Connecticut western news., 1881-05-25
How a SilO was Made.


 When I first commenced to study up this system of ensilage, says Vermont farmer, it was evident that if had silo at all, it must be largely above ground. I thought could get the vegetable mass to the top of it some way, but when I thought about raising twenty, fifty or one hundred tons of stone fifteen or twenty feet once, twice or three times each year, I confess that I did not ham, ker after that kind of job, and I will tell you how got over it.
 The bottom of my silo is made of large flat stones, the spaces between them being filled with small stones and ce- mented. Through four of the largest stones holes were drilled to admit an inch and one-haH iron rod, with thread cut os.jjr the lower end two 1ehes to receive nut which is under the stones. The rods are square where they go through the stones, to prevent turning. The stones are so placed that each rod has an equal number of feet to press. In my silo they are four feet apart each way from the corners, and eight feet apart. The rods extend about sixteen inches above the top of the silo, and have thread cut on the upper end one- sixth as long as depth of silo. If the silo is full three sticks of six inch tim Der are placed across the blanks which cover it, one near each end and one Tn the centre. Then two sticks of six by ten inch timber, with holes bored for the rods, are put across these timbers; then an iron washer with six inch face then the nuts are put on and with a wrench four feet long it neither makes my back lame nor my fingers sore to press ensi- lage all that is needed.
 | I think the correct amount of pressure to be just so much as can be applied without pressing any juice from the mass.
 If the silo is only partly filled posts are cut of the proper length (three for each pair of screws, or six in all, and set be- tween the three lower timbers and the cross-beams or followers. The elasticity of the timber gives continuous pressure as the cross-beams are bent when the nuts are turned down, the rods coming through them midway between the rests.
 I have pressed in this way one season and am entirely satisfied with the results. The nuts were turned down two or three times day for week, and occasionally afterward, until the ensilage ceased to settle.
 The cost of my four screws, twenty feet long, was $25, and they are power full enough to press 8 silo of 16 by 20 feet to any depth. I think this method much cheaper in the long run and more convenient, especially if the silo is part ly filled with rye in May, clover added in June, and the balance filled with corn and aftermath in September.
 think your Vermont correspondent right about the form of silo. should never build large for the purpose of re- ducing height, as wish my silo was forty feet deep instead of twenty. I do not see wherein lies the inconvenience of taking ensilage from siIo thirty or even fifty feet deep, as there is no objection to having a door once in ten feet the entire height. Were I in your core spondents place I should make that silo twenty feet each way, and as deep as ] could, and if the barn was likely to burst
 with the pressure outward, would hooI
 it, use the screws to press it with, and
 be happy.
 fed the last of my ensilage the first , of April, and notwithstanding that , have doubled their grain since then anc have fed them the best of early cut hay , my COWS have shrunk nearly one-thirc , in their yield of milk. Don't think shall run out of ensilage next spring jus ! when need it the most.
 5 Referring to the above, young far mer in the Boston Journal says: ''I se' 3 that some of the papers are spreading the reports of chemists who try to prove by analysis that ensilage is but poor watery substance, which contains bu little nutritive qualities; not as much a l the same food would contain if dried . and not as much as it containsd befor' it was put in the silo.
 3 "I have great respect for the chemist 8 and their work, and my ignorance ren , ders me incapable of disproving thei ) figures but figures may be made to lie 3 though the old adage says they will not s and if my correspondents COWS will ] give three quarts of milk on ensilag 3 and only two on early cut hay witt g double grain rations, must say tha r the aforesaid COWS are very foolish O l the chemists are slightly mistaken,