126 THE BOOK OF CORN 



concrete six or eight inches in thickness. Cover the 

 bottom and walls with two or three layers of cement 

 put on with a trowel, then go over the surface with a 

 cement wash. A little dry cement may be worked in 

 to give it a hard finish. The material required for a 

 concrete foundation is enough finely broken rock or 

 gravel to occupy the space, over which is poured a mix- 

 ture of sand four parts, cement one part, with enough 

 water to make a paste. The stone part of the silo 

 should at least go down below the frost line. 



Stave Silo — If the silo is to be made of staves, 

 select the best and most available material possible, 

 white pine if located in the northern states, cypress in 

 the southern and Douglass fir if in the far west. 

 Almost any kind of pine may be used provided the 

 material is perfectly sound, well seasoned and free 

 from knots. The boards should be six inches wide, 

 although some prefer four-inch boards. Those two 

 inches in thickness are best, although one and one-half 

 inches will do for mild climates. If possible select 

 boards which are long enough when placed on end to 

 reach from the top, of the foundation to the top of the 

 silo. If the boards are smooth on the inside and along 

 the edges so much the better. Rough boards can 

 be used. 



Set up the staves on the foundation, holding them 

 in place by rudely constructed circles just the inside 

 size of the desired silo. These may be made of moder- 

 ately short pieces of fence board with the corners 

 sawed off, and nailed together so as to form a circle. 

 Use three of these, one at the top, one at the bottom 

 and one about the middle. Place the staves in position 

 around these circles, and hold them in place tempo- 

 rarily by driving nails through the outer edge of the 

 circle and into the stave. In no case must the nails be 

 allowed to go through the stave. Put on hoops which 



