A Study of the Silo 317 



Manly Miles, then connected with the Illinois 

 Industrial University, was fairly successful in 

 preserving the green tops of broom corn in an 

 earthen silo. Interest in the subject of preserv- 

 ing green material in silos was widely aroused 

 in America by the appearance of a book on 

 ensilage, translated in 1878-9. The book was 

 published in France in 1877, by M. Auguste 

 Goffart. 



When the practice of ensilaging green ma- 

 terial for feeding animals was first introduced 

 into the United States there was much discus- 

 sion as to the construction of silos. Many 

 advocated building them of stones, brick, or 

 grout, though some were built of wood. As a 

 rule, they were built either square or in the 

 form of a parallelogram, in a few cases octag- 

 onal. Experience soon showed that the silage 

 was preserved better in the w^ooden silo than in 

 those constructed of other material. For this 

 reason, and because the wooden silo is most 

 cheaply constructed, wood is now in universal 

 use for building thein. 



At first heavy frames were erected which 

 were covered with two, three, and even four 

 thicknesses of boards. Sometimes building 

 paper was placed between the inner and outer 

 boards. The octagon and the round silo soon 

 supplanted those having square corners. As 



