CORRESPONDENCE OF O. B. POTTER. 93 



Fourth, The pit as soon as completely filled, and settling has 

 ceased, must be securely sealed to exclude the air wholly and arrest 

 fermentation, and must be kept so sealed until opened for use. 



The pits being now full, and settling having nearly or quite ceased, 

 must be immediately and thoroughly sealed over the whole top surface 

 of the fodder by a well-compacted layer of clean earth not less than 

 six inches thick. This covering of earth should be afterwards exam- 

 ined at least twice, at intervals of a week or ten days, and any cracks 

 that appear be closed with fresh earth. A covering of straw or hay 

 not more than two inches thick may be laid over the fodder before 

 the earth covering is applied, but this is immaterial other than as a 

 matter of neatness. In feeding, the fodder should be cut down and 

 fed from one end of the pit in sections of convenient width, the earth 

 being first removed from each section. If open pits are used, a layer 

 of hay or straw may be put over the pit when filled and sealed, to 

 protect the contents from frost in winter, if necessary. I have not 

 found any pressure or weight upon the fodder other than the earth- 

 covering required. If additional weight is desired, a heavier covering 

 of earth will accomplish this, and make the sealing at the same time 

 more perfect. 



MIXING FODDER IN THE PITS. 



Much advantage will be gained by mixing clover and grass t in 

 which clover predominates, in the same pit through fodder-corn, 

 millet, or sorghum. The clover becomes, after the first fermenta 

 tion, a putty-like mass, which fills the interstices in coarser and more 

 fibrous fodder, and thus makes the whole much more compact and 

 weighty than it would otherwise be> while it improves the quality of 

 the food. 



By this system, red-clover, fodder-corn, pearl-millet, or Guinea- 

 corn, hitherto the most uncertain, difficult, and expensive, to cure 

 and preserve of all our crops, become the easiest and least expensive 

 in these respects, while their value as cattle-food is greatly increased 

 over the same crops cured by drying in the usual mode. This system, 

 when understood and practised throughout the country, may become 

 no mean factor in our national prosperity. 



By it, through the great increase of the best cattle-food, which 

 may be produced at greatly-diminished cost upon the worn lauds of 

 the Eastern and Middle States, these lands may be renewed and 

 enriched, and their owners be materially aided, especially in dairying, 



