at Home and Abroad. 
185 
The silo containing chopped clover was opened in my 
presence. It had been covered and weighted in the same way 
the other one, but had been overfilled by means of temporary 
boarded sides, so that the compressed material was quite at the 
level of the top of the silo. Whether this had had any effect I 
cannot say, but INIr. Austen seemed to think it had. At any 
rate, nearly nine inches of the top was more or less mouldy, 
and the clover beneath was very dry and only slightly fer- 
mented. Mr. Austen was very much astonished at this result, 
which was probably due to the dryness of the clover when 
it was pitted. Of the samples of the three kinds of silage 
sent to Hanover Square, it may be recorded that the maize went 
rapidly bad, the tares kept best, and the grass fairly well. 
This case is an interesting illustration of the fact that dif- 
ferent crops, and even the same crops under different circum- 
stances, require variations in treatment in order to convert them 
into good silage. 
27. il/r. C. Hunting, South Hetton, Fence Houses, Durham. — My silo is 
40 feet long by 12 feet wide, and 10 feet deep, and is 4 feet below the surface of 
the soil. It is constructed with white post stone, and faced with pressed bricks 
laid in cement ; with a concrete floor covered by cement. A drain is cut all 
round it — inside — 3 inches from the wall. The walls are 2 feet thick, and 
covered with a corrugated-iron roof, 3 feet from the top of the wall to the 
eaves. The entrance is i feet wide at the south end, to admit a horse to tread 
its contents, and also for a tramway to bring the silage to the byre. Its 
first cost was about lOOZ., and 1 should expect it to last a century. 
Filling the silo commenced on the 23rd of September, and finished on the 2nd 
of October. It was filled to within 1 foot of the top, when the " cutter " broke, 
so we closed it up. The first two days we put in 13i acres of good second-crop 
clover, cut into chaff. The eighth day about 20 loads of beans, peas, and 
tares ; and the next day we filled the silo within a foot of the top with about 
half beans, peas, and tares, and half second-crop clover, cut up and mixed to- 
gether. The crops were all unripe, except the beans, peas, and tares, which 
had been cut several days, trying to win them for stacking ; but the constant 
wet spoiled them for that purpose. All the material was chopped about half 
an inch long, and no salt or condiment of any kind, neither straw, was mixed 
with the fodder. The method of filling was as follows : — 
Two days first filling, then put on weights for seven days, then filled 
again, weights put on aud closed. I allowed seven days to elapse, after the 
first filling, for the silage to settle down, and from 8 feet, it) subsided 
14 inches only, which I thought was owing to the 16 cwt. horse treading it 
down. The second filling, in which no horse was employed, but seven 
women, two men, and two lads, subsided, in the same number of days, more 
than one-half. 
When filled, we put on boards 2 inches thick, and as long as the silo is wide, 
and 9 inches broad ; upon these we placed 22 tons of iron blocks, and 8 tons 
of sand in guano-bags.* Seventy tons of fodder were put in, and it is cutting 
out, at the lower part trodden by the horse, 50 lbs. to tbe square foot, and 
at that part trodden by men and women, only 40 lbs. per square foot. The 
expenses of filling were as follows : — 
• Making altogether IJ cwt. per square foot.— H. M. J. 
