THIRTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 125 



in marking out for the foundation wall, use a slat nailed to the 

 center stake. Measure out on this slat a distance of six inches 

 greater than one-half of the diameter of the silo, and describe 

 a circle on the ground. Then measure back toward the center 

 twelve inches and describe another circle. This will locate the 

 lines for the foundation wall. Remove the earth to a depth be- 

 low the frost line, exercising care to keep the sides of the trench 

 smooth and the bottom level. Fill the trench with concrete and 

 tamp well to remove bubbles. When this is done it will be neces- 

 sary to use some thin boards to make a form for that portion of 

 the wall above the ground. Drive stakes about two feet apart 

 around the trench to hold the form in place. This form should 

 be level on top so that when it is fillled with concrete it can be 

 wiped off leaving a perfectly level foundation wall. 



This concrete mixture is made of five parts of broken stone, 

 three parts sharp sand, one part good Portland cement. Mix the 

 sand and cement well before adding the water and stone. 



When the wall is completed and well hardened the staves 

 can be set up in the center of the wall, placed edge to edge and 

 spiked together with forty-d or sixty-d wire spikes. After the 

 staves are all up, place the hoops around and tighten up. Cut 

 out the necessary doors, put on a circular roof and the silo is 

 ready to fill. No concrete floor is necessary where a hard clay 

 subsoil is found; where the soil is porous, a concrete floor will 

 be required, or clay to the depth of six inches must be added. 



The size of the silo depends on the number of cattle to be 

 fed. It should never be less than twenty feet high and thirty 

 feet is better, for the height increases the pressure and the silage 

 will keep better. At least two inches should be fed off of the 

 entire top surface each day. Five square feet and two inches 

 deep will just be about enough to feed one cow a day. Roughly 

 estimating the feeding surface to be five square feet per cow, it 

 would require for a herd of twenty cows a feeding surface of a 

 hundred square feet or a silo twelve feet in diamter. For thirty 

 cows 150 square feet or a silo fourteen feet in diamter. 



Some dairymen have made a mistake in building silos too 



