146 Meport on the Practice of Ensilage, 
5. 3L: W. J. Harris, HahviU Manor, Eighampton, Devon. — The dimensions 
of my silo are 35 feet in length, 18 in width, and lOj in depth. It is 2 feet 
below the ground at one end, and 6 feet at the other. It consists of a strong 
stone wall cemented at the sides and bottom, and covered with a slate roof. 
The first cost was £110, and practically it will last for ever. The first filling 
was done between the 9th and the 16th of July, and the second at the end of 
September, the materials used being in the first instance meadow-grass and 
clover and rye-grass, and afterwards second-cut clover. The crops are cut 
"when approaching ripeness, and are put into the silo without being chaffed. 
I mixed a little salt with a portion, but I think it is no better than the rest 
"which had no salt mixed with it. The contents of the silo were pressed down 
as much as could be conveniently done every time that a day's filling took 
place, so as to get rid of all atmospheric air as quickly as possible. The 
pitted fodder is covered with chaff, then with 3-inch boards afterwards 
a layer of sand 15 inches deep, as well as some iron rails, and now I am 
storing turnips on the top. At present I have no mechanical appliance for 
weighting, but I hope to invent one. The weight of the crops put into the 
silo was about 80 tons, and I think the same quantity was there when 
I opened it on November 12th. The quality of tlie pitted fodder is excel- 
lent; the cows prefer it to any other food, and horses leave oats for it. 
I should judge that it costs about the same between cutting and storing as 
a haystack costs ; that is to say, if the field is not far from the silo. My 
80 tons were carried in 87 wap:gon-loads. The pitted material now weighs 
40 lbs. per cubic foot, and I value 5 tons of it as equal to 2 tons of good hay. 
The 80 tons came off 9 acres, which would have produced about 20 tons of 
hs.j.— December 10th, 1883. 
G. Mr. C. B. Kenyan, BrynUivydivyn, MaclnjuUdh. — The dimensions of my 
silo are as follows : length, 11 ft. 9 in. ; widtii, 10 ft.; and depth, 11 ft. It 
is below the level of the soil. It was constructed in the following manner: 
A large and deep pit was first excavated near the edge of a bank, which dipped 
abruptly down to a stream below; facing walls were then built of common 
bricks set in cement, and were made perfectly rectangular and perpendicular, 
to permit the lid to move freely downwards as the contents subsided. To 
guard against the influx of water, a drain was carried from the foimdation of 
the silo to the stream, and the floor itself was constructed of flags laid on 
mortar, and joined together with cement. At each of the four comers the 
brickwork was contiimed u]nvards in the form of pillars to su]iport a light 
roof. This was made sufficiently high to form a sort of Dutch barn for the 
storage of hay, &c., as well as a cover to the silo. The first cost of this silo 
in labour and materials was about 35?. 10s., and I expect it to last as long as 
any other building on the farm. 
Last year (1882), by way of experiment, I had a trench excavated, about 
9 ft. long by 4 ft. wide and 5 ft. deep, in a dry gravelly soil. This was filled 
with uncut grass, well trodden down, and filled up to the height of about 4 ft. 
above the surface of tlie ground. It was covered by the soil taken from the 
pit being piled, roof-shaiie, upon it; but in consequence of the great subsidence 
of the grass the whole sank below the surface of the ground. The result was 
that the rain-water got in, and the grass was spoiled. 
The silo proper was first filled between September 24th and October 4th, 
1881 ; and in 1882 it was also filled twice — the first week in September, 
and the first week in October. This year (1K83) it was filled in July and 
September. Grass is almost the oidy crop I preserve by ensilage, and it lias 
generally happened that tlic crop has been over-ripe at the time we have 
found it convenient to ]>it it, but I should jircfer to do so when the majority 
of I lie grasses are in flower. Tiie first two years I passed all the grass through 
a chaff-cutter driven by water-power, before throwing it into the pit, the 
