Tanks and Silos 111 
the first year. Besides the great advantage of increasing the 
fattening capacity of the food there is the great economic sav- 
ing of long daily trips for feed through the fields in mud, 
snow, and cold. 
Retail lumbermen have developed a prosperous industry 
in farming communities. Formerly extensive silo manufac- 
turers went into the south, purchased their lumber, manufac- 
tured the articles, and sold directly to the farmer through their 
agents. Today many retail lumberyards devote their slack 
time to the production of these farm articles. There is not 
much additional space required for the storage of a few silos 
within the lumberyards. 
Bald cypress is the most desirable tank and silo wood. It is 
found in commercial quantities in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, 
Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, North 
and South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas. The cut has been 
far in excess of its slow growth. It is claimed for it that the 
wood imparts no taste and that it is sufficiently dense to prevent 
leakage, strong enough to withstand rough usage, and has the 
greatest capacity to resist dampness, excessive heat, and all the 
elements that hasten decay. Water and feed troughs for farm 
stock are made of it. 
Owing to the high cost of cypress and the difficulty of trans- 
portation in 1919 somewhat more spruce than cypress was 
employed for this purpose, but this change may not be 
permanent. 
Spruce is used largely as supports and framework for tanks. 
Hemlock, ash, and several other woods are also thus used. 
White oak goes into slats for tanks and water elevators or sup- 
ports. White pine is used largely in the construction of 
ordinary rough tanks and for frame cisterns. One user of 
hemlock, spruce, fir, and cypress says that he could use New 
York spruce, white pine, and hemlock almost exclusively if 
he could secure them at competitive prices and in sufficient 
quantities for this industry. The form of stock that this 
industry uses ranges from 1 inch to 6 inches thick, most of it 
being 2 inches to 4 inches thick. 
