The Indian Corn Crop 185 



made up to that time. But I still found that in my under- 

 ground pits I had a great deal of spoiled silage next the 

 walls and in the corners. Added to this was the great labor 

 of hoisting the material out for feeding. 



About this time came the experiments in overground 

 silos, and we were all soon using the wooden silos above 

 the ground. These did better than the underground ones, 

 but still the square corners were a trouble. We cut these 

 off and made octagon silos, which were better. Then fol- 

 lowed the practice of making doors all the way down on 

 one side, fitting tight with the pressure from within and 

 being taken out, one by one, as the material reached a 

 lower level. These doors made the loading and unloading 

 easy. 



Finally, since the octagon seemed so much better, some 

 bright man developed the notion to make the silo after 

 the manner of the water tanks of the railroads, only that 

 the sides should be perpendicular. Hence, of late years 

 :he evolution of the silo has been in the direction of im- 

 proving on the circular stave type, which has become the 

 universal style, though some large silo users are now con- 

 structing them in the cylindrical shape, but of reinforced 

 cement or concrete construction. But where the making 

 of good ensilage is the main object the wooden stave silo 

 is the best ever invented, for the concrete construction has 

 some of the faults of the old underground silo in the cold 

 cement walls causing a great deal of condensation and 

 resulting in more spoiled ensilage than in the wooden 

 ones. 



