20 
The Colorado Experiment Station. 
BELOW GROUND SILOS. 
Pit Silo .—The pit silo is the poor man’s silo with hardly a 
competitor. For the money invested, it is by far the best silo used. 
It has its limitations, however, to conditions where the soil is of 
such a nature which will permit of digging without too much cav¬ 
ing, where water is not too close to the surface and where digging 
is not too difficult due to rocky formations in the soil. Where the 
soil is sandy and gravelly, and a retaining wall of several inches 
would be needed instead of a thin coat of plaster, one could better 
afford to build above ground, as the cost for material and forms 
would not be much greater and the labor of digging the pit would 
be saved. The advantages of the pit silo are not such as would 
warrant its building under such unfavorable conditions. 
Pit Silo in Eastern El Paso County. (Photo by Lauck.) 
Mr. J. W. Adams, Superintendent of the Plains Substation of 
the Agricultural College at Cheyenne Wells, Colorado, may well 
be called the father of the pit silo in Colorado. It was through his 
efforts and experiments that the pit silo, and the methods for its 
construction have been perfected to their present degree of perfec¬ 
tion. His report on the building of the pit silos on the Substation 
Farm are published in this bulletin. The advantages of the pit silo, 
its cost, and the best methods of construction are ably set forth in 
this report. 
Bank Silo .—Where the location makes it possible, this type of 
silo is very convenient. Where a basement barn is built in rather 
a steep hill, a silo can be built almost entirely below ground. The 
