at Home and Abroad. 
lib 
blocks can be rolled on to the boards ; as the stuff sinks, row after row is 
placed on the boards. 'Die concrete blocks are 9 inches by 9 inches by 
12 inches, or 9 inches by 9 inches by 18 inches ; and in addition I use as 
weighting materials bricks, loose earth, logs of wood, &c. I use at least 
1 cwt. per superficial foot, and often 2 to 2^ cwts., and in the corners 
3 to 4 cwts., and I leave the wei<:hts on until I require the forage. 
Jn 1881 I put about 6 tons of fodder into a silo ; in 1882 1 put in 60 tons, 
and in 1883 no less than 200 tons. I think the same weight comes out as 
you put in, for where is the weight to go ? There is no evaporation to speak 
of, and no loss by drainage. One cubic foot of pitted fodder weighs about 
50 lbs. The cost of cutting the crops by machine, carrying, pitting, com- 
pressing, covering, &c., is about 7s. G(/. per acre. The following is a state- 
ment of the cost of saving a second cut of " seeds " off lOJ acres — the crop 
being a light one, which would have made, say, half a ton of hay per acre : — 
£ s. d. 
Time of 12 men at 4s. 6d., to include extra hours, beer, &c. 2 14 0 
„ 7 horses at 2s. (cost price to the farmer) .. ., 0 14 0 
Extra -work, piling on weights, &c., next day, say . . , . 0 6 0 
Total £3 14 0 
The crop was cut, carried, and pitted between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. The cost of 
emptying the silo is merely that of cutting out of a hayrick, minus the 
expense of tying the bands of the trusses. I cut do^\^l vertically (in from 
1 foot to 1 foot 6 inch slices) like hay in a stack. 
With regard to the results obtained, I may state that I once was feeding 
3 Jersey cows as follows : — 2 lbs. oilcake and 1 gall, crushed oats as extra 
food, with hay ad libitum. On half-gall, crushed oats and about half-cwt. 
" silage " made from seeds, the butter increased as from 100 to 125. I once 
cut and carried 5 acres of meadow-grass purposely in pouring rain. When I 
cut it out I stated in the Field that it came out as good as that carried dry. 
1 afterwards modified that opinion. It was blacker in colour than that carried 
dry, and the cattle ate up every bit of it ; but the cows in fall milk preferred 
other food, and I gave it chiefly to dry stock and pigs. I once purposely left 
a vertical slice in a silo open (whilst consuming a field of cabbage) for about 
three weeks or a month. At the end of that time white mould appeared on the 
face of the slice, and it penetrated about two or three inches horizontally into 
the stuff. My silos having partition walls, the contents of one division last 
ray cows only a few weeks, and this I prefer to a very long silo, for economic 
reasons in the filling — it being much easier to fill two pits 15 feet long each 
than one pit 30 feet long. My ensilaged fodder always keeps good several 
days, and if allowed to dry in small quantities it becomes very like good hay. 
With three years' experience I fully approve of the use of pitted fodder as 
food for stock, and shall largely increase my silos every year, to the utmost 
capacity of my land to grow green crops, such as vetches and oats, both 
winter ana spring (especially winter vetches), and similar bulky green crops. 
1 am thinking of buckwheat: — to be pitted green — as a quick-growing 
summer crop suited to poor gravels. In my opinion, "silage" requires 
an addition of some food, such as crushed oats (i.e. nitrogenous food). I 
further think that summer dairymen might, as in the Sologne, in France, 
guard against dry summers, if we ever get any more, by pitting a large 
acreage of rye, winter vetches, TrifoUum incarnatum, &c., say in May. 
Their land would then give a turnip crop, and the " silage," if not wanted 
for summer use, would be ready for the following winter. " Ensilage " is 
good — very good indeed — as a system, but it is not an easy and universal mode 
of worldly salvation to the farmer : and it demands common sense, care, and 
attention, but it saves ia money, time, and anxiety. — February bth, 1883. 
VOL. XX. — S. S. L 
