84 PRACTICAL NOTES ON GRASSES AND GRASS GROWING. 
and automatically. A trench, about thirty feet long by fifteen 
feet wide, had been cut from a small hummuck in the stack- 
yard, the bed levelled, and the grass carted there, and 
deposited in the same manner that a manure heap is formed. 
Each load had followed the other in rapid succession, and the 
horses had drawn the tumbrils quite on to the heap before 
discharging, and had been driven down from the opposite end, 
thus assisting to compress the deposit, and preventing undue 
heating. The edges and sides had been rammed or otherwise 
compressed as the herbage had becn deposited, and until the 
desired amount of grass had been accumulated. After this a 
foot or so had been cut from the sides, where they rose above 
the level of the ground, and the trimmings packed on the top 
of the heap, which in turn had been topped by a good layer of 
earth. No mould had been placed within a foot or so of 
either ends or sides. About five feet had been cut from each 
end, turned up, and both ends and sides rammed well home 
towards the centre of the heap. A drainage trench had been 
dug all round, the excavated soil being thrown on to the top, 
and the top had been levelled and rammed down hard. The 
quantity of earth on the top was sufficient to entirely exclude 
all air. The greater the weight of earth on the top the less 
will heating’ occur, and the better will be the ensilage. To 
keep off the heavy rains, sheets of corrugated iron had been 
employed. Such was the silo which was presented to us. 
To ascertain its practicability in use we visited another 
of our friend’s silos on the same farm. This had been opened, 
and was half used. We found no waste either at the top or at 
the bottom, but there had been a little at the sides and at the 
ends, which seemed to depend in some measure upon the 
amount of care taken during the formation of the heap. The 
moisture is mostly squeezed out at the sides and ends, hence 
the advantage of the trenches before mentioned, and the 
reason of the waste. 
