12S IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
Also you want to get all the feeding value possible in the corn plant 
before you cut it, and the solid matter is put in the plant most 
rapidly during the last two weeks of its maturing period. 
Question: "What method do you use in your silos for jambs and 
doors ? 
Mr. Jones: We set frames in the cement and make the open- 
ings to them, one above the other — about four of them. We build 
our silos 50 feet in height ; they are ordinarily built 20 or 30 feet. 
We have one that is 36 feet in diameter; others that are 26 feet. 
We don't roof them at all. Always make your lowest door high 
enough so that you can drive a wagon into it. Build a square 
chute over these doors, so that when you throw the silage out of the 
top door it drops right down into the wagon. 
Question: How would the corn fodder that is cut up and 
standing in the shock today compare with ensilage for feeding? 
Mr. Jones: It does not compare with it; they won't eat it all. 
After the stalks are dry they get hard and woody ; and if you chop 
them up they will get crosswise in the cattle's mouths and make 
them sore, and it is not satisfactory. 
Question: What kind of molds do you use for building your 
silos ? 
Mr. Jones: One silo we build by making a permanent inside 
mold out of flooring boards and using sheets of strip-iron 28 inches 
in width, then fill it. 
Question: What proportions do you use? 
Mr. Jones : About one of cement to eight of gravel. 
Heretofore there has been one great objection in regard to these 
silos, viz. : that the silage will mould around the wall. That will 
occur with ordinary cement silos, but we prevent it by simply 
coating the inside of the silo with coal tar or asphaltum. It doesn't 
have to be renewed oftener than every two or three years. 
We have one round barn of 150 feet diameter with a circular 
feed box. The barn has an open court of about 100 feet with a 
shed extending all around it about 25 feet. 
Question: In building small silos for 30 head of cattle would 
you advise a cement silo? 
Mr. Jones : Yes, but I would build them high and narrow. 
The joint meeting thereupon adjourned. 
