36 The Bulletin. 



THE SILO. 



By a. L. FRENCH, Rockingham County. N. C. 



In talking to you of the silo I feel tliat I am bringing to your attention a 

 matter that is of the most vital importance to the stock farmers of the entire 

 State, and especially to you of the western section. You have in all these moun- 

 tain counties a vast acreage of land that can, to my way of thinking, be , 

 handled profitably only for grazing purposes, it being too rough to be farmed by 

 machinery, and with our present high-priced help luind-worKing of our general 

 farm crops is entirely out of the question. But a considerable amount of the 

 stock you can summer-feed must be maintained through the winter also; and 

 right here is where the silo comes to your aid. 



You have a small acreage of excellent valley land capable of producing by the 

 best methods of cultivation a large amount per acre of corn, cowpeas, and 

 sorghum. We know from years of experience that in no way can as much good, 

 nutritious feed be produced per acre as by the use of the silo. As by this means 

 the entire feed plant is preserved in a palatable, succulent form, there being 

 practically no waste at all, eveiy pound being made available as tlie very best 

 stock feed. 



This is the first and greatest advantage of this method of preserving feed plants. 



Another, and of almost equal importance, is that succulence is provided for 

 winter, making practically grass conditions the year around. 



The third advantage is that silage feed can be preserved at less cost per acre 

 than by any other method. (This is not guesswork with us; we have the figures 

 for it). 



The fourth is that storage can be provided by the use of the silo for more tons 

 of feed at less cost than by any other method of housing. 



Another is, that no rough feed is as well fitted to be mixed with the more 

 concentrated grains, as silage. This product always remaining damp and wann, 

 meal adheres to it better than to any other rough feed, and consequently there 

 is no waste of meal ; and the two making a more bulky ration, the meal is more 

 fully digested than if fed alone. 



Now doesn't this make it plain to j^ou that economy of production demands 

 that where you have only a limited acreage of tillable land for the production of 

 your winter feeds, you should utilize the silo in the preservation of this feed? 



We have used several styles of silos and have come to the conclusion that 

 where limber is not too high-priced the stave silo made of 2x6 or 2\S ineli pieces, 

 the length you \\Tsh your silo to be in height, and banded with round iron rods, 

 is the most economical to construct. The whole idea of silo construction is this: 

 to have a round tub, the sides and bottom of which are air-tight and which is 

 the same diameter from top to bottom. To construct these tub silos we use, as 

 I have said, 2x6-inch slaves. I like thom to be tontrued and gronxcd, like 2-inch 

 flooring. For a silo 16 feet in diameter and 24 feet high we need about 128 pieces 

 of 2x6 and two pieces of 4x6 the same length. When ready to erect the tub, we 

 take our two pieces of 4x6, start about 6 inches from the bottom of them and 

 bore two holes, one about .3 inches above the other and 2 inches from one 

 edge, boring through the timber tlie narrow way. Tlien 16 inches above these 

 holes we bore two more; then 24 inches above these, two more: and so on, 

 widening the distance apart as we proceed, until at the upper end of the pieces the 

 holes may be 4 or 5 feet apart. Tliese pieces of tinil)er are to take the place of 

 lugs in holding our hoops together. Now, having our circular foundation built 

 and extending above the ground 6 or 8 inelies, we proceed to erect our tub by first 

 erecting our 4x6 timbers, one on either side of our foundation and exactly opposite 

 each other, and set edgewise to the circumference of the foundation, with the 

 edge of the timber through which tlie holes have been bored to the outside. .Stay 

 these two pieces well, having them exactly perpendicular. Tlie round iron rods 

 we use for hoops \x\\\ need a 4-inch thread run on each end of them, and each 



