September i, 1887.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
145 
THE SILO PRINCIPLE FOR CEYLON. 
A correspondent asks how far in our opinion 
the use of silo pits (for preserving fodder 
in a green state) might be adopted in some 
of our island districts which are more especi- 
ally liable to long-continued drought, such 
as has for more than half a year now dried up 
the tanks, diminished the rivers and streams, and 
destroyed the crops and pasturage in vast regions 
of the eastern, north-central and northern districts 
of the island. Our correspondent tells us how 
often it has come within his experience to see the 
iheep in such districts forced from want of grow- 
ing grass to kneel down and scrape with one foot 
until the roots of the herbage were exposed suffici- 
ently for them to tear them up and eat them : 
and he believes that if the use of silos became 
common the animals need not be driven to such an 
extremity. Y'c have always ourselves understood, 
however, that during the season at which this 
practice is common, the sheep, when slaughtered, 
yield sweeter meat than at any other time. Still 
we k/now that an enormous number of the graz- 
ing stock die off from sheer want of food when 
the rainfall has been long suspended, as is at 
present the case, and we believe that this mortal- 
ity might be avoided were judicious attention paid 
to the preservation of fodder during the time of 
the raius, when herbage springs up luxuriantly, 
or at any rate of artiiieial grasses grown by irrig- 
ation under tanks or by the sides of streams. 
In the districts of Australia which are particularly 
liable to long continued drought, it is said that 
the use of the silo system has proved in many 
cases very efficacious. The chief difficulty experi- 
enced by the Australian sheep farmers is the em- 
ployment of that system on a sufficiently large 
scale to provide for the wants of the enormous 
number of sheep which are fed upon the runs 
of the austral continent. No such difficulty need 
be anticipateu with regard to the relatively small 
flocks of sheep or herds of cattle which are fed 
on the arid lands aboulJaffna, Mannar, Anuradha- 
pura, Hambantota, Batticaloa and other districts, 
which, for some eight consecutive months of the 
year, may be 'said to be almost entirely without 
rainfall. The farms in those districts are divided 
into small holdings, and we doubt much if there 
be a single owner possessed of more than a few 
hundred sheep, and perhaps a dozen or a score 
of cattle. Such men could, it may be believed, 
guard against the mortality we have referred to 
as being of constant recurrence by the judicious 
employment of the system which has proved so 
valuable an adjunct to pastoral pursuits in other 
countries ? 
An it is — owing to the fact that the preserv- 
ation of grass by converting it into hay is almost 
entirely unknown in Ceylon — a very largo pro- 
portion of the fodder which nature provides is 
annually lost to us. We are unaware how far 
the grasses grow in such districts as we have re- 
ferred to are suitable tor preservation in siloc. 
So much advance has however been made in effect- 
ively dealing with a wide variety of grasses, 
that we should think that it would require but 
a short period of trial to overcome any difficulties 
which may at first present themselves in the use of 
the silo system with almost any variety of fodder 
plants legumes as well as grasses. We cannot our- 
selves answer i ho query of our correspondent as to how 
far experiment mls proceeded in this direction in 
tho districts to which he more especially refers. 
Wo only know that Mr. Twvnam, Oovernmcnt 
Agent of the Northern Province, did not share 
the sanguine views of his Assistant, Mr. Boake, 
on this subject. European energy has been more 
applied towards this subject in Ceylon among 
the higher elevations of the island, wherein the 
rainfall is tolerably constant ; and necessity has 
not therefore compelled any very wide atten- 
tion being given to the subject. Still, we have 
understood that the system has been tried, and 
with a certain measure of success, upon estates 
which do not possess within their boundaries any 
considerable amount of pasture land. The late Dr. 
Thwaites of the Peradeniya Gardens drew atten- 
tion to the fact that the poor patana grasses 
were greatly improved by being converted into 
hay, and we should think they would be still 
more sweetened by the silo process. Starting 
upon the basis of such experience as may have 
been acquired as the result of experiment in up- 
country localities, there could be no hindrance 
to extending its results to at all events some 
tentative trials in the drier districts of the 
island. The subject is one to which the atten- 
tion of the agents of Government in localities so 
circumstanced might well be directed. Trials 
made at home have taken the procedure far be- 
yond the crude stage, and every agricultural ex- 
hibition shows numerous forms of appliances 
designed for more efficiently applying it. In any 
endeavour to spread the use of silos among our 
agricultural population in the north and east of 
the island, it would, we hold, be desirable to start 
from the point nearest to perfection already attained 
in Europe in the application of mechanical 
knowledge to Lhe efficient construction of silo pits. 
It is wellknown to those who have studied the: 
application of the system that a gradual but con- 
stant pressure on the green fodder is desirable to 
be maintained. All sorts of devices a-e in use for 
the effecting of this purpose, and it seems to us 
that Government might wisely obtain from England 
(or perhaps from India, where the system has 
been largely tried), under the best advice obtianable, 
one or two sets of such appliances and place them 
in the hands of the Government Agents, say of 
our Northern, North-Central and Eastern Province. 
The experience of a single season with the aid 
of high class machines (both native and foreign 
grasses being grown by irrigation in seasons of 
drought,) would doubtless do much to decide the 
question as to whether it would be advisable to 
pursue the course of experiment further. Should 
a eertain amount of success attend a first en- 
deavour, there can be no doubt that it would 
be justifiable to incur some outlay — which is 
certain in such a case of some degree of ultimate 
recoupment — in the endeavour to persuade the 
wealthier farmers in certain parts of Oevlon to 
pursue the trials of the system on a wider scali . 
We do not advocate the trial being made on 
any rough and ready method. The efficient and 
economical working of a silo would be best attained, 
as we have said, by the use of tho most approved 
methods known. Until theso were adopted, fail- 
ure was constantly the result of attempts to 
work the silo system in England. If trial is to 
be made let it therefore start from the point at 
which European practice has attained the largest 
measure of success. 
Sheep are valuable for manuring purposes ns 
well as feeding for the market, while good strong 
cattle are as necessary as a plentiful supply of 
water to the cultivation of grain crops. But 
neither sheep nor cattle can Jlourish unless plenty 
of good food for them is available. We should 
think, therefore, that while rice as tho food of 
human beings is mainly grown on lands provid- 
