IO 
The Colorado Experiment Station. 
from the top of a silo without a chute, especially during windy 
weather. 
TYPES OF SILOS USED IN COLORADO. 
The types of silos used may be divided into two general classes, 
the above and below ground. To the former class belong all types, 
regardless of material used, which are built entirely above ground 
or nearly so. To the latter class belong the pit, bank, and trench 
silos. 
Above Ground Silos. 
Home-Made Stave Silo .—This type was perhaps the first to be 
built. The earlier ones were built of plain staves, often not even 
beveled on the edge to make them fit in a circle. Many failures re¬ 
sulted, as poor lumber was selected and the shrinkage was great. 
Knots dried up and dropped out. They were generally a costly ex¬ 
perience. It is quite common at the present time for farmers to 
build their own stave silos, but tongue and groove material is used 
instead of the plain stave. When lumber of good quality is used, a 
very serviceable silo can be built at a moderate cost. Mr. A. C. 
Cauble, of Holyoke, built two home-made stave silos, and following 
is quoted his letter of endorsement: 
“I built my first silo in the fall of 1911 from material purchased 
of the lumber yard in our city. The material was 2x8, 20 feet long, 
beveled and dowel-pinned, not tongue and grooved. I also made 
a pit seven feet deep with a seven-inch concrete wall, placing the 20- 
foot staves on this pit, making my silo 14x27 feet. Seeing 
that this silo paid me so well, in the fall of 1912 I built another of 
the same material and size. My success has been above my expec¬ 
tations. I would not think of trying to keep any great amount of 
stock without a silo. While the wood stave silo is not just the silo 
for this dry climate, it is far ahead of no silo. The cost of my silo 
was $120.00 each, including labor of excavating and placing con¬ 
crete.” 
The capacity of these silos would be about 83 tons each. 
Patent Stave Silo .—As it is now put on the market, the patent 
stave silo is made of tongue and grooved material, with larger 
tongues and grooves than are commonly used in home-made silos. 
The material used should be of the best grades and quality. Con¬ 
clusions drawn from Bulletin 'No. 100, Iowa State College, place 
the merits of wood for silo use as follows : 1, redwood ; 2, cypress; 
3, Oregon fir; 4, tamarack; 5, white pine; 6, long leaf yellow pine. 
There is no doubt whatever that the stave silo is a thoroughly estab¬ 
lished success, but its measure of success depends largely upon the 
