100 HOW TO BUILD A SILO. 



be boarded with novelty siding. The latter method will 

 make a stronger and better looking silo. If the hoops are 

 well nailed to the staves when being made, we shall have 

 a silo in which it is impossible for the staves to shrink 

 or get loose. (Woodward.) 



Peer, in his book "Soiling, Soiling Crops and Ensilage," 

 reports that a New York canning factory who has for 

 years siloed their pea vines, corn husks and cobs, and win- 

 tered sheep thereon, put the refuse through a cutting box 

 Into a rough plank silo about thirty feet in diameter. "The 

 planks were rough, just as they came from the saw mill, 

 set on end, and hooped with half-inch iron. No roof was 

 put on, and when the silage settled the staves were taken 

 down, the silage stood, and the whole mass kept in per- 

 fect form. The following year the staves (2x6 inch 

 planks) are set up again. As to the silage spoiling, there 

 Is six or eight inches on the side that rots, and is thrown 

 into the manure heap. As to freezing, they experienced 

 no inconvenience from that. If the top freezes a little, 

 it is mixed with the unfrozen, fermentation sets up, and 

 the frozen part is thawed out by its own combustion. 



Protection against freezing. If the silo is built out- 

 doors in any of the Northern states, it is necessary to pro- 

 vide some special means to keep the silage from freezing 

 in case this is considered a very objectionable feature. 

 The silo may be inclosed by a wide jacket of rough boards 

 nailed to four uprights, leaving the section of the silo 

 where the doors are easy of access; the space between the 

 silo and outside jacket is filled with straw in the fall; this 

 may be taken out and used for bedding in the spring, thus 

 allowing the staves to be thoroughly dried out during the 

 summer, and preventing the silo from rotting. 



Number of staves required for stave silos. The follow- 

 ing table will be found useful in calculating the number of 

 staves required for silos of different diameters, and feed- 

 ing areas which these will give: 



