Successful Ensilage Experience.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1994, 18 April 1885, Page 2 (Supplement)

Successful Ensilage Experience.

I have already opened two silos this yeur, and as they have proved so s&tmfnctory I send you an account of them, thinking it may perhaps be of some value to those of your readers who are interested in the matter of enailage and pilos. Two years Hgo I tried pita sunk in the ground without any building ; last year I tried bricks cemented on the inside ; this year I have tried wood, and am so well satisfied with tho renult that I shall certainly stick to it for the future, for, notwithstanding its perishable nature, I belipve it will compare most favorably, as regards expense, with anything else. I use one inch red deal boards, gronved and tongued, and these I find quite sufficient to resist what httlo lateral pressure there is. I have built my silos, four in number, partly in the ground and partly out ; this may be considered merely aa a matter of convenience, as I find the ensilage ju&t as good in one part as in the other. I conetiuct thrm in such a manner that they are easily put up aud taken down ; thus at a very imall outlay they can be taken from one place to another, which is an advantage, I think, should not be overlooked, because I find the cost of carting the crop to the silo is much greater than that of carting the ensilage from the silo. This, of course, would be the case if the crop was cut into chaff before being pat into the silo, but this I not only consider an unnecessary expense, but one which, if actually necessary to the making of ensilage, would effectually prevent it from being used to the greatest advantage, and in a general upon the farm, my first silo, a round one, only bix feet in diameter, was filled in May with rough grass cut from the hedge sides and from under some trees. Neither oattle nor horses would eat this before it went into the silo, but both *at it readily now that it is made into ensilage ; in fact, the whole of it has been consumed, with tho exception of a small pieoe, and although constantly exposed to the air, is now quite sweet and good. My second silo, eight feet in diameter, was first filled with pea straw, after the main crop had been gathered for market, and then refilled with the second cuttiug of clover ; this is all very good, and I am now giving it to my dairy cows, some young calves, and am having the clover ensilage cut up with hay into ohaff for the horses instead of using bran. I am quite convinced from the results I have already obtained, that it is within the reaoh of every small occupier of land to have a silo, or, if I may ventar con a new name for it—" The Farmer's Save-all," for I look upon my small one, holding about five tons of ensilage, entirely in that light, because, having filled it during tho early summer with rough grass, as woll an grass from the gardenlawns, I hsvc now taken that all out, and am again filling it with turnip tops. Of course, I oannot at present say how they will turn ont, but as I succeeded in preserving some cabbage leaves last spring, I have every reason to believe I may have some few ions of turnip tops preserved for next spring. Edwaio T. Blunt. — In Live Stock Journal.