The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1886-01-16 00:00:00

EN SILAGE WORK.

No doubt it will be fresh in the general recollection
that a very good ensilage competition was got up in
connection with the Smithfield Show of 1884, by pri-
vate effort. Mr. Kainsjackson was the prime mover
in the affair, and sufficient funds being raised for a
very creditable prize list, samples of silage were sent
up to compete from all parts of the kingdom. The
Ensilage Commission was, no doubt, one of the results
of this competition, as well as the admirable reports
on the evidence collected by the examinations of the
Commissioners, and directly by the Agricultural
Department of the Government. As autumn came
round again, however, it became evident that another
competition of silage specimens ought to take place
on similar lines to the former one, and it seeming to
be desirable that such shows should take place
annually, the next step was the formation of an
Ensilage Society with a Committee of Management,
which would allow of higher, no less than more,
persistent aims to be entertained. The immediate
result of this has been the holding of a second great
silage contest last month, for which over 200 samples
were brought together.
The general character of these exhibits is spoken
very highly of, and considering their owners could
not have known what they were at the early period
when the notices of entry had to be scut in, they
must be taken as fairly representing that of the bulk
of silage as now produced. They chiefly consisted
of meadow grasses and artificial grass samples, the
classes for clover, rye-grass, trifolium, green crops,
maize, and tares, being all alike scantily filled,
while class 1 for meadow grass had 80 entries, and
class 8 of a miscellaneous description, but chiefly
consisting of silage from seeds or artificial grasses,
had 52 entries. From this it would seem that
although catch crops such as rye and trifolium ai e to
some extent grown as silage crops, they are often too
valuable for utilisation as green food to be devoted
to this object, whereas crops of grass of some kind,
and especially aftermaths, are always available in
summer and autumn, to be cut for deposition in silos.
If this is the practical result of the past season,
which was an extraordinary good one for haymaking,
what will it be when we again have wet and catching
summers?

Possibly it may be thought by some that owing to
the provision of silos being limited, an increase of
silage cannot largely take place under such circum-
stances. This is not, however, the case, the stack
system having so well succeeded that some farmers
actually prefer to make silage in stacks, rather than
deposit the grass or green crop in a silo. No doubt it will
surprise our readers to be told that the champion
prize for the best silage of any kind exhibited in the
late competition was awarded to an excellent speci-
nnn of unchaffed meadow grass silage, which had
been taken out of an ensilage stack. The pressure
must no doubt be more effectual, owing to which
mechanical leverage or screw pressure may be
much better than the imposition of dead weights.
But it does not at all follow that the farmer
should adopt any expensive or elaborate pro-
cesses. As, however, example is always better than
precept, we will state what Mr. Nuttall, the well-
known dairy farmer of Leicestershire does as his
regular course of procedure, and on rather a large
scale. He is one of the experienced men before
alluded to, who have made the discovery that to manu-
facture silage in ensilage stacks is far cheaper than to
build silos for carrying out the object. He always
places his stack against some tree, that the latter may
be employed as a fulcrum for leverage. The stack is
built on a platform of boards, nailed to rough slabs,
and shams from it being attached to the leverage, this
may be made to draw it up while forcing down the top
cover, so that pressure is employed both ways, as if
the green crops or grasses were in a vice. The operator
can work the lever as often as he thinks proper, while
the stack is progressing. Practice soon shows what
quantity of material can be best acted upon at one
time, and before the stack is completed the sides
should be well trimmed down, and the loose fodder
thus abstracted be placed on the top. It this be
done to a sufficient extent there will be very little
damaged, much less waste material at the outside.
This at any rate is Mr. Nuttall's experience, who
states that by trimming his silage stacks twice last
season, he had no waste worthy of the name.
After this, we think it might be considered within
the power of any farmer, however humble his posi-
tion or poor his resources, to convert any proportion
of his grasses or green crops into silage, and when
we consider the enormous national wealth which has
been sacrificed in past times, in wet summers, and
ruinous hay-making seasons, this must be accounted
a great blessing, the full measure of which we can
scarcely at present estimate.—The Agricultural
Economist.