30 HOW TO BUILD A SILO. 



Location of the Silo. 



The location of the silo is a matter of great importance, which 

 has to be decided upon at the start. The feeding of the silage is 

 an every-day job during the whole winter and spring, and twice 

 a day at that. Other things being equal, the nearest available 

 place is therefore the best. The silo should be as handy to get 

 at from the barn as possible. The condition of the ground must 

 be considered. If the ground is dry outside the barn, the best 

 plan to follow is to build the silo there, in connection with the 

 barn, going four feet to six feet below the surface, and providing 

 for door opening directly into the barn. The bottom of the silo 

 should be on or below the level where the cattle stand, and, if 

 practicable, the silage should be moved out and placed before the 

 cows at a single handling. While it is important to have the silo 

 near at hand, it should be so located, in case the silage is used 

 for milk production, that silage odors to not penetrate the whole 

 stable, at milking or other times. Milk is very sensitive to odors, 

 and unless care is taken to feed silage after milking, and to have 

 pure air, free from silage odor, in the stables at the time of 

 milking, there will be a silage flavor to the milk. This will not 

 be sufficiently pronounced to be noticed by most people, and 

 some people cannot notice it at all; but when a person is sus- 

 picious, he can generally discover it. So far as is known this 

 odor is not discernible in either butter or cheese made from 

 silage-flavored milk, nor does it seem to affect the keeping qualities 

 of the milk in any way. 



Different Types of Silo Structures. 



Silos may be built of wood, stone, brick, cement, tile or metal, 

 or partly of one and partly of another of these materials. Wooden 

 silos may be built of several layers of thin boards nailed to up- 

 rights, or of single planks (staves), or may be plastered inside. 

 The material used will largely be determined by local conditions; 

 where lumber is cheap, and stone high, wooden silos will generally 

 be built; where the opposite is true, stone or brick silos will have 

 the advantage in point of cheapness, while concrete and clay 

 block silos are likely to be preferred where great permanency is 

 desired or where cobble-stones are at hand in abundance, and 

 lumber or stone are hard to get at a reasonable cost. So far as 

 the quality of the silage made in any of these kinds of silos is con- 



