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66 Preserving Green Fodder. [april, 



I he writer had an opportunity of gaining further experience 

 of this method of making " silage, when visiting his father's 

 farm in Nottinghamshire during the summer of 191 9. A 

 field of second-crop clover and rye : grass, consisting chiefly 

 of clover, was available. The weather had for some time been 

 very showery, the dews in the morning were very heavy, 

 and considerable difficulty was anticipated in making the 

 crop into satisfactory hay, especially as it was very succulent. 

 It was, therefore, decided to make it into silage. In Mr. Makens' 

 case the land is very light, and all drainage from the silage, 

 with any rain water, easily passes into the subsoil, from the 

 bottom of the pit. In this case, however, the land is heavy, 

 and at the most convenient site where the silage could be made 

 no simple method existed whereby underground water which 

 might accumulate at the bottom of a deep pit could be drained 

 away by pipes or other means. There was, further, no deep 

 ditch near. It was, therefore, decided not to excavate so deep 

 a pit as was used by Mr. Makens. The site chosen, a piece 

 of ground about 10 yd. long by 3J yd. wide, was ploughed over, 

 and the soil then thrown on to the side by hand. This process 

 was repeated in the case of the subsoil and was continued 

 until a depth of about 2 ft. 6 in. below the surface was reached, 

 when the floor was levelled by hand. 



The subsoil at this depth was rather unexpectedly found to 

 be much lighter and more pervious than the surface soil, 

 and might be described as a loam rather than a c ] ay. This 

 possibly explains why no trouble was experienced from standing 

 water accumulating in the pit, as might have been expected 

 from the texture of the surface soil. 



As soon as the pit was excavated a portion of the crop was 

 cut, and men and women were engaged in carting home the crop. 

 The operation is very similar in every way to the carting home of 

 mangolds. A boy was employed on the carts, and three women 

 and one man performed the work of filling them. On reaching 

 home the carts were merely tipped into the trench, and the long 

 green clover was roughly levelled. To compress the material 

 the full and empty carts were drawn over the mass in the trench, 

 and as the work p ogressed a horse was employed to walk 

 about on the green mass in order to consolidate it. In most 

 cases it was found possible to send the carts back empty 

 "within five minutes of their arrival full of clover at the trench. 

 All the work of emptying the carts and levelling the green 

 material was performed by one man until about the last day 

 of filling. The work was continued for four working days in 



