454 
THE RURAT^ NEW-YORKKR 
March 2n. 
Silo Problems 
The Square Silo. 
Mr. John Gould discusses homemade 
wooden silos in reply to query of J. T. S. 
I would not criticise Mr. Gould’s article, 
hut would add a few details for the bene¬ 
fit of any who wish to build a square silo. 
The size is optional with the builder. 
No square corners must be left, as the 
silage will not pack well in them and 
will spoil, so we have what we call the 
“corner pieces” cut at the mill on a sort 
of circle, something like the cut shown 
below, to allow the sheathing to come in 
place. Not so much space is needed be¬ 
tween corner and circular corner-piece as 
here shown; just sufficient to let the 
sheathing come around well is all that 
is required. If an octagon corner is left 
the sheathing may be put on so it looks 
right, but when filled and settled the pres¬ 
sure will most surely open it. 
In construction lay the first set of 
girths on the wall with corners well 
spiked, then spike on the corner-piece 
after putting a two-inch block under the 
low end to level it up. Then stand a 
good, straight, 2x4 piece in each corner, 
plumbed and well stayed. This serves as 
a guide so you have no more plumbing to 
do until you get to the top of the 2x4 
pieces, when you can proceed as before 
setting other 2x4 pieces on top of those 
already up, as high as you wish to go. 
For spacing simply cut a 2x4 or 2x8 
for each corner, the proper length, and 
proceed with the next set of horizontal 
girths. However, these spacing blocks 
must be well secured with nails and 
spikes. The spacing should be rather 
close at the bottom, say 18 inches and 
can be gradually widened to three feet 
or more at the top. The bottom 12 or 
15 feet catches most of the stress. Where 
the spacing is too close for getting in 
and out cut out each alternate girth four 
inches wider than you want the door space, 
and put in “headers” well spiked and toe- 
nailed. Remember the inside is the face 
side of the work, and must be kept 
plumb. The 2x4 pieces in the corners 
will take care of this so far as the main 
frame is concerned, whether the lumber 
has been sized or not, but in putting on 
the circular corner-pieces care must be 
taken to have them plumb over each 
other. 
Start the sheathing plumb at one side 
of door space, and go right around to the 
other side. And here I offer a suggestion 
which may be an advantage; viz., do not 
“break joints” with sheathing, but pro¬ 
cure it of proper length so two or even 
three lengths will just reach to the top. 
Figure the spacing of horizontal girths 
to these lengths; then when the sheath¬ 
ing rots around or near the bottom, which 
will be the first place to rot. take off the 
lower sheathing and replace it with new. 
You can make the doors to fit in tight 
but a much cheaper way and a good way 
is to cut the matched lumber three inch¬ 
es longer than the width of door space, 
put them together in any convenient 
widths with cleats on the back no thicker 
than sheathing boards, so the cleats will 
not come in contact with the horizontal 
girths, then set them up as you fill the 
silo, letting the groove in second door set 
over the tongue in first door, and so on. 
lapping 1%-inch on each side of door 
space. Now give the inside about two 
good coats of linseed oil and repeat every 
year or two. You may now sheath the 
outside, but I would not make it too 
tight; say rough sheathing without bat¬ 
tens, so as to give the outside of inner 
sheathing a chance to dry out. Made this 
way no lateral bracing is needed provid¬ 
ed it is 12 feet or more square and not 
over ;»C> feet high. ARTHUR L. REEVE. 
Ashtabula Co., O. 
Trouble With Silage. 
10 filled our silo last Fall with green 
corn, full of sap. We considered 
it in A-l condition for silage. In 
feeding it out we find moldy chunks all 
through it. It is half fed out now and is ; 
as moldy in the center as it was on the 
top or near the edges. What is the 
probable cause of this? R. it. P. 
Massachusetts. 
For some reason not yet apparently 
clear, there is a noticeable complaint this 
Winter nearly all over the silo territory 
of the Northern States, about the 
“strange behavior" of silage the present 
Winter; more decay, moldy places, “pink 
rot” spots, and silage spoiling on the sur¬ 
face faster between feedings. From re¬ 
ports from all sections, there does not 
seem to be any agreement among the ob¬ 
servers. What is affirmed by one report, 
is contradicted by the next. Last year 
was peculiar in its prolonged dry weath¬ 
er, and corn made its growth actually 
after August 15. This would cause a 
field of corn to have conditions of differ¬ 
ent maturity, and hence the “heating up” 
would not be uniform through the mass. 
Failure in uniform spreading in the silo 
so that there would be heavy and light 
masses not properly mixed, might be a 
cause of “pink spots.” Where distribu¬ 
ters are used instead of forks to scat¬ 
ter the silage, there is little complaint of 
mold, or spots, provided the silage was 
not too dry, or on the other hand too im¬ 
mature. Lack of moisture was assigned 
as the principal cause, which could be 
remedied by running a stream of water 
into the blower when cutting. 1‘oor 
tramping, too much in one place and al¬ 
lowing this “pocket” to be filled, and thus 
covered over, and get little tramping with 
the next layer; better have the silage well 
scattered, and let the next load of a ton 
or so do the settling, than poor treading. 
The strange part is that this silage trou¬ 
ble is not confined to beginners, but is 
prevalent with those who have been put¬ 
ting up silage for years, with heretofore 
good success. Nor is any style or kind 
of a silo worse or better than another. 
No one has discovered the peculiar germ 
that causes the mold or whether it is or 
not poisonous. One farmer lays the trou¬ 
ble to the blower pipe choking ta little 
now and them forming a lump which is 
not broken up in scattering, and holds 
its content of air, and hence is not acted 
upon in the heating process and so the 
molds. If this is so, more uniform feed¬ 
ing of the machine, and less forcing of 
big bundles under the knives. Our own 
opinion is, after 21) years of experience, 
that mold in silage is caused by one of 
three things, or all in combination: corn 
of different degrees of maturity, caused 
by long drought, late growth not well 
mixed in packing, and deficient moisture. 
Ohio. JOHN GOULD. 
Improving Old Silo. 
N 1888 I built a square silo in my 
barn. For the last few years silage 
has not kept well. What shall I re- 
l : ne it with? I have sand and gravel, 
also lumber, yellow oak, white oak, chest¬ 
nut and pine. The covers are broken 2% 
feet, across. Or should I build a new one, 
hollow wall concrete, outside the barn. 
12r80? How much cement will it take? 
Greenwich, N. Y. G. V. P. 
It would seem that a silo built 28 
years ago, and in use ever since, should 
be given its time, and give place to a 
new one of some kind. If the frame of 
this silo is still sound, it can be very 
cheaply relined, possibly without remov¬ 
ing the present lining. I opine the trou¬ 
ble now with the silo is imperfect match¬ 
ing of the lumber, and the admittance of 
more or less air, which a new covering 
would prevent. The lumber, you mention' 
would be good, if fairly well seasoned. 
Our old silo was relined, first putting on 
heavy building paper—the tarred kind—■ 
and then covering with fairly good pine 
flooring, then painting with gas tar 
thinned with gasoline. There are so 
many good silos on the market, one can 
hardly go amiss in buying, whether of 
wood or hollow brick. If the latter, be 
sure that it is amply reinforced with 
concealed rod steel hoops. J. n. 
The survival 
of the fittest 
HPRIED in the furnace of competition and subjected 
* to the test of years of practical use on nearly 
2,000,000 farms the world over, the De Laval has 
proved its overwhelming superiority to all other cream 
separators. 
Twenty years ago there were as many makes of fac¬ 
tory as of farm separators, but for the past ten years the 
De Laval has had this field almost to itself, 98 per cent 
of the cream separators in use by creamerymen and mar¬ 
ket milk dealers to-day being of the De Laval make. 
It h as taken the inexperienced farmer a little longer 
to sort the true from the untrue, the wheat from the 
chaff, in the maze of conflictory catalog and local dealer 
separator claims, but year by year the ever-increasing 
proportion of farm separator buyers is reaching the 
same conclusion as the creameryman—that the De Laval 
is the only cream separator they can afford to buy or use. 
Many other cream separators have come into the lime¬ 
light of publicity for a few short months or a few short 
years, claiming to be “as good as” or “cheaper” than the 
De Laval, but their users have sooner or later found 
them lacking in some one respect or another, and even 
wdiere a few' have seemingly done well their users have 
come to learn that the De Laval was a still better 
machine. 
The unfit or the less fit cannot possibly survive for long 
in separators or anything else. Think of all the sepa¬ 
rators you used to see advertised so extravagantly in 
your favorite farm papers. Where are they now? Why 
do you seldom, if at all, see their names mentioned? 
Simply because the fittest must survive and the others 
must fall out of the race. 
The De Laval has triumphed over all other separators, 
and its supremacy is now almost as firmly established 
in farm as in factory separators because its separating 
system, design and construction are essentially different 
from and superior to other separators. 
A De Laval catalog to be had for the aaking explains and illus¬ 
trates these differences. A De Laval machine, to be had on 
test or trial from the nearest local De Laval agent, does so better 
still. If you dor’t know the nearest local agent, simply write 
the nearest De Laval main office as below. 
The De Laval Separator Co. 
165 Broadway, New York 29 E. Madison St., Chicago 
50,000 BRANCHES AND LOCAL AGENCIES THE WORLD OVER 
tsil 
=p]l|!l 
11 
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