BUILDING THE SILO. 99 



and it would contain 250 tons of silage. Some 

 would estimate it to hold 300 tons. My silos all 

 have clay floors,, and the silage keeps as well on 

 these as it does on cement. If you need to keep 

 out the rats cement the bottom. 



I have in one place three silos in a row which 

 are all inclosed under one roof or building put 

 up the same as a bam frame. These are all filled 

 at one setting of the machine, having a horizon- 

 tal carrier onto which the elevator drops the 

 feed and it is carried and dropped into either 

 one of the three silos. In building these three 

 silos, which were not sheeted outside, I was not 

 certain that I had sufficient resistance to the lat- 

 eral pressure in the inside sheeting, the lath, 

 and the cement. I had some figuring done to 

 learn how I would secure additional resistance 

 on the outside for the least cost, and was sur- 

 prised to find resistance to lateral pressure to be 

 cheaper in the form of wood hoops than any 

 form of iron. 



Silo Doors. — The openings for taking out the 

 silage may be put as pleases one, but should not 

 occupy more than one third of the perpendicu-^ 

 lar space of the silo. The doors should be made 

 of two thicknesses of matched lumber, the in- 

 side thickness being one inch larger all round 

 than the outside thickness and the door frames 

 made to correspond, and thus give a better ex- 

 clusion of the air. The best way to seal the doors 



