188 
Report on the Practice of Ensilage, 
The total is made up of the following items : — 
Mowing 4^ acres 
Carting 
Chopping 
Pitting ^ 
Treading 
£ s. d. 
1 11 G 
1 11 6 
1 -1 () 
0 9 0 
0 9 0 
Total 
£5 3 6 
Equal to 9s. or 10s. per ton. 
"When we wish to use the pitted fodder, we simply open a door in the 
centre, and use it as required for feeding. 
By this system the land can be cleared much quicker, cheaper, and with less 
waste than by trying to make sewage-grass into hay. Indeed, for two or three 
years, we have found it impossible to get such Italian rye-grass dry enough to 
prevent it destroying itself by heat, on account of the juices and fat contained 
in the grass. With regard to keeping qualities, as this is the first silo we 
have filled, we can only say that we opened it on December ISth, 1883, and 
have continued using some of it every day since then up to this date, 11th 
January, 1884, and it is not injuriously atiected by the atmosphere being let 
into it. Horses, cattle, and sheep eat the silage from the silo with great 
avidit\% and I should think from the little experience I have had in feeding 
with silage it is best and most efiective and valuable wheu mixed with 
straw, or corn-chaff, or any other ordinary food that requires something to 
increase its feeding value and make it palatable. — Januarij Wth, 1884. 
I visited this silo on December 18th, 1883, on account 
chiefly of the interest attaching to this attempt to preserve 
sewage-grass by means of ensilage. Evidently Mr. Taylor had 
been afraid to put the grass in too wet, and so had allowed it to 
get dead-ripe before pitting it. The consequence was that the 
silage was singularly dry for sewage-grass. It had, however, 
fermented, but there was a considerable amount of mould near 
the outside wall. A sample from the interior of the silo, 
sent to Hanover Square on January 2nd, although found 
to contain only 55 per cent, of water, is still, in the middle of 
March, perfectly good both in box and bottle, and retains to the 
full its honeydew aroma. The result of this experiment is 
very encouraging, and suggests a better future for sewage-farms. 
29. Col. Tomline (per Mr. IT. Stevenson), Orwell Park Farm, Tpsivicli. — 
The silo is 26 feet long by 12 feet broad and 12 feet high, namely, 6 feet 
below the level of the soil and 6 feet above. It is constructed entirely of 
concrete (walls about 14 inclies in tliickness), with slated roofs. I have made 
no experiments with regard to silos not covered by a durable or permanent 
roof. I cannot give the cost, but the structure will last about 50 years. 
Filling was commenced on July 30th, 1883, and was finished on August 4th, 
1883, with green oats cut in an unripe state, and chopped into half-inch 
lengths. Nothing was mixed with the main crops. 
The silo was filled at one operation as quickly as jiossible, in the follow- 
ing manner :— First fix the steam chaff-cutter at the filling end of the silo; 
reap the oats and cart them in their green state to the machine, and cut 
them i inch in length, throw them iuto the silo, and have 4 men inside to 
level and tread them down as tightly as possible, as the more solid they 
