THIRTY-FIFTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 281 



a roof frame, or with a completed roof. Of course, each silo 

 has its talking points, but the strength of these talks depend 

 more upon the salesmen than upon the features of the silo. 

 The most important thing to the prospective purchaser is to 

 so arrange the terms of the sale that good workmanship, se- 

 lect material of the right kind, and fair treatment, may be se- 

 cured. 



After the silo is selected a good foundation should always 

 be built, and care be taken to paint all joints with either white 

 lead and linseed oil or a creosote paint. An excess of tar or 

 heavy white lead paint should be put on the ends of the staves 

 to be joined in order to secure an air tight joint, because only 

 a very small amount of air is necessary to spoil the silage and 

 a large percentage of the joints unless put together with white 

 lead or tar will leak enough air to spoil considerable silage. 

 The presence of this air together with warmth and moisture 

 present excellent conditions for the decay of the stave at its 

 most vulnerable point, the end grain of the wood. The life 

 of the silo will depend largely upon care taken in keeping the 

 hoops at proper tension, keeping the silo well painted and 

 preventing the collection of refuse about the bottom of the 

 staves, which will keep them moist and thus promote decay. 

 In keeping the hoops tight the owner should frequently, at 

 least after emptying and during and continued dry or wet 

 weather, tighten the hoops if they are not tight. If they are 

 tight they should be loosened and then tightened again to be 

 sure they are not too tight, for if too tight the wood fibre will 

 be crushed, causing rapid decay. 



Concrete Silos. 



A few years ago it could have been said that concrete silos 

 were in the experimental stage, but now it has been demon- 

 strated by the success of many of them, that concrete is one 

 of the best building materials from which to construct per- 

 manent silos. Considering that the general use of concrete 

 has been developed within a very few years and the majority 



