1 Aprin, 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 251 
but let it remain ina heap as it falls until it heats. This applies only to the 
first layer. It will heat better in that way and more evenly than if spread 
against the cold sides and corners of the building. When the first lot has 
heated up to 125 degrees or over, then spread it evenly over the floor, putting 
the hottest stuff next the walls, and especially in the corners. Pack it well in 
the corners and along the walls, where it should be tramped down until firm. 
Then put on the second layer, spreading it evenly over the surface, but haying 
it a few inches or a foot higher against the walls than in the middle. The hot 
silage in the first layer will promote the heating of the second, and so on until 
the building is filled. The last layer should be rather heaped up in the middle, 
to allow for settling down there. When the last layer is heated, and by that 
time the mass will have settled down a good deal, put a layer, 6 inches or 
8 inches deep, of damaged straw, or coarse grass, or green grass, or any rubbish 
of that kind, cut into chaff, and the work is done. ‘ 
I have seen a No. 16 Ohio ensilage cutter at work recently here. It is 
quite a revelation in that class of machinery. It is capable of doing 6 tons 
to 8 tons of green maize per hour; in fact, two men working hard could not 
feed it to its full capacity from a dray alongside the feed-table. That machine 
can be indented froin the makers—the Silver Manufacturing Company—with 
a 24-foot carrier (in three sections of 8 feet each) and a shredder cylinder for 
converting dried cornstalks (stover) into corn hay at a cost of less than £30, 
all freight and charges paid to Brisbane. This does not include the driving 
power (horse-gear or steam). The cutter can be used for cutting lucerne or 
oaten hay into chaff. The machine I referred to was driven by a 24-horse 
power engine (English estimate, which is equal to a 6 or 8 horse power 
American estimate). 
The only matter now to be referred to is the feeding out of the ensilage 
when required for the stock. It should be taken evenly from the top, not 
from either end. ‘Two inches or 8 inches per day should be taken off and fed 
out. When opening the silo take out the decayed rubbish on the top, which 
will probably be found very mouldy, but yet will find consumers amongst your 
dry cattle (do not give mouldy stuff to your milch cows). Take outas far as a 
foot deep immediately behind the feeding-out doorway. Make a saw cut 
diagonally across the boards towards the right and left, as shown in Sketch C. 
Take out the boards so cut out, and, numbering them, put them so that they 
can be replaced next season when filling commences. ‘They will fit back in 
their places, and if necessary they may get additional support by an inch 
strip of stuff/nailed near the edge of the studs. 
For a moderate-sized dairy farm, for an outlay of less than £50, a silo and 
cutting plant can be obtained according to the following estimate :— 
60-ton silo ae ie a 1. +s. COsting, say £20 
No. 11 Ohio ensilage cutter (capable of doing 3 to 4 tons . 
per hour), with elevator 20 feet long ... Be ive.) alls) 
Sweep, 2-horse power, geared with power jack ... say 9 
Total as, Be aa : fe . LAA 
Each farmer can calculate for himself what it costs him to cultivate 
4 to 6 acres of maize. It ought not to cost him more than it did Messrs. 
Archer, who had everything done by hired labour, to grow, haul, and cut the 
green stuff into chaff. 
A ton of ensilage would give a large feed to 40 or 50 full-sized cows, 
costing about 1d. per cow per day, and unless the cows were a poor lot (and — 
there are too many of them on our farms) they would repay that small cost 
many times over. : : 
Yor larger dairy farms, especially if steam-power is available, the No. 18 
(capacity, 4 to 64tons per hour) or No. 16 (capacity, 6 to 8 tons per hour) 
cutter is recommended, - 
