The Silo and Silage-stack Competition, 1885-86. 271 
tion we believed that it would be almost all consumable. The maize was 
drilled after vetches, and a portion of the crop averaged twenty-five tons per 
acre. It was chaffed and well trodden by one man, the pressing-boards being 
subsequently covered with hay-chaff, which was ineffectual in excluding the 
air. The weights used inpressing this silage were lOJ cwt. on each chain, and 
this was sufficient to express the water from the maize, which oozed out at the 
points of the silo. 
Mr. Morris's Silo. — The next silo inspected was that at Lulham Clourt 
Farm, Madley, the property of Mr. John Morris, of Hereford, which was 
awarded the prize. It is an entirely new structure, 36 feet in length, 15 feet 
in width, and 13 feet in height, with a super-silo or shed above, 7 feet in 
height, to the eaves of the roof. The silo may be described as an under- 
ground silo, walled in stone, and excavated 10 feet deep, the surrounding 
ground being banked up 3 feet to the top. On the coping are built ten brick 
piers, 7 feet in height, and upon these the roof is supported. The silo itself is 
divided by two cross walls into three compartments, each 15 feet by 12 feet, 
by 15 feet. In these walls are planked openings, aff'ording ready communica- 
tion from one compartment to the other. There is a third opening in the 
front wall of the middle compartment, which is ajiproached from the farmyard 
by a walled sloping road, wide enough for a cart or a trolley to pass along. 
The portion of this road immediately contiguous to the wall of the silo, being 
beneath the surface of the ground, is covered with a brick arch, and when the 
■Kilo is ready to fill, the door at the end is hermetically sealed up by close- 
fitting planks. This sloping road provides a most complete and convenient 
method for emptying the contents of each compartment of the silo. In the 
work of excavation, 320 yards of earth were removed, at a cost of 4?. The 
walls of the silo, as well as the adjacent earth-supporting walls and arch, are 
built of stone raised upon the estate ; but the coping, together with the arch 
and the divisional walls, are of brick and timber. The lower half of the stone 
walls is 20 inches in thickness, this declining to 18 inches in the upper half. 
The divisional walls are 45 inches thick, and the brick piei s 14 inches square. 
The inside walls are lined with the best London cement, mixed with sharp river- 
sand, in the proportion of one to three. The floors are of lime-concrete, from 
5 to 6 inches thick, and composed of picked stone from the fields, chippings, 
river-sand, and common lime. There is a 3-inch drain-pipe placed out- 
side the foundation completely round the silo. This delivers on lower ground 
35 yards away, but has no communication with the interior of the silo. The 
roof is deal, and covered with red Bridgewater tiles. It is also supplied with 
an iron-gutter and down-pipe, both of which are painted. The position of the 
building is exceedingly well arranged, as it is within 70 yards of six cattle- 
folds, where Mr. Morris's well-known herd of Herefords is principally wintered. 
There are several other cattle-sheds and cart-horse stables similarly con- 
tiguous. In the angles at each side of the brick piers are triangular pieces of 
timber, painted black, with their exposed edges scolloped. This feature, and 
the Bridgewater tiles, give an agreeable appearance to the building, which is 
•only equalled by its usefulness. In Mr. Morris's words, the weighing or 
pressing is derived from a common lifting jack, "used tor farm purposes, 
bearing on wooden trussels, three of which are placed in each division of the 
silo. These move up and down on firmly fixed wooden guides, bored at 
intervals of 3 inches, and having iron-lining plates, corresponding with the 
borings in the wood. They admit of being pinned down when sufficient 
pressure is obtained by the aid of the jack. The resisting power of the 
trussels is augmented by cross-pieces inserted within them, all being securely 
fastened and bandied together by oak-pins, iron-nuts, and bolts, and strap- 
iron." These weighting -beams are composed of three 12-inch by 2j-inch 
planks, united by 3-inch pieces between them, the whole being bound 
