CHAPTER XVI. 



THE CONSTRUCTION OF MODERN SILOS. 



Probably the most important change that has been made in the handling 

 of the maize plant in the last quarter of a century is the practice of putting the 

 unripened plant, cut into small pieces by a feed-cutter, into a receptacle with 

 air-tight sides and bottom, called a silo. — Prof. T. F. Hunt. 



The information contained in the following chapter was prepared by Mr. A. 

 Morrison Hay, of the Public Works Department, Union of South Africa, and 

 appeared originally in Farmers' Bulletin 59 of the Transvaal Department of Agri- 

 culture; it was subsequently revised and published in the Agricultural Journal 

 of the Union of South Africa {Hay, r). Mr. Hay has kindly given permission 

 to reproduce it here, with certain alterations and additions which he has himself 

 suggested. The present writer has omitted Mr. Hay's paragraph describing 

 silage, as the information has already been given in chapter xv. 



CHAP. 743 Historical. — Silos, or chambers for the storage and 



XVI . . . 



preservation of food, have been in use in one form or other in 



various countries from very early times. At the time of Pliny, 

 in France, Spain and other parts of Europe, grain was pre- 

 served in trenches, dug in the ground ; he mentions in certain 

 of his writings that "the best plan of preserving grain is to 

 lay it up in trenches dug in a dry soil, called siri, as they do 

 in Cappadocia, Thracia, Spain, and in Africa". This method 

 of preserving grain was not confined to the East, as at the time 

 of the discovery of America by Columbus the natives were in 

 the habit of storing grain in pits, and certain tribes continue 

 the practice to the present time. The ancient Egyptians, as 

 we learn from Scripture, stored sufficient grain in the seven 

 years of plenty to serve themselves and other nations during 

 the seven years of famine that followed. The Egyptian silos 

 were evidently of a more improved and permanent nature than 

 the rude trenches above referred to, as Wilkinson in his work, 

 "The Ancient Egyptians," states that "some of the rooms, in 

 which they housed the grain appear to have had vaulted roofs. 

 These were filled through an aperture near the top, to which 



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