286 The Agricultural Lessons of " The Eighties." 
1888, and since, and nothing more strongly tended towards the 
general adoption of ensilage than this. At last, then, ensilage 
and hay-making stood on a common footing of simplicity. In 
the one case, the grass is dried before putting it together; in 
the other case, it is put together freshly cut. 
As to pressure, all that is required is constant treading and 
constant rolling, especially at the sides, adding the green grass 
at intervals of from three to six days, so as to allow of settling 
and rolling. A vast amount of green fodder can in this way 
be made to occupy a small bulk, as 1 ton of grass may be 
easily compressed into 40 cubic feet, or into a space of 4 feet 
long, 2 feet wide, and 5 feet deep. A stack 10 feet high, 20 
feet wide, and 30 feet long, may be estimated to hold 1 50 tons 
of silage. Some farmers, following the example of Mr. William 
Stratton, have made flat-topped silage stacks, and after it has 
settled sufficiently, have put the elevator down beside it, and 
made a hayrick on the top. This may not be magnificent, but 
it is practical ; and there is not the least doubt that, by the 
exercise of a little mother-wit, the system of preserving grass in 
wet weather, as silage, may be adopted by every farmer in the 
country, both near the farm-buildings, for the use of cattle, and 
on the wider-lying fields, for sheep-feeding. There is room for 
all the systems, whether requiring a large initial outlay or not ; 
but it is a matter for congratulation that the process has been 
reduced to its simplest form, from which it can healthily develop 
into more complicated methods if it is found necessary to adopt 
them. In the meantime, ensilage is favourably spoken of, and 
generally accepted, in almost every agricultural district. 
9. Science. 
Science has been the faithful companion and counsellor of 
practice during these years of depression. The position of science 
towards agricultural practice has become better defined, and 
there is less disposition to hurl unripe theories at our heads. 
We owe much to the temperate and practical manner in which 
Sir John Lawes has wielded his immense armoury of knowledge. 
The question as to the sources of combined nitrogen in soils 
has engaged a great deal of attention in this country. Until 
comparatively recently our leading chemists refused to allow that 
free nitrogen could in any form be assimilated by growing plants. 
Recent researches have thrown doubt upon this position, and 
there is now a great probability that before long we shall know 
that the free nitrogen of the atmosphere may be of use in add 
ing to the store of combined nitrogen in the soil. The paper 
contributed by Sir John Lawes last year to this Journal 
