ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 191 



'98). Writing of the silos on Waivw inet Farms he says: "The ones about 

 which I wish more particularly to speak are round ones, put upon leased 

 farms, with the expectation of removing them on the termination of our 

 leases. They are alike in having the sky for a roof, che ground for a bot- 

 tom, and no foundation but a 2x6 spruce to secure a level base for the walls, 

 while protecting them from roitirg on the ground. The first is 20x30, 

 built of staves, and put up in '97 at a cost of about $330.00. Last August 

 a second stave silo 24x30 was erected at a cost of, in round numbers, 

 $340.00. Early in September we realized that we had not yet storage 

 enough for our corn, and gave an order to a builder to construct one 24 ft. 

 in diameter, and as high as he could find 2x4 scantling to build without 

 splicing. These 2x4 spruce scantling were to be set 18 inches apart from 

 center to center, upon a 2x6 sill, directly upon the ground, as for the stave 

 silos previously erected, and to be sheathed on the inside with two thick- 

 nesses of %x6 spruce or pine, with tarred paper between. On the out- 

 side at the bottom, half way up and at the top, were to be two, three and 

 two bands of 1x6 common fencing respectively, and no other boarding. 

 This order resulted in a silo 24x2S at a cost of $174.21, and having a capac- 

 ity of 250 tons. 



"The stave silos cost us per ton of capacity $1.76 and $1.41 respec- 

 tively, and the one built on the "Wisconsin idea," modified, cost us 69 cents 

 per ton. 



"We ask, why have a roof in a silo, except for appearance?. Our first 

 stave silo is empty today for the second time, and neither last year nor 

 this have we been able to detect any injury to quality of silage from ex- 

 posure to the weather on top. Asa matter of fact, we never had better 

 silage than we are feeding now out of this roofless, bottomless and foun- 

 dationless silo, though we did have to shovel nearly a foot of snow off 

 of it a few days ago." 



Mr. Van Norman's method may commend itself to our attention as 

 an admirable temporary plan, but for permanent use it will be wise, I 

 believe, to have such a foundation as will insure a level sill for the staves 

 to rest on, as long as may be desired. The character of the soil, as I 



