at Home and Abroad. 
189 
are made the better they will keep. When finished, the planks and loaded 
boxes are arranged thus : — Cover over with planks, on which is placed 
84 square boxes exactly fitting the silo, filled with bricks, shingle, &c., weighing 
15 tons; no mechanical means are employed, and no record has been taken 
of the weight of the crop p)aced in the silo, nor has the silo yet been emptied. 
The total expense of filling, covering, and compressing, was 19?. Gs. I 
cannot give the cost of emptying the silo, as the silage is used direct as 
required for daily use. The operation of removing the silage is simply 
performed by drawing it out with a four-pronged fork {in small portions) from 
the top to the bottom, as it will not keep if exposed to the air for any length 
of time. I have found tlwt cows led upon the silage have given an 
increased quantity of milk ; that the cream was thicker, and the butter a 
richer colour and finer flavour. Last year I had two beasts feeding upon the 
silage, and commenced giving- them 7 lbs. each per day mixed with 6 lbs. 
of cut clover-hay, and increased the silage to stones each per day mixed 
Avith 6 lbs. of cut clover-hay. By the end of April they were fat without 
cake- or roots. The horses did well upon it, and the sheep also. The crops 
were considerably better when the silage was eaten upon the land by the sheep. 
I have not found any result whatever specially attributable to succulence 
of the crops, or to external moisture upon them before being pitted. The 
silage can be consumed without deterioration if taken out by degrees 
extending over several months. My experience of silage proves that as a 
food, especially in conjunction with other feeding materials, it produces 
excellent results. — January Wtli, 1884. 
I visited this silo on December 19lh, 1883. The facts are 
precisely as described above, but it should be added that 
Col. Tomline pursued the same system with the same crop last 
year, and was perfectly satisfied with the result. The oats are 
cut in ear, but while the grain is still milky, and the pressure, 
according to Mr. Stevenson's figures, is about 1 cwt. to the 
square foot. One fact that struck me very much was the more 
than usually powerful smell of the silage. It was apparently 
in the state of alcoholic fermentation, but it seemed to be more 
concentrated "grog" than any other silage that I had seen. I 
was informed that last year it had the same character, and that 
on exposure to the air it would not keep ; but I am bound to 
add that a sample sent to me kept remarkably well in the 
Society's Laboratory. 
30. Mr. W. H. Wills, M.P., Coomhe Lodge, Blagdon, Somerset.—lhe silo is 
13 feet by 12, and 13 feet deep ; it is built on a steep slope, so that the forage 
can be tipped in at one end at the higher level, and the door approached at the 
other end on the lower level. It is built of local limestone set in brown lime 
mortar, the walls being 2 feet thick ; and the floor is laid with rough paving 
made watertight. The covering is a A roof of pantiles without plastering. 
The building is a permanent one, and we worked out the cost of labour and 
materials to amount to 36?. 
The silo was filled on July 3rd,' 4th, and 5th with a second year's crop of 
clover after wheat, cut when ripe, and chopped to Ij-inch lengths. No salt 
or other material was mixed with it. The silo was filled as quickly as 
possible, each day's cutting being pitted the next day, and the crop trodden 
down firmly as put in by 3 or 4 labourers. This was my first experi- 
ment, so I followed as closely as possible the directions given in some 
