146 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. [1 Ave., 1898. 
To insure the best silage and the least loss of dry matter, it is important 
that the silage should have a depth at:the close of filling of not less than 
24 feet, and 30 feet is better than 24 feet. Under these conditions the silage 
is so compact in its lower two-thirds that even if the walls area little open the 
silage is so close and is pressed so hard against the walls that air would enter 
it much slower than if the pressure were less. Where the silo stands until 
spring before it is opened, the necessary losses in the upper 4 to 6 feet of silage 
may reach 20 to 24 per cent. of the dry matter put in, and this may be true 
also even when only the upper 12 inches appears decayed or mouldy. 
THE COVERING OF SILAGE, 
Where silage is to stand any length of time before feeding begins, it is 
important that its surface should be in some manner protected from the air. 
Green marsh hay cut, if 1t is available, makes an excellent cover. Oat chaff, 
or a portion of the silage itself, may be converted into a cover if nothing better 
is available which is cheaper. 
The first thing to do after the silo is filled is to see thatits surface is tramped 
very thoroughly and systematically every two or three days for a period of at 
-least ten days. If some material for cover cheaper than the silage is to be 
used, it should be put on at once and thoroughly wetted with water at the rate 
of 15 to 20 Ib. per square foot of surface. If nothing is put on, then the silage 
itself should receive a similar wetting. 
The object of the repeated trampings is to overcome the tendency of the 
settling of the silage and its dragging on the sides to make it open and loose 
so that air may enter deeply. Itis especially important to tramp close to the 
walls where the settling is most hindered by the friction. 
The object of the water is to restore that which is lost by evaporation due 
to heating, and to develop quickly a thin, well-rotted, very wet layer on the 
surface which then becomes a nearly air-tight cover for the silage. 
The loss where water is used and no cover, other than a layer of decayed 
silage, we have found to be about 16°5 Ib. per square foot of surface where the 
silo has stood eighty days, and 22 lb. where the silo has stood 180 days before 
being opened. 
THE WEIGHT OF SILAGE PER CUBIC FOOT. 
The weight of corn silage increases with the depth below the surface, 
with the amount of water in the silage, and with the diameter of the silo. In 
silos of small diameters the amount of surface in the wall is so much greater 
in proportion to the silage contained that the friction on the sides has more 
influence in preventing the settling of the silage. 
THE CAPACITY OF SILOS. 
The capacities of silos increase more rapidly than do their depths, so much 
that a silo 36 feet deep will contain nearly five times as much silage as one 
only one-third that depth; and when it is remembered that there is less 
necessary loss with deep silage the importance of depth will be appreciated. 
Doubling the diameter of the silo increases its capacity a little more than 
four times, while trebling its diameter increases its capacity nine-fold. It is 
evident, therefore, that the cost of storage decreases rapidly with increase in 
the size of the silo. 
¢ IMPORTANCE OF FEEDING FROM THE TOP. 
Silage spoils more rapidly when fed from the sides than when fed from the 
top. Cutting down and feeding in sections results in greater loss than in feeding 
from the side, so that where deep silos are impracticable the only other plan is 
to use several silos or, what amounts to the same thing, dividing a single silo 
into pits with partitions. Partitions, however, are objectionable, and should 
be resorted to only where it is impossible to store a sufficient amount of silage 
for the year without making the feeding surface so broad as to cause the silage 
to be fed down too slowly to prevent its moulding on the surface, 
