feet 

 higher in the centre than on the outside. In a few 

 days the centre will have sunk nearly level. 



The stack may then be finally topped off as before 

 described. On the top of the waste layer, soil to the 

 depth of 9 or 12 inches is placed. If the stack is built 

 on a piece of grass land, the turves may be cut all 

 round the stack and placed grass side down on the 

 outer edge of the stack to act as a coping. 



