154 
Report on the Practice of Ensilage, 
■weights must be kept on the unconsumed portion, or the acetic fermen- 
tation, and mould set in rapidly. 
I would also warn beginners, unless they can give their constant personal 
attention to it, not to trust to levers, screws, and other mechanical contri- 
vances to ensure pressure. Mechanical pressure requires to be continually 
attended to while the silage is shrinking, and every one must be prepared 
for indifference, if not for active hostility, from his emj^loyes for a certain 
time to a new process. — February 10th, 1884. 
11. Mr. C. F. Trepplin, Kenilworth. — My fodder is stored in ten bams and 
barn-floors of different sizes, and also in a mere cart-shed, boarded off ; and 
in five silos, of from 20 feet to 30 and 45 feet. Two of the silos are above and 
three below the level of the soil. The barns are mostly brick-built, some 
brick and wood. The doorways were boarded in. The silos were covered 
with litter, on which some galvanised roof-sheeting was put. The barns were 
not wanted for any other purpose, and of course were no expense. The silos 
were made at comparatively little expense, and will last more than a lifetime. 
The fodder was put in from July till October. It consists of grass, clover, 
rye and vetches, oats and vetches, and lucerne, put in when nearly ripe, and 
stored whole. In feeding, the silage is cut up with straw, but I did not 
use any salt or mixture of straw in pitting it. The barns and silos were filled 
at different times, according to convenience, one after the other, and then 
refilled when the fodder had sunk down. This work was mostly done when 
nothing else could be done on the farms. 
The first barns and silos were weiglited witli old timber after the fodder 
had been trodden down by horses ; afterwards very little trouble was taken 
in filling up the silos and barns, and merely some old litter, and sometimes 
sand, was put on the top of the fodder. I took no record of the weight of the 
crops put in, but I pitted all the fodder, and made no hay. I do not consider 
that there was any more expense incurred than in making haj' — rather less, 
because hay could not have been made during the rainy weather, while the 
fodder was pitted or stacked. 
Emptying the barns and silos is more convenient and less costly than 
cutting hay. It is cut down vertically. It should also be observed that it 
does not require insurance against fire. 
I have come to the conclusion that anybody who has a barn or shed, or can 
make a hole in the ground, will be independent of the weather to preserve his 
fodder, and maintain on it more live-stock than on hay. With regard to the 
best condition to pit the crops, I think that those containing not much suc- 
culence, and pitted in dry weather, ought to be watered when pitted in barns 
or sheds, especially before a second layer is put in, or when the silos or barns 
are filled a second or third time. The fodder preserved by me can be con- 
sumed by degrees without deterioration. A trifle of mould on the outside is 
of no consequence, and if the fodder be shaken and cut up with straw, it is 
readily eaten by horses and cattle. I have no experience that pitted fodder 
does not keep .sound for a few days. When pitted in barns, there is more 
fermentation, and the fodder is sweeter and warmer than when preserved in 
underground silos. This fodder is much more suitable as food for stock than 
hay, especially when the latter is made in bad weather. I feed over a 
thousand animals with it, and find them in better health and condition 
tlian they were in former years, when fed with hay. — January 2Wi, 1884. 
As this is probably iLo most extensive development of the 
system of ensilage that at present exists in the United Kingdom, 
