at Home and Abroad. 
221 
the others will be put in use in September and October, according to the 
weather and the ripeness of the crops. 
I preserve by ensilage beetroots, green maize, clover, lucerne, sainfoin, 
vetches, grass from the lawns, and in fact every kind of green fodder having 
sap enough to ferment. Q'he crops are cut ripe, and when full of sap, and 
are generally chopped before being put into the silos into about one inch- 
lengths. I leave them unmixed with other materials, considering any addi- 
tion superfluous. 
The silos are filled at intervals, but only of a few days' duration, my 
reason being that the principal purpose being to exclude air as much as 
possible, it is better attained by leaving the pitted materials a little time to 
settle more firmly. Diu-ing the filling, several times every day, the work- 
people employed on this operation are sent to walk all together on the 
surface. When the silo is entirely filled it is covered up, first with grass of 
the worst qualilj', destined to protect the silo, and to be thrown away, and 
over it a great quantity of rough stones, as heavy as possible. The average 
weight of the green crops can be estimated at 1000 kilogrammes (one ton 
avoirdupois) per cubic metre, and this is reduced about a fifth part by 
fermentation. 
Each 100 cubic metres generally requires 8 days' work of men, 12 of 
women, 4 days of the steam-engine, and 1200 kilogrammes (24 cwt.) of coals. 
The expense of mowing is always the same ; the bringing home of the crops 
is more or less expensive, according to the distance of the field. One day's 
work is enough for covering the fodder with stones. The cost of emptying 
the silos cannot be accurately estimated, this work being done daily by the 
herdsmen in charge of feeding the cattle. They take it in layers from the top. 
The best results have been obtained by me with this system. In rainy 
seasons, when hay could not be dried, 1 have saved crops in considerable 
quantities. 
I have not found any result specially attributable to succulence of the 
crops, or to external moisture upon them, except on one or two occasions, 
when too young grass was brought in quite dripping from rain, and even then 
it was not entirely spoilt, and could be consumed. The worst condition is 
when too dry, the sap necessary for fermentation being then wanting. The 
pitted fodder will keep for months, if only taken out with care, that is, 
taking it by layers, and not in the same place, so that the surface does not 
remain too many days in contact with the air. Pitted fodder, when well 
prepared should, in fact, ahvays keep wholesome for months (even years, if 
air is entirely excluded). Mould can only be attributed to two causes (1st) the 
state of the fodder when pitted, viz., if too dry or already rotten, (2nd) if the 
pressure has been insufficient, and air has been left inside — exclusion of air 
being the most important, I might say the only, condition of success. 
The cattle I usually keep number generally from 130 to 150 animals : 80 or 
90 of them taste no other food than fermented grass during four or five 
months in winter. They could not be entirely fattened ^vithout an addition 
of oilcake or farinaceous food ; but they are all in very good health and con- 
dition, and eat this food more greedily than the hay and straw on which the 
cattle of my neighbours are sustained during the winter months. 
Count Roederer being one of the pioneers of this system in 
France, as already stated, I visited him on September 24, 1883, 
and carefully investigated his mode of procedure. His silos, 
within old buildings, are very deep excavations lined with 
brickwork, and were originally intended for the preservation of 
beetroots and mangolds in straw during the winter. The 
