WIBBERLEY WAY OF MAKING ENSILAGE 56 



When the tares or grass are partially dried, say, just 

 at the stage when in ordinary haymaking a fanner 

 would begin to turn over the swathes, carting com- 

 mences. The silage stack is built in the field where the 

 stufi is grown to minimise the labour of carting at a 

 busy time of the year. The stack is circular, so as to 

 minimise waste on the outer edges. 



First, a layer of rubbish is placed on the ground to 

 form a bottom. Then carting proper commences. As 

 the stack is being built, an allowance of salt — i stone 

 to the ton — is scattered over the stuff. 



The stack is built together at the rate of about 20 to 

 30 tons per day. If the gang is sufficiently large to 

 bring more than this quantity in a day, then a second 

 stack should be built simultaneously. 



Of course, the first half-dozen loads are dumped in 

 the centre. After that the stuff is lifted on to the stack 

 by hand in the case of the small farmer, and with the 

 assistance of a horse-fork or elevator where ensilage is 

 being made on a big scale. It may here be mentioned 

 that these latter implements have made stack silage 

 possible where before, when it had all to be done by 

 hand, the labour was both slow and heavy. 



If, during the process of building, the temperature 

 reaches about 140 deg., the rate of carting is increased. 

 Generally speaking, when salt is used in the manner 

 indicated, no great rise of temperature takes place 

 until the stack is completed. More often it will be 

 found necessary, in order to start the heat, to bring 

 a load or two of fresh greenstuff and spread it through 

 the partially dried stuff. 



When the stack is nearing completion and there is 

 any danger of the heat passing, say, 160 deg. F., a 

 barrel of brine may , be used in the manner referred to in 

 connection with haymaking. 



The stack is finished off about 4 feet higher in the 



