CORRESPONDENCE OF WHITMAN BURRELL. 73 



perpetual fertility of this corn-land, because it is to be replenished, 

 not only with what grew upon it, but from the grain fed with the 

 ensilage ; for, by the pidii we have adopted, the liquid manure is as 

 perfectly saved as the solid, and the most accurate experiments show 

 that the fertilizing matter of the liquid is greater than in the solid 

 manure. Professor Stewart reports that he has found the manure 

 from one cow standing upon the self-cleaning platform, carried fresh 

 to the lield, the liquid all absorbed by the soil, equal to the manure 

 from three cows saved in the old way, by throwing into a pile and car- 

 ried to the field months afterwards. In fact, there is no fertilizing 

 matter wasted or lost, except that carried off in the milk. 



The beauty of this system is, that, instead of spreading the manure 

 from forty or fifty cows over two hundred acres, we use it all on the 

 fifteen acres that furnish the fodder ; and shortly the laud must 

 become very rich, and then we can use the manure on other land. Jf 

 we were to build a silo on level land, we would excavate ten or twelve 

 feet below the surface, and then let the walls of silo run up ten 

 feet, using the earth that was excavated to make a bank about the 

 walls above ground ; we would locate the silo close to the barn, 

 making the top of silo on a level with the barn-floor, over the cows ; 

 then, in feeding out of the silo, the fodder could be easily raised with 

 any of the same appliances used for raising and carrying hay ; and, 

 with a track running to the shutes, the car could be dumped so that 

 the fodder would be deposited in front of the stock. The walls of 

 the silo should be perfectly plumb and parallel, so that the followers, 

 although fitting closely, can settle without binding when loaded with 

 stone. As you build the silo walls, point up as you proceed, both 

 inside and outside, and then plaster the entire inside (bottom as well 

 as sides) with Portland cement, as it is necessary that the silo should 

 be water-tight like a cistern. 



In regard to size of silo, we would make them twenty feet deep, 

 and put them as much below ground as possible, if good drainage 

 can be had, banking up around the outside with the earth that is 

 excavated, as before stated. A silo thirty feet by sixteen feet, and 

 twenty feet deep, will be large enough to contain two hundred tons of 

 pressed ensilage ; and this would keep thirty-five cows six months, 

 feeding about sixty pounds per day. For one hundred cows, we 

 would advise building a silo one hundred feet long, dividing it into 

 three compartments by means of two cross walls, and then feed out 

 one at a time. This would provide ail empty silo in the spring, which 



