at Home and ALroad. 
•2-n 
kraut ; and the only explanation of his statement as to non- 
fermentation that I have been able to arrive at Is, that he does 
not consider lactic fermentation any fermentation whatever, 
probably because there is no development of alcohol. I should 
add that the sample was found to contain 78'8 per cent, of 
water, and that it has kept well ever since. 
B. The XETHERi.ArD>. 
6. Heer J. van der Breggen, Waddinxveen. — The silo is a sextant, mea- 
sxiring 20 feet each side aad 13 feet in height. It is entirely above the 
level of the soil. Pormerly it was a corn-stack (Zuid Hollandsche hooi of 
Jcoornherg), They all have, as is known, a permanent roof of thatch. All 
the sides (six from post to post) have been planked up to about 4 metres in 
height, equal to 13 English feet.^ Xo experiments without durable or perma- 
nent roof have been made. Its original cost was 240 Dutch guilders (about 
20?.) for each corn-stack. They now have been used two years, and are still 
as good as if they were quite new. I fill the silos at any time when I have a field 
ready for mowing, so that they are all filled during the summer and the 
autumn, chiefly with grass, but also with leaves of beetroots, some tares and 
rye, always in a green state, and not at all ripe. Everything is pitted in a 
whole state, chopping not being usual, !^alt is mixed to the extent of about 
one part to 1000, and being used always for the cattle in winter, it is thus mixed 
with the fodder. The silo is filled as quickly as possible ; sometimes it takes 
two or three days ; then it is pressed, and then perhaps in a fortnight there is 
again some grass that ought to be put iu the same silo : we take off the 
covering or compressing material and fill again in the same manner. I use 
my altered corn-stacks because I believe it much cheaper than the nice silos of 
bricks that 11. Goflart uses in France. It would also be somewhat diffi- 
cult here in Holland to have silos in the ground, or below the level ; our 
country is too low, at least in this part of the Netherlands. The fodder is 
always compressed by putting upon it heavy materials like sand, stones, or 
clay, or anything that might be obtained and found heavy enough to 
compress it. No mechanical contrivance for pressure has been employed. 
By my procedure, from 65 to 75 per cent, of the weight of the crops put in will 
be the weight of the grass fit for use. 
All wages for mowing by machine and carting home, filling the silo afid 
covering or compressing the contents, will he about 11. per hectare (about 
2$ acres). Of course nothing is reckoned for horse-power, nor for agiicul- 
cultural machinery. The cost of emptying need not be reckoned, as the 
cattle-men take oti' daily what they want for their cattle. The emptying is 
done in the same way, like hay in a stack, vertically, I have ascertained that 
it is possible to use every green food by pitting it, in a profitable way ; by 
hay-making, on the contrary, one is not sure of getting fine hay, in consequence 
of the wet seasons. The wetter the crops, the sourer the pitted fodder will be ; 
also the more juice will run from the silo. The dryer the grass, the more 
change for mould in the silo. I have always pitted my crops immediately 
after mowing them. I always have the contents of my silo consumed directly 
after it has beeu opened. Therefore I have no experience with regard to keoi - 
ing quahties. 
I have never tried pitted or other fodder without concentrated food, and I 
should not think that pitted fodder without substautial food would do for 
cattle, as I like them to give a large quantity of milk, and to have plenty of 
flesh on them. — January itk, 1884. 
