BUILDING TJIE SILO. 3II 



will apply equally to the foundation of the rectan- 

 gular or the square silo. Usually the walls should 

 not be less than two feet thick, and as with the stave 

 silo they may be sunk into the ground to the depth 

 of three to four feet and the space inside excavated 

 as a receptacle for silage. (See Page 297.) The 

 wall should extend far enough upward to prevent 

 the sills from coming anywhere in contact with 

 the earth. 



The Sills. — Commonly the sills consist of planks 

 of the same material and of the same size as the studs, 

 that is to say, of planks 2x10 inches. They are laid 

 on the foundation walls and framed so as to overlap 

 one another at the corners, and are bolted down to 

 the wall by means of upright iron rods or bolts laid 

 in the wall while the foundation was being built, as 

 shown in Fig. 36. These rods are of iron and they 

 should rise up at the corners and at intervals between 

 the corners which vary with the size of the silo. 

 The favorite distance varies from, say, three to five 

 or six feet. If the space inside the foundation walls 

 is to be used as a receptacle for silage, the in- 

 side of the sills should be so nearly flush with 

 the inside of the wall that when both are lined 

 the inner wall will be quite plumb where the 

 cement lining of the foundation and the wood 

 lining of the walls meet. But when the floor 

 of the silo is about level with the top of the wall, the 

 sills may occupy the central part of the top of the 

 wall rather than the space only toward the inner side 

 of the same. 



The Floor. — The same general principles are 

 to be followed in making the floor of the rectangular 



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