52 HOW TO BUILD A SILO. 



there is an unavoidable loss of food materials during the 

 siloing period, amounting to, perhaps, 10 per cent.; we 

 must, therefore, put more than the quantity given into 

 the silo. If ninety tons of silage is wanted, about one 

 hundred tons of fodder corn must be placed in the silo; 

 we figure, therefore, that we shall need about 4 tons of 

 silage per head for the winter, but, perhaps, 5 tons per 

 head would be a safer calculation, and provide for some 

 increase in the size of the herd. 



Corn silage will weigh from thirty pounds, or less, 

 to toward fifty pounds per cubic foot, according to the 

 depth in the silo from .which it is taken, and the amount 

 of moisture which it contains. We may take forty pounds 

 as an average weight of a cubic foot of corn silage. One 

 ton of silage will, accordingly, take up fifty cubic feet; 

 and 100 tons, 5,000 cubic feet. If a rectangular one-hun- 

 dred-ton silo is to bo built, say 12x14 feet, it must then 

 have a height of 30 feet. If a square silo is wanted, it 

 might be given dimensions 12x12x35 feet, or 13x13x30 

 feet; if a circular silo the following dimensions will be 

 about right: Diameter, 16 feet; height of silo, 26 feet, etc. 

 In the same way, a silo holding 200 tons of corn or clover 

 silage may be built of the dimensions 16x24x26 feet, 

 20x20x25 feet, or if round, diameter, 20 feet, height, 32 

 feet, etc. 



Since the capacity of round silos is not as readily 

 computed as in case of a rectangular silo, we give on fol- 

 lowing page a table which shows at a glance the approxi- 

 mate number of tons of silage that a round silo, of a 

 diameter from 10 to 26 feet, and 20 feet to 32 feet deep, 

 will hold. 



