PREFACE 



During the past few years, I have had occasion to examine 

 and to study the construction of a large number of silos in a 

 dozen states, both in the East and in the Middle West. As 

 the result of this study I have become thoroughly impressed 

 with the belief that many of the mistakes and difficulties in 

 the building of silos might be avoided if the builders had a 

 more thorough knowledge of the fundamental principles of 

 silo construction and the preservation of silage. There is 

 no recent American book on silo building and none of any 

 date which covers the many types of silos now in use and 

 gives details of their construction. There are a number of 

 experiment station publications on the subject, but these are 

 necessarily either brief in their treatment or limited to special 

 types. It is with the object of presenting to the intending 

 builder the principles of silo construction and the advantages 

 and disadvantages of the different types, and more parti- 

 cularly of giving the actual methods of construction, that 

 this book is written. 



The first part of the volume takes up the fundamentals 

 of silage preservation, descriptions of the different types of 

 silos follow, and an explanation of the details and the con- 

 struction of all the important types. These details and the 

 p ans and specifications are in nearly all cases from first- 

 hand knowledge. 



Where the information has occasionally been gleaned from 

 others, full credit is given. The author wishes to acknowl- 

 edge his indebtedness to all engineers and mechanics with 

 whom he has associated in his silo work, as they have all 

 contributed ideas very helpful in developing silos. Promi- 



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