at Home and Abroad. 
159 
which case the top part would spring up and admit the air, when fermentation 
would at once set in, and heating take place, followed by moulding. I have 
tried feeding cattle on sil^e alone, and find they thrive quite as well or 
better on it than on the best of hay. The milk and butter yield especially 
is much superior to that from hay ; and from experiments I have made, I have 
come to the conclusion that a given quantity of grass is worth about 30 per 
cent, more when made into silage than if made into hay. — March lOth, 1884. 
I have onlv to add to the above account that I visited 
Mr. Broderick on January 24rtb, and found his silage of good 
qualitv and well preserved, but rather sour. The stones used as 
the weighting material were calculated to exert a pressure of 
li cwt. per square foot. 
B. Silage Pabtlt Chopped. 
IrL Mr. John Baieman, Brightlingsea, Cdchester. — The total length of the 
silo, which is in three compartments, is 47 feet outside measurement, and 
45 feet inside, with an inside width of 15 feet, and outside of 17 feet. The 
inside depth varies gradually from 12 feet to a maximum of 13i feet, and 
the sUo is a little more than half sunk, so that it stands about 5 feet 6 inches 
above the roadway. The outside walls are 1 foot thick, viz. 11 inches of 
concrete with 1 inch of cement laid on so as to give a perfectly smooth 
interior face. The floor is 10 inches in thickness, and consists of brickbats 
filled in with concrete and faced with cement. The two partitions are each 
8 inches thick. The roof of two of the compartments consists of curved 
corrugated iron running on a railway ; but this form of roof can also, if 
desired, be extended to the third compartment. At present, however, I am 
trying the effect of roofing and weighting the third silo by building a hay- 
stack upon it. The toial cost was about 160?., but if the roof had been 
made of Willesden paper it would have been 20?. less. The cost would 
also have been lessened by 127. if, instead of being placed on a perfect fiat, 
the site had been a hillside. The sUo will practically last two lifetimes. 
Silo Xo. 3 was filled on June 18th, 19th, and 21st to a depth of 8 feet with 
chopped red clover, then 2h feet of unchopped, and finally I5 feet of green 
grass. Silo Xo. 2 was filled on July 25th and 26th with 12 feet of unchopped 
green grass. Silo Xo. 1 was completely filled with loj feet of chopped 
green maize in the beginning of September. The clover and meadow 
grass are preferred to be used when they are fit to cut for hay, and the 
maize on the withering of the male blossom, and before the female has 
shot the sQk a week. It depends upon circumstances whether the crops 
are pitted in a whole or a chopped state ; but I vastly prefer to chop every- 
thing with a powerful chaff-cutter — the clover and grass to one-third of an 
inch, while the maize is better for being even smaller. Two bushels of salt 
have been mixed with the grass in Xo. 2 silo, but I have never tried straw. 
The mode of filling has been already stated, but I may add that I have 
never succeeded in filling more than 9 feet iu one day ; this, when weighted 
for the night, settles into about 7 feet. I then fill up the rest (after shifting 
the weights), and this in its turn settles and reqeires a third filling. I have 
no doubt, however, that were 1 to treble the man, bwr, and horse-power 
used in treading, I might so compress the staff as to completely fill one silo 
in a day. On silo Xo. 3, I used 4 men, 6 boys (volunteers) and a cob to 
stamp it tight. I can see no particular object in hurrjing on the filling 
with so large an addition to the labour bill. Compression is done as follows: 
Each silo being a perfect square of 15 feet, I have 15 planks, just a trifle 
