1910. 
S©5 
STORAGE FOR GRAIN. 
A Practical Granary with Working Conveniences. 
The granary on our farm was built in 1875, and 
we have found it both practical and convenient. It 
is a timber frame, 20x 30 feet, with 16-foot posts and 
sets up from the ground about two feet. The girths 
are 4x4 inch oak scantling, the joist 2x8 inch gained 
two inches in the beams, leaving 4 inches above, 
which comes even with the top of the girths; in this 
way there is no chance for the floor to sag at the 
ends—it makes a perfectly tight joint. The siding is 
one foot whitewood boards; the entire height of the 
ends is battened, but only the upper half of the 
sides; the lower half is sawed to make about four- 
inch siding, thus leaving an air space for the corn 
which is on the first floor. At one end is a double 
doorway, seven feet. The second floor is used en¬ 
tirely for small grain. There are 11 bins, six on one 
side, five on the other, each being 4j4x4j4 feet, 5 
feet high, and holding about 100 bushels. The larger 
part of the floor can also be used for grain, and 
there is a grain chute in the center. At one end is 
an elevator raised and lowered by means 
of a windlass. It is simply a section of 
flooring with a rope attached at each cor¬ 
ner; these in turn are attached to two 
ropes which pass over the windlass. 
This is rather tedious, and most of the 
grain is carried up the stairs, which are 
in one corner. There is a landing part 
way up, the stairs are wide and the 
incline easy of ascent, so this method is 
not so bad, yet a modern grain elevator 
would be a great convenience: in fact 
this is about the only feature of the 
building in which we would care to 
make a change. This floor is well 
lighted by two good-sized windows, one 
at each end. 
The grain chutes to the first floor 
can perhaps be better understood by the 
diagram, Fig. 38'.), A, detachable portion; 
B, curved end of iron which hooks into 
staple and holds A in place; C, piece of 
board to prevent grain from leaking 
out at the sides; D, lever moved by 
means of a stick, to open slide E, 
which moves on points F and H; K 
nailed to joist; hooks at the bottom of 
A, on which to hang grain bags. When 
cleaning over grain, instead of the 
wooden chute, I have canvas ones 
which can be twisted in any direction 
to reach the top of the fanning mill. 
There are on the first floor two corn 
bins, four feet wide, one running the 
entire side, the other not quite as long, 
as some of the stair space comes out of 
it. Beside the fanning mill above men¬ 
tioned is a feed mill, run by a gasoline 
engine, of which I will speak later. I 
have a small box holding 10 or 12 
bushels; this being on rollers can be 
moved about, so it is not necessary to 
draw from the bin every time the stock 
is fed. There is also a large box hold¬ 
ing about 25 bushels for ground feed. 
When loading and unloading grain 
from the wagon, we use a scoop-board 
20 inches by 4J^ feet; this makes a 
bridge wide enough for the grain-bar¬ 
row, and thus facilitates unloading. 
The five horse-power gasoline engine 
we have had two years, and it is cer¬ 
tainly a valuable adjunct to the farm. 
We use it for buzzing wood, but it was 
principally for shelling corn and grinding feed that I 
purchased it. Before that we used a power requiring 
two teams and two men to drive them, though a good 
driver could manage both. Fig. 391 shows the 
engine at work. We have a stationary iron 
roof for it, and sides and ends which can be taken 
off, thus protecting the machinery from storms. The 
picture also shows the construction of the steps into 
the granary. l. e. hurst. 
Ohio. 
THtfi RURAb NEW-YORKER 
conveniences for cutting it up fine as you will feed it 
out next Winter, and secondly, even if you could cut 
or shred it next Winter the snow will be apt to 
bother about drawing and the mice and rats are sure 
to destroy a good deal of it. Then you have corn 
enough to feed well up to the time your cows will 
go to grass next Spring, and if you shock your corn 
you will find that it will become weather-beaten, and 
will lose its flavor, and your cows will refuse to eat 
it before it is gone. Yes, I suppose that a cement 
silo is fine, but don’t try to build one this Fall. Last 
season I knew of a man who built a cement silo, and 
before he finished filling it, down it came all in a 
heap, nearly killing some of those engaged in filling 
it. And a fine mess it made—a hundred tons of con¬ 
crete and corn all mixed up. For a hurry-up job 
about the only practical'silo is the common stave silo 
with iron hoops, and taken all around I guess that it 
is just as satisfactory as any. 
The best way to cut corn is with a corn harvester 
that binds also, and on hilly ground I like one that has 
a wide body and binds the corn lying down instead 
of standing, as a good many makes do. A good binder 
A HOMEMADE FARM CEMENT MIXER. Fig. 390. 
silo, in which case the corn is thrown up with such 
terrific force that the big stalks are all broken up, 
besides being cut crosswise into short lengths. A 
blower requires a lot of power. A 16 horse-power 
engine is about right to run one, and the average 
farmer cannot afford to own such a rig for his own 
private use. But there are generally several enter¬ 
prising young men who buy such rigs and go around 
filling silos all the Fall, as several farmers may club 
together and buy a rig for their own use. I have 
found the best wagon for drawing' corn to be a 
common farm wagon with low wheels, and rigged 
with a flat hayrack, the bottom of which is eight 
or 10 inches lower than the sides, and which is pro¬ 
vided with a good standard behind as well as in 
front. Three or four men should pick up the bundles 
and hand them up to the driver, butts first. These 
should be placed squarely across the rack with the 
butts all one way, and one should begin to 
load at the hind end of his wagon and pile up the 
bundles as steeply as the}' will stay placed. Put on 
all your team can handily draw, for it does not pay to 
fool around with small loads when you have 
a machine around that costs $2 per 
hour to hire. Drive up to the machine 
with the butts of your corn toward the 
machine, and then grab the bundles by 
the string and chuck them into that 
blower for dear life. If it is a good 
machine it will take all you can throw 
into it, and another load should be 
ready just as soon as you can get out of 
the way. In this way about 10 loads per 
hour can be gotten away with, and if the 
loads weigh 3,000 pounds each you see 
that 150 tons of corn may go into a silo 
in 10 hours. Two or three men will 
take care of the corn in the silo, and 
the smaller the silo the harder it 
should be trodden, for corn will not 
pack so well of its own accord in a 
little tub as it will in one 16 or 18 feet 
in diameter. After the silo is filled, 
tread it down well every day until it 
stops settling, then leave it alone until 
you want to feed. You will have to 
throw away some off the top, but it will 
be a very insignificant quantity 
J. GRANT MORSE. 
• ^ iV' 
WHAT TO DO WITH CORN; THE SILO. 
Silos and silo filling is an old question, but still 
there are always “new” farmers who would like 
to know more about it. My neighbor has recently 
come from the city and bought a farm, with stock, 
tools and growing crops. Among other things there 
is a big field of western corn, and he asked my advice 
as to what to do with it. What T said to him might 
be of use to other “new” farmers. So I will repeat 
it here. 
Your corn ought to go into a silo, because first, it is 
too big to be profitably fed whole, and you have no 
GASOLINE POWER FOR A GRAIN HOUSE. Fig. 391. 
. costs about $125, but there are generally several in 
each neighborhood, and one can usually hire his corn 
cut and bound at about $2 per acre. It is true that a 
strong expert man can cut it for less than that, but 
the advantage gained in handling by having it bound 
will more than repay for extra cost, and unless one 
has first class help he will find that it will cost even 
more than $2 per acre to cut corn by hand. Do not 
try to put your corn in the silo whole. Unless the 
silo is so constructed that one can drive on the barn 
floor above the basement and so gain 10 or 15 feet 
in height of the silo, it is simply impossible to fill the 
tub with whole corn, and even if you can so fill it it 
will not pay, for the corn will not keep as well, it will 
not come out of the silo so easily, and the cows will 
‘not eat it with so great a relish. One should re¬ 
member that corn silage is probably the very cheapest 
food for dairy cows, and while it is not wise to make 
one’s cows live on silage alone it is a good plan to 
provide a plentiful supply of it in palatable form. 
Now your corn is cut and bound, ready to be 
drawn to the cutting machine, and I believe that 
the best kind is one that blows the corn into the 
CONDITION OF SILO CORN. 
Corn is in ideal condition for the silo 
when it is in ideal condition to be cut 
for fodder, i. e., when the kernels are 
well glazed and just before the foliage 
begins to brown. Corn at this stage in¬ 
troduced into a well-constructed silo and 
carefully spread and well tramped has 
never failed in our experience to produce 
ideal silage. Corn cut over-green, while 
the kernels are still in the milk and soft 
dough stage, and while there is an ex¬ 
cessive amount of sap in the stalks and 
leaves, and is therefore comparatively 
richly charged with sugar, no matter how 
carefully spread and how well packed in 
the silo, is almost sure to produce an ex¬ 
cessively acid silage, because of the pres¬ 
ence of the relatively large quantities of 
sugar. The acids developed in the silage 
will be practically proportional to the 
amount of sugar in the material at the 
time of its ensiling. If the corn is over 
ripe so that the foliage is considerably 
dried at the time of the ensiling it is 
practically impossible to pack it in the silo 
sufficiently solid to properly exclude the 
air, and this condition favors a development of molds 
throughout the mass and probably interferes also with 
the changes which take place in the production of 
silage under proper condition of packing. To pro¬ 
duce a good silage with corn thus over ripe it is 
necessary to add considerable quantities of water 
while the corn is being introduced into the silo. Some 
excellent authorities favor the cutting of corn thus 
over ripe and adding water to it as it is intro¬ 
duced into the silo. They claim that this method 
gives a better quality of silage than any other. When 
this method is employed there is more danger of 
adding too little than of adding too much water. 
A very excellent way is to attach a garden hose to 
a hydrant and convey the water through it in a 
continuous stream as the silage is being introduced. 
While moldy silage may be due to the over-ripe¬ 
ness of the corn at the time of its introduction into 
the silo, our observation indicates that it is more 
likely to result from improper packing in the silo, but 
more specially from the improper construction and 
condition of the silo walls. The silo wall must be 
airtight with regular smooth inner surface. 
Agricultural College, Mich. j. a. jeffery. 
