90 H. E. STEVENS ON ENSILAGE. 



I use the Daniels large-sized cutter, and thus far have used a one- 

 horse-power to drive it. I intend trying to get the maker of that 

 cutter to make one larger, to be driven by a two-horse-power ; but 

 his present largest size cutter, with single horse-power, will cut the 

 fodder as fast as two men can feed the machine. 



The finer the fodder is cut, the closer and better it will pack. I 

 cut mine about one inch. 



Make the silos narrow, not more than ten feet wide, air-tight, 

 weather-sealed, and the deeper the better. The bottom of the pit 

 will hold and turn out much more than the top, because the fodder 

 becomes more compact, like hay in a deep ha3*mow. 



It costs less than half, in time and labor, to raise and make ready 

 for feeding a fodder crop by this process, than to cure the same by 

 dr}*ing ; and I think the same crop, cured by this process, worth 

 more than twice it would be if dried. 



Silos should be made from seven to ten feet wide, and as deep as 

 possible, with close walls, and doors dividing them, as shown in my 

 report. The reason of this arises from the fact, that, when 3*011 fill a 

 silo, it is best to fill it up as soon as possible, not more than one to 

 two days, and then cover it from the air, and leave it to ferment 

 and settle as fast as it will, while you fill the next. If your silo is so 

 large that 3*011 can put but a foot or two in depth in it 1)3* one day's 

 work, it will not ferment as well as if filled and covered and left to 

 ferment. Sections should not be more than twenty feet long, ten 

 feet wide, and fifteen feet deep. It will take about seventy-five tons 

 of green corn, before cut, to fill one section, and from one to two 

 da3*s to fill it the first filling. 



It is also important the sections be small, in order that when 

 opened for second, third, or fourth fillings, as each must be, the 

 fermented and heated mass then in the pit be exposed to the air as 

 littte as possible, and, when only a small pit is opened, the new fod- 

 der can be at once poured in, and the air will yet be excluded from 

 the heated mass below. 



The green fodder is drawn from the field as fast as cut, and may 

 be cut in any weather, except during rain. After running through 

 the cutting-machine, it is deposited and trod into the pit firmly, until 

 the pit is full. The doorway at the end of this pit, having already 

 been closed by placing boards across it upon the inside as the filling 

 progressed, is now sealed tightly by placing other boards properly 

 fastened across it upon the outside of the jambs, and filling the space 



