108 



VERMONT AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



SILO BUILDING. 



Points from the lectures given in February at the Vermont 

 Institutes by John Gould, Ohio. 



One of the valuable thing's about the ensiloing of our 

 crops is that the cost of silos is yearly diminishing 1 and the 

 efficiency of them increasing. It seems that every new " dis- 

 covery " about them, adds to their simplicity, and places them 

 more nearly within the reach of every farmer who has suita- 

 ble land on which to grow four acres of good corn. So far as 

 it relates to the silo itself, it would seem that the round silo 

 is to supersede, in the larger number of cases, all other forms, 

 and with few exceptions, the stave and hooped silo is the 

 one oftenest built, and giving the best of satisfaction. It is 

 simply to keep the air from penetrating the walls and bottom, 

 that gives keeping and preserving properties to the silage, 

 the oxygen of air from the mass, once expelled, and prevent- 

 ing any fresh ingress of it, there can be no considerable in- 

 crease of germ, or destructive bacterial life, and so far as 

 known, a well sealed pit of silage would keep in an excellent 

 state of preservation for ten years. 



What the farmer wants to 

 know is how to get the best 

 silo for the least money and 

 labor. In this the stave silo, 

 built of 2x4 inch stuff for 

 staves, close jointed, but not 

 matched or beveled, and 

 hooped with four breadths 



of the coiled wire Page fenc- 

 ing, and set on a leveled 

 foundation without cut stone 

 or brick foundation, gives a 

 man the most for his money 

 and labor. In this brief ar- 

 ticle, with its illustrations — 

 for the latter we thank the Ohio Farmer, Cleveland, O., for 

 their courtesy in donating their use — we shall only have to 

 do with the one pattern of stave silo and its setting up. 



First as to material. This depends upon local supply. 

 Hemlock, free from shakes, is a good material. Pine, with 

 solid knots, pitch pine and similar woods are all in evidence. 

 It cheapens a silo often to use shorter staves than the entire 



