Tlie Silo and Silage-stack Competition, 1885-86. 
265 
ensiled ia about sixteea days — the old system of making the crop into hay 
taking about five weeks. Tlie fodder was constantly trodden by men and 
horses, and the sides were thoroughly rammed down. 
The cost of attendance per cow per week is only Is. This is secured by 
hiring a cow-man with grown-up boys and girls. He has 56s. per week for 
attending to 56 cows. If he cannot command sufficient labour from his own 
family, ho must hire. This payment indudes such items as milking and 
cleaning the cows, and also the preparation of the food, as slicing mangolds, 
and mixing the grains, meals, and silage with the roots. They have not to 
carry the foods for long distances. The manure from the byres is taken in a 
wheelbarrow up a platform, where it is emptied directly into a dung cart and 
carried off to the fields without delay. This excellent arrangement secures 
kind and quiet treatment for the cows, and profit for the master. To judge 
by the general appearance of the men, the management enables them to live 
comfortably also. The practice of ensilage on this farm is made to supply 
the main fodder for milk-production. The ration on the 18th of November, 
1885, consisted of the following mixture : — 
Dry Sub- 
stance. 
Dige.stible 
fJitrogi-nous. 
DiKCstible 
Carbij- 
hydrates. 
Fat. 
4 lbs. brau, costing 2ri., containing .. 
2 lbs. oat husks Ojrf. 
1 lb. hay chafl" 0 Jrf. 
2 lbs. rice meal Cj(i. „ 
12 lbs. brewers' grs. Id. ,. 
44 lbs. mangolds 3j(?. 
26 lbs. silage 3|d. 
lbs. 
3-5 
1- 75 
•83 
1^78 
2- 9 
5^28 
6-5 
lbs. 
•49 
•03 
•074 
•18 
•468 
•484 
•462 
lbs. 
lo 
•73 
•42 
•788 
114 
4^004 
3^822 
lbs. 
•14 
•012 
•001 
•17 
•048 
•014 
•042 
(estimated to equal j ^f,^^ 
42 lbs. of mangolds)/ "'' ' 
22^54 
2^188 
12^404 
•451 
Eequired for sustenance of 1000 lbs. 1 
•7 
8^ 
•15 
Eequired for production of 20 lbs. milk'i 
the daily average per stall . . . . / 
1^49 
•8 
4-404 
•92 
•301 
•74 
Excess or deficiency ( — ) in food 
•69(+) 
3-48 (+) 
■44(-) 
From the analysis given above of Mr. Kirby's ration for milk-production, it 
is seen at once to contain an excess of digestible nitrogenous substance, as 
well as of digestible carbo-hydrates. But if good milk contains, as Waring- 
ton states, 3^7 per cent, of fat, Mr. Kirby's ration is seriously deficient in this 
constituent, having a smaller quantity by "44 lb. per day, even for the pro- 
duction of one-fifth part of 100 lbs. of milk. It will be seen that the 26 lbs. 
of silage is estimated to contain as much nutriment as 42 lbs. of mangolds. 
This is calculated from the results obtained at Rothamsted from silage con- 
taining about 75 per cent, of water. On the principle that the nourishing 
value of 10 lbs. of dry substance in mangolds is equivalent to that of 12 lbs. 
of dry substance in silage, Mr. Kirby's ration of 26 lbs. of silage may equal 
54 lbs. of mangolds instead of 42 lbs. as by the above estimate. But the fat 
would still be inadequately provided for by this allowance. 
The Judges witnessed the opening of this silo on the 18th of November, 
