160 
Report on the Practice of Ensilage, 
under 1 foot broad, cut to 14 feet 11 inches, so as to leave a small windage 
lor the escape of putrescent gases. On these boards I place my weights. 
The theory I go upon is this: that the pitted stuff will develop twa 
gases, namely, (1) heavy (carbonic acid) — let this remain in the body of 
the fodder ; and (2) putrescent gases — let them escape upwards as soon as- 
they please, "good riddance of bad rubbish." I consider the so-called 
" hermetically sealing of a silo " upwards a " damnable heresy." Lord 
Toilemache, with whom I have had a long talk over the matter, is going to 
seal up his silos as well as he can with hran. Now bran will do all the harm 
it ca?!, but happily, being hran, will let much of the light putrescent gases- 
escape, and their place will be taken by the preservative heavy gas. 
The weights on silo No. 3 consist of 1500 bricks laid on the planking ; 
over these a small haystack is built to try experimentally whether it will 
serve the double purpose of weight and roofing (it has answered the purpose 
most admirably). On the two other silos I use old American import oyster- 
barrels (costing Id. each), filled with gravel and headed up with concrete. 
These weigh 3J cwts. each. I have not used any mechanical contrivance 
for weighting, but Mr. Diss (a buUder and contractor), of West Bergholt, 
Colchester, has suggested to me a most feasible plan of mechanical weighting, 
which I intend to try in 1884. As also what seems a still better method, 
patented by Messrs. Reynolds of Blackfriars Road (see p. 205), which he 
shows at work, sinking rubbish in a small silo with a hydraulic jack. 
The crops were not weighed as they were put into the silos ; but No. S 
took about 32 two-horse waggon-loads of green clover, grass, &c., to fill it. 
The cost of filling and compressing is about as follows : — 
£ s. d. 
1 man and 1 boy with engine (say) 0 6 0 
2 men feeding the chaff-cutter 050 
4 men and 6 boys stamping inside 0 16 0 
Cob's time (one-third of a day), used only when 6 feet of ) q ^ 6 
fctuff bad been put in ) 
£18 6 
Add oil, coal, and water for steam-engine. 
As none of my silos are in practice filled in one day, but in, say, 18 or 19 
working hours, the cost of filling each silo, counting only labour, and irre- 
spective of the wages o( men cutting the crops, and of teamsters hauling it, 
would be about 21. os. I should add that the covering and weighting can 
be done by 3 men in about 2 hours. I do not look upon filling and emptj'- 
ing the silo as a question of cost, because the man or men who tend your 
stackyard, cut hay, slice turnips, grind cake, &c., will now simply, after 
assisting to fill the silo, drop the hay-cutting, and cut into the silo with a 
hay-knife or an extra sharp spade. It is much simpler to cut vertically when 
you weight your silo with planks, and afterwards bricks, barrels, &c. I have 
come to the conclusion that every silo should have a doorway at a low level — 
no regular door — but a substantial imitation of one, without handle or hinges, 
to let into the doorway loosely. This is kept in place by four " cupboard- 
buttons," and plastered even with the wall of the silo with some inches of 
wet clay. When you wish to open, you have simply to pick away the clay, 
unship your pseudo-door, and work into your mass of silage ; soon you are 
able to get a clean cut from top to bottom. 
Not having pitted green fodder before this season (1883), I can only say at 
present, with regard to results, that the cattle eat it greedily, and that my 
silage-fed ewes, some of which suffered severely in October from foot-and- 
mouth disease, have since given a remarkable strong crop of lambs, with less 
trouble than usual to the shepherd, by reason of the mothers' full bags. 
