61 



The other items are as follows : 



%) days' work by masons at $3 ^TS 00 



12 days' Irtbor at .n.TS 21 00 



15 days' labor at $1.25 • 18 75 



21 cords of stone at $2.50 52 50 



13 barrels cement at $2 26 00 



70 bushels lime at 2S cents 19 60 



Frame building over silo, etc 119 41 



Ensilage cutter, including freight 81 27 



Total $413 42 



All this was done in the best manner possible, as it was desirable 

 to have no failure from an unfit building. The floor was made 

 of small boulders bedded in cement and is nearly six inches thick, 

 as I was greatly afraid that during wet weather water would be 

 forced up through the bottom. The walls inside are cemented so 

 ag to be smooth, and offer no projections on which the planks 

 covering the ensilage might catch in settling. 



The cost of this silo is no criterion for others. Any farmer 

 can soon ascertain what one will cost him by asking " what will 

 a cellar of desired size, built of stone, brick or concrete, and 

 cemented inside, cost me here on my own farm ? " 



Add to this the cost of some kind of roof to keep out rain, and 

 enough two inch plank to make a covering over the ensilage 

 when the silo is filled, and you have the cost of the silo. These 

 conditions vary, of course, with every section and farm. 



As this silo stands about half above ground, the ensilage is in 

 danger of freezing in winter. This I shall obviate by stacking 

 bundles of corn fodder about the building on the three exposed 

 sides. 



FODDERS FOR ENSILAGE. 



The crop relied upon for filling the silo was fodder corn. 



The first plot of fodder corn was about two and a half acres in 

 extent. The soil was a low gIslj alluvial, not sufficiently elevated 

 above Fourth Lake to yield the largest crops. The ground had 

 been in corn for several seasons past, and was fertilized in the 

 spring with barnyard manure, at the rate of twelve loads per 

 acre. The plot would have brought from thirty-five to forty 

 bushels of shelled corn per acre this season, I should judge, had 

 it been planted to that crop. 



