£.84 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



ENSILAGE,. 



BY H. B. GURLER, DE KALB, ILLINOIS. 



This question of ensilage! I have talked so much about this subject 

 that I am almost ashamed to talk any more about it. I don't feel that it 

 is advisable for me to go over that field again. I feel that about all that 

 I need to say would be to talk about the silo. I feel like talking to you 

 about my new circular cement silo. It gives me walls almost as r-'-rfoet 

 as! any fruit can and that is what we want, and that is what we have been 

 working for. We have been sadly deficient in our early experiences 

 with cheap john silos. We had d airy writers and institute workers that 

 years ago tried to inform us how to build a silo for the least money pos- 

 :sible, and if it would keep the feed for one year that is about as far as 

 they thought at that time, and the result has been to give thei silo a black ' 

 eye. I know of silos in my own township that rotted down or got in 

 condition that they could not be filled after the fourth year, and it was 

 just in that effort to build something cheap. 



I think you can all see the advantage of the silo being built circular. 

 In that way we have no corners. The corners are where we lose the 

 most. It requires less lumber to build in that way. If the silo is built 

 square, you have got to depend upon combating that resistance by the 

 support of your studding. If you build circular and sheath it right 

 around on the inside that pressure is resiisted and you have cut the bill for 

 the lumber right in two. The studding simply is to hold your material 

 together; that's all the object of your studding, and support the roof if 

 you put one on. I have one without a roof. I expect this morning they 

 liad snow. I use four inch studding, put twelve in centers, and then I 

 ®heath inside with a heavy lumber— usually get fencing and make it a 

 little less than a half-inch thick. Then have a roof made from that 

 same material. I will cut it into strips two inches wide and have it 



