298 The Silo and Silage-stack Competition, 1885-86. 
a very poor crop put on to it. The material was computed to contain not more 
than 35 tons. The cost of mowing, carting, and stacking with men to press 
it was about 10s. per acre. The stacli was built on a few rough loose boards 
laid across the fulcrum-beams ; on the roof were more boards, and the press- 
beams, with straw on the top, and then it was thatched in the ordinary way. 
Began mowing on Friday, August 21st, and the weather was so wet that the men 
left off worlf, and on the 22nd tlie waggon load, which was mown on the day 
before, was tested with the thermometer, and the temperature was found to be 
as high as 120° in the centre ; it was unloaded, and three more waggon-loads were 
added, and on the Saturday night the stack was 8 feet high. No pressure was 
put on, and on Monday morning it had sunk 2 feet ; on that day 2 loads 
cut on the previous iSaturday were put on, and on Sunday the temperature 
of the stack was 120°, and on Monday 140°, and up to this time about 
13 J tons had been put on to the stack. Nothing was done until Thursday, and 
the temperature had risen to 150°, and on the 27th, when about 6 tons 10 cwt. 
were added, the temperature had risen to 160°, and the staclt had sub- 
sided 3 feet 6 inches before the last loads had been added without weighting ; 
on Saturday the pressure was put on, and at that time the stack was 
about 8 or 9 feet high ; on Sunday the temperature was 160°, and this con- 
tinued up to Tuesday, September 1st ; on Wednesday about 12 tons more 
were put on. The weighting remained on until Friday, when the tem- 
perature was 140°. The stack was completed on Friday, and the tem- 
perature continued the same for about a week. The pressure at that time 
was 100 lbs. to the square foot; it was then increased to 125 lbs. to the 
square foot, when the temperature fell gradually from 140° on September 4th 
to 110° on September 22nd. Mr. Blunt's estimate for unloading and stacking 
seems low, but he says one man can place on a stacli of limited area, say 
about 48 feet in circumference, as much as two men can throw from a load. 
Practically he has discovered that a silage-stack should be built exactly 
contrary to an ordinary hayrick, viz., that the sides should be kept highest, 
and the middle lowest ; whereas with a hayrick the middle is always kept 
filled up. Mr. Blunt says by his system the cost of ironwork for a circular 
stack of the size we inspected would be not more than Gl. 10s., and the 
boarding on the top extra ; but if a larger stack be built, the cost would be 
less in proportion, in fact the cost would be about ^d. per square foot, but this 
does not include the boarding nor thatching. We weighed a cubic foot of 
the clover, cut 3 feet from the bottom and 2 feet from the side, and it 
weighed 50 lbs., it therefore follows that there were about 26 tons in the 
stack. We found a considerable amount of waste from mould and wet, about 
9 inches round the stack being much injured From Mr. Blunt's |3ractical 
experience he has found, if an acre of good land will produce 1^ tons of hay 
to the acre, it will give quite 4 tons of silace. There is in this neighbourhood 
a demand for silage, and he charges 35s. per ton for it, the purchaser 
fetching it away. He says milch-cows will consume about 70 lbs. of silage 
a-day without anything else, which at 35s. per ton would cost about 6s. per 
week ; with this amount they will do well, and give more milk than on hay and 
roots combined. A horse in work will eat 42 lbs. a-day, and with half a peck 
of oats will do exceedingly well. We also saw a square stack at Mr. Blunt's 
weighted in the same manner, but this was not for competition. The silage, 
like the one entered, was extremely good, with much less waste in this 
than the round one. We also saw some silage ot" the year before from 
a silo, which was good but very sour; indeed we were much ])leased with 
our visit to Blaby Hill, and gained much interesting information from so 
intelligent and practical a man as Mr. Blunt. Had Mr. Blunt entered his square 
stack instead of the round one, his position in the competition would have 
been much higher. 
