BUILDING THE SILO. 305 



with the needs of the silo has led to their being used 

 by some silo builders. 



The distance of the hoops from one another 

 should be regulated almost entirely by the size of 

 the silo. The greater the diameter of the silo and 

 the higher it is the closer should the hoops be placed, 

 especially toward its base. For a silo sixteen feet 

 in diameter the lower edge of the first hoop should 

 be within about six inches of the base of the staves. 

 The space between the lowest hoop and the one next 

 above it should be two feet. The space between 

 each additional hoop added, and the one next below 

 it should increase six inches. But four feet should 

 be the limit in distance between any two adjacent 

 hoops in such a silo. On the approach of the season 

 of filling the silo, it should be examined and the 

 hoops tightened when this may be necessary, but it 

 should be borne in mind that it is possible to draw 

 the hoops too tight, since the staves will swell some- 

 what after the silo has been filled. 



The Doors. The doors should be in line, one 

 above another. They should be no larger than will 

 suffice to admit of the easy ingress and egress of the 

 person who removes the silage. Doors eighteen 

 by twenty- four inches on the outside will usually be 

 amply large. The bottom of the first or lowest door 

 should be not less than three feet from the bottom 

 of the silo, and in some instances, as when a horse 

 cart is used for drawing the silage, it ought to be 

 higher than three feet. But when the pit of the silo 

 is sunk down some distance below the surface of the 

 ground the bottom door should be placed as low as 

 possible. The distance between the doors should 



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