Suggestions for Stock-feeding in the Winter of 1893-94. 469 
best grasses can be successfully made into hay, they should never 
be ensilaged, but in wet weather even the best grasses may be 
thus treated, and certainly late in the year, and especially in a 
season like this, every effort should be made to ensilage any green 
herbage, and I see no reason why the leaves of our root crops 
should not be so secured. When mangel is stored, the crown 
should never be cut, and all the leaves should fall singly ; hence it 
may be difficult to collect them in a cleanly state, and probably 
the ewes may this autumn be glad of them fresh in the fold. 
But when swedes are pitted or stored in November, thousands 
of acres of these turnip-tops are allowed to wither and decay, 
whereas in a season of scarcity, they might be preserved in silage 
pits or clamps for winter and spring use. 
Notwithstanding the plain practical directions so opportunely 
issued by the Board of Agriculture upon making silo stacks 
and heaps, I shall venture to give my own brief experiences. 
I could not afford to build a silo myself, nor did I feel so 
certain of its necessity that I could ask my liberal landlord to 
build one for me. Nor could I see the value of screws, and 
pulleys, and presses, as I thought I could press down and cover 
up the grass more cheaply. So I put down a layer of the 
coarsest rubbish or trimmings, and then carted the green stuff 
to the heap, the carts passing over it as a manure mixen is 
made, or, as we call it, a “ drawn muck-up.” Then a horse is 
kept continually trampling and consolidating the mass, while a 
man firmly treads the outsides. The heap may occupy a month 
in making, and when it becomes too high for a cart aud three 
horses to haul up the loads, the ends and sides are cut down 
and thrown on the top, beaten down and covered with a thin 
layer of straw, and the whole mass is cased with 6 or 8 inches 
of mould or road scrapings. A garden roll may be kept on the 
top to close up any cracks which may result from uneven 
settlement. It is better on a dry subsoil to excavate the earth, 
the length and breadth of the intended clamp, 2 or 3 feet deep, 
using the mould thus thrown out to cover up the sides and top. 
In the wet summer of 1888 I made some clover into a silage 
clamp, and, instead of covering it with earth, placed a big 
stack of hay on the top of it. This saved the trouble of carting 
the mould, and the heat from the silage seemed to improve the 
washed hay which was placed upon it. 
Then as to the best mode of using the silage. As I never 
give any stock long hay, and I chaff up a vast amount of straw, 
I find the silage is best passed through the chaff-cutter with 
the straw, and, if allowed to remain some hours before using, 
both are improved. I need hardly add that an addition of 
VOL. IV. T. S. — 15 i i 
