Tlie Silo and Silage-stack Competition, 1885-86. 287 
a bolt is passed, the ends of the bolt passing throngli the rings at each side of 
an eye attached to a hook at the bottom of a large screw, upon which a cross- 
bar is worked followed by a nut. The heel of the lever is passed under this 
cross-bar, and purchase is immediately obtained. The nut can also be 
screwed with a spanner, pressing the bar still further down, and the lever can 
be weighted with any suitable material, so that the necessary pressure is 
secured. The silo is filled through the roof and emptied from the doors near 
tlie cattle sheds at the bottom. This is blocked up by two layers of wood 
with tarred calico between. The doors are also tarred. The silage was a first 
cut from 12 acres of clover and rye-grass, estimated at 70 tons, being 8 J feet in 
depth. It was perfectly good to tlie walls, failing only at the corners and 
slightly at the surface. (See Table, p. .'>06.) 
There is one feature in connection with silage as a food for 
dairy cows which is of such importance that it is necessary to 
refer to it in a report of this somewhat comprehensive nature. 
Sour silage, like pitted grains, conveys to milk a quality which 
appears to disqualify it for conversion into refined cheeses, such 
as Brie, Camembert, and Coulommiers, which, in their process 
of ripening, develop a ferment. This fact I have found gene- 
rally understood by French cheese-makers in the Brie district, 
and it is my own experience when feeding on silage. 
In concluding this portion of the Report, my colleague and 
myself are of opinion that the system and appliances adopted 
by Messrs. Ward and Lawry and Mr. Martin, in their Cornish 
silos, are deserving of very high praise, and that the silos of 
Lord Wolverton (Hill Barn), Messrs. Tanner, Elwes, and 
Hellier, were successful in practice, and in many respects 
economical. 
Silage Stacks. 
The first stack inspected was that of Mr. Mark Amos, at Westbury-on- 
Trym. The material used was sewage grass, and the size of the stack as 
described on the entry form was 10 feet cube, but at the tinie of our visit it 
•was 10 feet by 9J feet by 6 feet high. The top was semicircular and covered 
■with sheets of corrugated galvanised iron. The sides had been cut down and 
dressed with a composition of salt, sugar, and fenugreek. The stack, which 
"was pressed by Amos's Patent Lever and Gear, at a cost of 11. 5s., was built 
upon three wooden beams, each of which passed through an iron eye fixed to 
chains, to which 2 J-inch iron bands were attached, these passing over the stack 
for the purposes of compression. It should be mentioned that, besides the 
galvanised iron, seven planks 2 inches by 7 inches were laid crossways over it 
to enable the compression to be more evenly distributed. When fixed, the 
bands referred to are tightened by Amos's lever, a simple apparatus, which is 
applied to the chains at the side. The crop, estimated at 13 tons, cut in the 
rain, made silage which w£<s exceedingly heavy. The outsides, however, were 
black and spoiled for a considerable distance in the stack, the smell being most 
disagreeable, although it improved as the interior was reached. A sample 
subsequently sent us from the centre of the stack was much better. The 
temperature was raised to 112 degrees for a few days only. 
The second stack visited was that of Mr. Harris, at Ellacott Farm, Devon- 
shire. This consisted of 25 loads of second-crop clover, 5 loads of meadow- 
