322 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[August, 
and it pays only to grow the best. The 
“ Clawson,” has been tested very thoroughly; 
it, so to speak, has “ gone through the mill,” 
and takes a high rank as to quality of flour 
produced,and yield per acre. There are others. 
Ensilage-Its Ways and Means. 
-- 
So far as we are aware, the first account of the 
Trench experiments in Ensilage of fodder-corn 
given in this country, were in the American Agri¬ 
culturist for June, 1875, though in 1873 and ’74, and 
earlier, we described essentially the same process in 
other countries with other crops. Since our first 
article on the ensilage of fodder-corn, the experi¬ 
ments in this country have been numerous and 
have established, beyond a doubt, the fact that the 
process will preserve the fodder, and, if the proper 
conditions have been observed, without failure. 
Some doubt has been thrown upon the feeding 
value of the fodder thus preserved ; this is a most 
important point, and we are glad to present some 
important testimony from actual experiments in 
feeding in the article upon another page, by Prof. 
McBryde of Tennessee. 
To those who would make their first attempt at 
ensilage, there are three important considerations. 
1. A sufficient crop of fodder-corn ; 2. A proper 
pit or silo, for preserving it; 3. A machine, with 
the power to drive it, that will rapidly cut the fod¬ 
der for filling the silo. The first item, the supply 
THE ROSS ENSILAGE CUTTER. 
of fodder, must have been provided for a mouth or 
two ago, and need not now be considered. 
The Construction of the Silo. 
The requirement is a pit or cellar 'which shall be 
free from all infiltration of water and be air tight. 
This may be built entirely above ground, as in the 
silos of Mr. Goffart, the French experimenter; or 
it may be entirely below ground, like a deep square 
well, or it may be made in a bank, a part above and 
a part below the surface. However built it must 
be, by a roof or otherwise, protected from in¬ 
jury by rain and other stbrms. As to materials, the 
silo may be of stone, of brick, or of concrete ; no 
doubt those who live in wooded countries can build 
in the fashiou of a log-house, taking special care 
to “chink up” the joints. Wherever the soil is 
of a character that will allow cisterns for rain-water 
to be made by merely cementing upon the sides of 
an excavation, a silo may be made in this manner. 
A thoroughly tight pit being the object, the means 
of securing thiswill 
vary with the lo¬ 
cality. Of course 
in locating the silo 
the convenience of 
feedingits contents 
must be consider¬ 
ed, and this will 
require it to be 
placed as near the 
barn as possible. 
The first silo of 
Prof. McBryde, 
whose article on 
feeding is given 
elsewhere, was 
made by excavat¬ 
ing into a dry knoll 
where the soil was 
“a strong firm clay, 
over a close, dry, 
and compact red 
clay subsoil ; ” the 
fodder was packed 
directly into this 
without cementing 
the walls. Mr. J. 
M. Bailey’s silo, at 
Winning Farm, Bil¬ 
lerica, Mass., is 
built with concrete 
walls, 15 inches thick. The silo of Whitman & 
Burrell, near Utica, N. Y., is built of stone, and 
is three feet thick upon one side, next the bank, 
and two feet next to the barn, the roof of which 
exteuds over and covers the silo. 
TUe Size of the Silo, 
will be of course governed by the number of ani¬ 
mals. Mr. Bailey estimates that one cow requires 
for a year 550 cubic feet of ensilaged fodder, and 
if the cows are pastured for half the year, then 275 
cubic feet will be sufficient. He estimates that to 
keep two cows for a year, a silo 10 feet wide, long 
and deep will hold suffici¬ 
ent. A silo 12 feet wide, 
30 feet long, and 12 feet 
deep, he estimates will hold 
about 87 tons, euough to 
winter 12 to 15 cows. Where 
stone is plenty, he thinks 
that a silo of the size can 
be built at a cost, besides 
the labor, of about $50. 
Silos have been made by 
digging a pit, putting in 
the fodder as in pitting 
roots, piling it as high as 
practicable, and then cover¬ 
ing with earth. The diffi¬ 
culty in this case is, that in 
opening, the earth mixes 
with the fodder; besides 
there is a trouble in keep¬ 
ing the covering tight, as 
the contents settle; this 
method might answer where 
straw is plenty, and a sufficient covering can be 
placed over the fodder before putting on the earth. 
Cutting tlie Fodder Corn. 
Nothing shows the readiness with which inven¬ 
tors and manufacturers meet and forward every 
improvement in agriculture than this fact. It is 
only about eight years since the terms silo and ensi¬ 
lage appeared in our agricultural papers ; it is only 
within three years that there have been more than 
two or three silos in the country, yet already there 
are offered in our advertising columns no less than 
four different machines, all invented and made ex¬ 
pressly to meet the probable demand for ensilage 
cutters. It is important to the process that the 
cutters should be of sufficient capacity to cut the 
required amount daily. Mr. Bailey thinks that to 
fill the silo to the depth of two feet in each day 
is better than to fill it faster, as he finds it to settle 
better. But whatever be the rate at which the 
TUE BALDWIN ENSILAGE CUTTER. 
filling goes on, the cutter should be able to supply 
it. We give engravings of the different cutters 
now offered, which sufficiently illustrate the meth¬ 
ods upon which they operate, and refer those in¬ 
terested to the circulars of the makers, for details 
as to capacity, power required, etc. Our adver¬ 
tising columns give the addresses of the makers. 
The Size to Cut the Fodder. 
In the experiments with ensilage thus far, the 
fodder has been cut into pieces of half an inch 
or less in length. Probably the size of the pieces 
is of more importance than has been supposed, 
not so much as regards the packing and keeping, 
but in respect to the comfort of the animals in feed¬ 
ing. One of our friends called on us a while ago, 
and informed us that one of his neighbors, who had 
succeeded admirably in preserving his fodder, found 
that after his cows had fed upon it for a while with 
evident relish, they all at once seemed reluctant to 
eat it. An examination showed that the gums of 
the cows were badly cut and inflamed, to such a 
degree that they were unable to chew the fodder. 
This trouble was found to be due to the fact that in 
the act of chewing, the short pieces of fodder would 
generally be bitten endwise, and the outer portions 
of the corn, which at the base of the stalk might 
THE CYCLE ENSILAGE CUTTER. 
get very hard, being presented endwise to the 
teeth, were so sharp as to lacerate the gums and 
the tender parts of the mouth. This gentleman 
proposed to overcome the difficulty by cutting 
the fodder longer; if the pieces were longer than 
broad, the animal would take hold of them in the 
usual way aud bite against the circumference of 
the stalks rather than against the ends. Of course 
such trouble can only occur when the rind of the 
stalk has become hard and firm, but it is one of 
the difficulties that should be guarded against. 
