706 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
to buy a stave silo to look well to the kind and quality of wood used. I 
noticed recently an advertisement for a one piece stave silo made of fir, 
and this strikes me as being something good. The concrete, brick, and 
cement block silos are common in some districts, but are more expensive, 
and I think would freeze worse than other kinds. I was told not long 
ago by a party who had estimates on a concrete silo, that it would cost 
between $350 and $400 for a 120-ton capacity. The girder silo can be 
built for less money. This kind is built with 2x4 studding sixteen inches 
apart, placed on circular sills and held in place at the top by circle plates, 
double lined with one-half inch fencing, being careful to break joints both 
ways. Inside of this we strip up and down, on each 2x4, then lath and 
plaster with cement. On the outside we place sufficient belts to withstand 
the pressure of the silage. These are made of three thicknesses of i/^-inch 
fencing. The silo is set on a concrete foundation with three foot pit which 
will add to the capacity. We put a good roof on our silo as experience has 
taught us that silage wet from rain or snow is not palatable to the stock. 
This silo can be built for $200 if you do the work yourself. We expect 
to case ours with galvanized iron soon, which will add about $40 to the 
cost. This silo is giving satisfaction, and I heard recently the first one 
of this kind built in Illinois fourteen years ago is still in good and use- 
ful condition. 
Care should be taken in selecting a silo to get one that will not freeze 
if possible. Cattle do not like frozen silage any better than we would 
cold and partly frozen food, although they make less demonstration about 
it. I have always worked the frozen silage in with the good and thawed 
it out enough to feed without loss or damage to the stock, although I 
have been told it was very dangerous to feed when frozen. I omitted one 
item in regard to kinds of material advisable to use in silos and that is 
to avoid using metal where it comes in contact with the silage, as I 
notice that a patch made from heavy galvanized iron on the floor where 
we keep silage laying only a part of the time has been practically eaten 
up by the acids in less than two years. 
Filling the silo at the proper time is of great importance. In 1907 
we filled ours with corn just nicely glazed in order to get in ahead of 
the frost; this made good feed, but not as good as might have been. 
Last fall we tried corn well dented and added a little water which makes 
better feed. I find that it pays to feed a little bran and crushed corn 
with the silage to cows giving milk. We feed about twenty pounds of 
silage, two quarts of bran, two quarts of crushed corn and cob meal to 
each cow twice a day and have received excellent results. During Jan- 
uary, February and March of last year we milked thirteen cows which 
gave 24,163 pounds of milk, valued at $342.13, an average of $8.77 per 
cow for each month. Three of these cows were so near the end of their 
period of lactation that we turned them dry immediately after the test. 
In January of this year we milked ten cows, two of them heifers giving 
milk since June and one since November, the rest being aged cows. They 
gave 6,332 pounds, worth $98.15, an average of $9.82 per cow. 
I do not give these figures to show what I have done, but to show what 
you can do if you will build a silo. I have tried feeding silage to 
chickens and find they will eat it with the exception of some of the 
