8 
CONCRETE SILOS 
profits; it reduces costs; it saves feed; it conserves all the crop, particularly 
if that crop is corn. More than that, it conserves energy; it is efficient 
and reduces farm labor to a minimum. 
But since, perhaps, the "proof of the pudding is in the eating thereof," 
and as few districts nowadays are without silos, the practical experience 
of neighbors should be sought. A little later on, extracts from some of the 
leading farm papers of the country touching on a number of disputed 
points are published. The careful reading of them, as they come from 
disinterested and authoritative sources, will prove the foregoing statements. 
Brief History of Silos 
History tells us many things. It proves, apparently, that there is 
nothing new under the sun. The Egyptians, hundreds of years before 
Christ, put grain and other crops in large stone jars, covering them as 
tightly as they could. In the ancient ruins of Rome, similar jars have 
been found, made air-tight with a substance somewhat like bitumen. 
Julius Caesar, we are told, made pits at convenient points along the great 
military roads built by him, which were lined with clay, filled with green 
forage, tramped on and sealed with clay, so that he had food for his 
horses when the necessity pressed. Instances might be cited indefinitely, 
as of the Mound Builders and Incas in North and South America, who 
used jars similar to these of the Romans and ancient Egyptians and the 
Mexican circular silo, made of adobe, which A less efficient silo than illustrated on the left, 
successfully keeps green fodder in the drier parts A square adobe silo; this type was first built in 
of Mexico, where the material is not disin- Mexico. Crude as they are, they are better than 
tegrated by rain. no silos. 
Courtesy "Technical World." • 
