44 HOW TO BUILD A SILO. 



2-foot lengths there will be space enough left between the curved 

 edge of the siding and sheeting and the sill for air to enter so that 

 no holes need be bored as described above and represented in 

 Pig. 4. The openings at the plate should always be provided and 

 the silo should have some sort of ventilator in the roof. This 

 ventilator may take the form of a, cupola to serve for an orna- 

 ment as well, or it may be a simple galvanized iron pipe 12 to 24 

 inches in diameter, rising a foot or two through the peak of the 

 roof. 



A word of caution is sounded in the Wisconsin Bulletin No. 

 125 regarding the above method of ventilation: 



"It will be readily understood that if these ventilators between 

 the studs are left open in winter they will act as chimneys; they 

 will maintain a, constant draft between the studding, which will 

 cool off and freeze the silage more severely than it would if there 

 were no sheeting at all outsfde the studding. If the silage is for 

 winter feeding, and 99 per cent, of the silage is so fed, then more 

 care should be exercised than at present in Wisconsin to prevent 

 this severe freezing. In order to do this, provision must be made 

 for closing these ventilators both at the top and at the bottom, 

 ■ so as to convert the hollow wall into a real dead-air space. There 

 is no need of building the wall air-tight outside, as shown in Fig. 

 3, with two thickness of sheeting with paper between, unless there 

 is provision for closing the ventilators in winter. 



"The writer has seen a, number of these silos in which th^ 

 silage froze severely. In most instances no attempt was made 

 to close the ventilators, and the few instances when it was at- 

 tempted only the lower ventilators on the outside were closed. 

 This is not enough for if the upper ventilators at W, Pig. 4, are 

 left open the hollow wall will cool off rapidly and the air space 

 serve no purpose as protection against frost. 



"The invention of the King silo came in response to an urgent 

 demand for a type of construction that would avoid the corners 

 and other serious and aggravating defects of silos, as previously 

 constructed. It marked an epoch in siio building. Hundreds cf 

 silos ' of this type have been constructed. They have not been 

 confined to Wisconsin, but have been widely distributed. They 

 have been in use the past ten years, and have demonstrated 

 their success. They are no longer an experiment. However, the 

 very wide and general use of this type of silo under a great 



