No. 4.] SILOS AND SILAGE. 159 



service and economy; also the patent, ready-to-put-up stave silo; 

 but for long service and economy, without any of the bother or worry 

 of blowing down in a heavy wind when empty, we favor a round 

 silo made of brick and lined with cement mortar. 



Our silos are constructed of what is known as swelled brick, that 

 is, the hard bricks with the bulge in them that can be found at every 

 brickyard, and which cost usually less than half the price of No. 1 

 brick; and when these are put up with a strong cement mortar, 

 laying five courses of brick in an 8-inch wall, as houses are built, 

 and every sixth course laid as headers across the other courses, and 

 l)ieces of bent pipe with a large flange on end placed around one- 

 third of the circle of the silo, that is safe to fill for a long term 

 of years. Our first brick silo, constructed this way, has been filled 

 fifteen years, and gives promise of many more years of constant use. 



The cost of a silo of this type will vary with the distance from a 

 brickyard or the freight cost on the brick, but as we constructed 

 ours where we hauled the brick seven miles, and contracted for the 

 laying of the brick at $4 per thousand, furnishing the sand for the 

 same ourselves, the structure cost us about $2 per ton capacity, 

 this including the cost of hauling the brick, building the roof, etc. 

 Solid concrete silos can be put up, I think, for about the same cost. 



When one considers the amount of food stored up in a 100 to 

 250 ton silo, and compares its value with the cost of a like amount of 

 food stored in the average hay mow, I think they must concede 

 that the silo offers the most economical storage of crops, and cer- 

 tainly will pay for itself veiy quickly whenever it is adopted on the 

 dairy farm. Build the silo, brother dairymen; use judgment in the 

 construction and size of the same to fit the needs of your herd, and 

 then grow the crops to put into the silo, and do away with the long, 

 laborious, undesirable green-soUing system for summer feeding of 

 your dairy. 



