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Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2385, 22 October 1887, Page 2

In the North British Agriculturist appear advertisements from manufacturers of ensilage presses, with illustrations showing the method of stacking the silage and the style of press in use. Wo clip from the same paper the following letter from a correspondent, which will probably convey some useful bints to our Waikato farmers. BRACKEN ENSILAGE. Sin,—With so numerous and widespread complaints of a deficient yield of hay this season, it is of great importance that it should bo brought home to all interested in agriculture that such herbage as bracken, ferns, and rough grasses of all sorts—useless as pasture—are capable of being converted, after certain simple operations, into useful fodder for winter keep. This can be done easily, and at almost nominal expense. Experience has proved that bettor ensilage is obtained when made in stacks than in silos (even the champion prize at the Ensilage Society’s Show was given to silage made in a- stack); so that, without doubt, it is now unnecessary to go to the expense of any sort of silo whatever. All that is needed is a good press, which can bo procured for a few pounds. The one I use is Blunt’s patent pressure, supplied by the Leicester Ensilage Press Co., which won the Highland Society’s prize last year. Now, it seems to me that farmers must be fatuous indeed if, with these facts before them, they fail to perceive the advantages of a system which can, without difficulty and at most trifling cost, convert thousands of acres of coarse vegetation, which otherwise would be allowed to go to waste, into good fodder of varying degrees of nutritionsness.—l am, &c., Hei.v.