at Home and Abroad. 
143 
November 20. — They had all taken to the new food, and the measurement 
of the milk, to my astonishment, showed a decrease in the quantity. The 
butter was excellent in flavour and taste, with a marked improyement in 
both. They were eating good hay and pollard. The analysis showed a 
decided improvement in fatty matter. 
From December 10 to 17 they were fed on silage and cotton-cake only ; 
no waste was allowed. The quantity of milk was maintained, but not 
increased. The analysis again showed an improvement in fatty matter, and 
the quality was also improved. 
From December 17 to 31 they were fed on hay, mangolds, and cake, and 
no silage. The quantity of milk was still maintained, but the analysis 
showed an increase of one-fourth in the fat. 
The result of this expeciment, to my mind, has been that the virtue of 
silage has been demonstrated, not, as I expected, by the increase of quantity, 
but by maintaining the quantity during that period of the year when one 
would expect it to diminish, by improving the quality to a considerable extent, 
and by keeping the animals fed upon it, old and young, in good blooming 
health and condition. The economy of this food is apparent. 
N.B. — My weights, which cost me nothing, are removed by hand every 
time. I have filled my silo five times, at a cost of putting on and off of Is. id. 
each way ; the cost therefore of removing weights and putting them on is 
13s. 4<i. for the season. Can any one show a less costly mode of weighting ? 
Certainly not a more effectuaL 
Whem I first visited this silo, on August 20, 1883, I saw the 
boards removed from the top of the material which had been 
previously pitted. The uppermost layer of mouldy grass was 
first taken off, and then a square mass about a foot in depth 
was taken out. It had an acid and somewhat vinous smell, but 
at least six inches in depth of the upper part was sandwiched 
with layers of mould, which Mr. Ford was at a loss to account 
for. It seemed to me that the weights, as in some other silos 
in the district, had been piled on too liberally (200 lbs. per 
square foot), and caused the juice to be expressed out of the silo, 
and thus contaminated the well, as described above by Mr. Ford. 
Notwithstanding this drainage, a sample of silage received on 
December 5, 1883, was found to contain 73'7 per cent, of 
moisture, and it went rapidly mould v. 
At the time of my first visit the silo was being filled up for 
the fourth time with second-cut clover. The treadin? of it 
seemed here, as elsewhere, a tedious process, but as many of 
the " treaders " were volunteers, it was perhaps not quite eflFectual, 
and the cost cannot be given. 
The construction of the roof, the eaves of which came close 
down to a wooden cap on the top of the brickwork of the silo, 
was worth noting. The roof is ridded, each slope being formed 
of tarred and felted doors, which are hinged, and shut down 
upon movable rafters fitting into slots in the ridge, and in the 
wooden cap to the brickwork. Although Mr. Ford puts the 
total cost at 40/., it may be said on the one hand that this does 
