392 



SELLING LUMBER 



Faults of 

 Other Silos 



Economy 

 of the 

 Wooden Silo 



Repairs Easy 

 in Wooden 

 Silos 



expensive and so far they have never made a good joint, so that 

 the leakage at the joints has been so bad they have not been con- 

 sidered much in the silo world. Should they be built like steam 

 boilers, riveted tight, they could probably eliminate this, but the 

 cost would then be prohibitive. 



'"Now the main business reason that we find appeals to the 

 farmer as to why he should build a wood stave silo rather than 

 a so-called permanent construction of cement, brick, tile or ce- 

 ment stave, is that the cost of a good wood stave silo is from one- 

 half to two-thirds the cost of a silo of the same size built of the 

 so-called permanent construction. For instance, say a wood stave 

 silo cost $200 and the same in masonry $350, the other $150 in- 

 vested in a good bull or in two good cows or in a bunch of calves 

 would make the farmer so much money that in the course of four 

 or five years he could easily build another silo with the profit 

 made from the difference in the investment, and, after all, the 

 majority of buyers of silos are men who cannot 'afford to throw 

 away $150 just to have a fancy, high priced building on their 

 farms/' 



A general sales manager for one of the largest silo manu- 

 facturers in the West has this to say: 



"One of our arguments which is used quite effectively by 

 our salesmen is the fact that should a stave silo blow down, which 

 is about the only objection you ever hear to a stave silo, it can be 

 re-erected or rebuilt with but little cost, whereas if a masonry silo 

 cracks or goes to the bad, if a metal silo blows down or is decayed 

 from the action of the acids which are developed in the ensilage, 

 if a block silo foundation settles and causes it to break open ; the 

 loss is almost an entire loss ; it cannot be patched up or rebuilt and 

 the owner is daily reminded of the fact that he made a bad buy in 

 the original purchase of his silo. 



"Another feature, which is in favor of wood stave silos, is the 

 fact that the silo manufacturer of other materials realizes that 

 it is impossible for him to compete with us so far as price is con- 

 cerned, hence they advocate a larger silo than is: practical. They 

 talk and recommend silos of 200 tons capacity and up, which, of 

 course, figures cheaper per ton on a tonnage basis than a silo of 

 100 tons capacity. You can readily see the difference as shown." 



