292 The Silo and Silage-stack Competition, 1885-86. 
bottom, the silage can be conveniently removed. Tlie silo was commencecJ 
filling on June 26th, when 30 tons 11 cwt. were put in, and on the 29th the 
temperature was taken, and was found to be 115°. No other grass was put 
in until August 21st, when 9 cwt. was removed damaged, and then 15 tons 
11 cwt. more was added; on the 24th, 8 tons 11 cwt. was put in, and on the 
25th, 4 tons 4 cwt., and 3 tons 6 cwt. of chaffed oats, just beginning to turn 
ripe; on the 31st, 3 cwt. was removed damaged, and 4 tons 10 cwt., and 
3 tons 12 cwt. of second-cut clover were added, and the silo was tilled up to 
70 tons by meadow grass. It is now estimated to contain about 58 tons. 
The silage was good, but we thought the expense too great, and that the me- 
chanical pressure might have been dispensed with. The pressure was sup- 
posed to be 179 lbs. to the square foot. We then visited silo No. 2, which 
was at an off-lying farm, not far distant. The entry paper calls it an "adapta- 
tion of an old barn." Length 16 feet 8 inches, by 11 feet 2 inches in width, 
and 13 feet deep, the floor being 3 feet below the level of the barn, which 
was 18 feet lower than the level of the ground at the gable end of the build- 
ing. The soil excavated had been used to raise and form a cartway at the end 
of the building, and from this cartway the silo is filled through sliding-doors. 
It is emptied from a door opening on to, and level with, the barn floor. The 
total cost, including bricks lor pressing, was 211. 14s. 6c?., as there was a roof 
pre-existing, and the walls of the barn were very substantial. 
This was a cheaply formed silo, but there must always be a considerable 
amount of labour expended every time the silo is filled by the removal and 
replacing of the bricks and other pressing material, as the weight amounted to 
several tons. About 8 acres of grass was placed in the silo, which was com- 
menced filling on August 25th and finished on the 31st. About 30 tons was 
put in, and it is now considered that the material weighs about 25 tons; but 
the first day it subsided 16 inches, and between Saturday night and Monday 
morning it sank 2 feet 4 inches. During tlie past five weeks it has not sunk 
perceptibly. The greatest amount of subsidence is generally on the first four 
days. The temperature of this silo was not taken. Mr. Stewart, the intelli- 
gent farm manager, says it is undesirable, if you can avoid it, to carry grass in 
very wet weather, as you are only carrying water, and the men cannot do so 
much work. The character of the silage was fairly good. Mr. Stewart also 
says, from actual measurement, they find when green grass is made into good 
dry hay, it loses two-thirds of its weight. We thought it desirable to go 
across the park to view a silage stack erected roughly in an old stone pit, and 
containing trimmings cut from round the trees and shrubs in the grounds, 
mixed with letives and sticks, weeds, and sundry other matters usually found 
in such places; and although all this had been put carelessly together and 
simply covered with some rough boards and weighted with stones, it con- 
tained a good deal of useful food, and was so much relished that a lot of 
Highland bullocks, which were being pastured near it, ran vigorously down a 
steep bank, and followed us about eating voraciously all we chose to give them. 
Mr. Horrocks Miller, Singleton l^ark, Poulton-le-Fijlde. — This was an 
adaptation from an old shed, and was 27 feet 3 inches long by 11 feet 9 inches 
wide, and 11 feet 6 inches deep. The floor was 2 feet below the level of the 
ground on the outside. The silo was filled from double doors nearly level 
with the eaves, and emptied from a doorway level with the ground at one end. 
Tiie cost of converting the shed into a silo was 17/. Is. Qd., and the pressing' 
apparatus was Moore's patent, with iron weights, viz., timber beams and planks, 
which came to 41/. Gs. ; charges for excavating, cement, &c., 13/. lis. 6d. — in 
all 71/. 18s. Old. On September 11th commenced filling, when 11 tons Hi cwt. 
was put in; September 18th, 9 tons; 23rd, 8 tons 18i cwts. ; 28th, 9 tons; 
October 2nd, 1 ton 10 cwts.; in all about 40 tons of second-cut clover, the 
produce of 15 acres. On opening we found three layers very mouldy, especially 
