1 Aprtn, 1898.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL, 249 
Agriculture. 
SILOS. 
By Tur Hon, A. J. THYNNE, M.1.C, 
ReFerENcE has recently been made by Mr. Tardent to the expense of erecting 
a wooden silo, As ap exaggerated idea of the cost of a silo is very generally 
entertained, I venture to submit a plan which is not very expensive, and which 
may be built, too, by any handy man who can use the simplest tools of a carpenter. 
Silos can be made of any dimensions required, but for a small farmer a 50-ton 
or 60-ton silo would be enough to begin with. 
I recently put up a silo 14 feet by 14 feet by 14 feet high, which, when 
properly filled, should contain from 50 tons to 60 tons of ensilage. The timber 
for this building cost in Brisbane only £12 10s. ‘Lhe roofing material—i,e., the 
jiron—was extra, and so were the tar and nails. 
The timber was all hardwood with the exception of some few feet of pine 
used on the roof. 
I give the following particulars of the design :— 
The top (or wall) plates and the bottom plates (or sills), 8 inches by 2 inches, 
hardwood. 
The 2-inch plates are used to avoid having mortices in the building. 
Mortices and tenons are centres for decay. | 
The studding should be 8 inches by 2 inches, hardwood. The studs must 
be stiff and strong, to resist the inside pressure of the heavy mass of green 
stuff. 
Set a bottom plate on edge, and the corresponding top plate 13 feet 8 
inches distant, also on edge, opposite it. Fit your studs, which should be 13 
feet 8 inches long, and spike them through the top and bottom plates with 
strong spikes. The plates should be 15 feet 4 inches long, so as to overlap 
each other at the corners. 
There are no corner posts in the building. 
The studs nearest the corners are to be fixed exactly an inch away from 
the corner, so as to let every second lining-board through and be nailed to 
the broad side of the stud, and thus form a kind of dovetail. A stronger 
or simpler means of binding the walls together at the corners can scarcely be 
devised. 
When you have fitted the studs and spiked them as directed to the plates, 
put the frame for each wall in place upright and fit them together, and then 
spike the plates together, both top and bottom. 
The studs should not be more than 20 inches apart centre to centre. If 
a little less, all the better. On one side under the gable put one pair of studs 
2 feet apart in the clear. This is for the emptying or feeding-out door. 
The Sketch A attached shows the sills, position of all the corner studs, of 
the studs along one side, and of the feeding-out door studs a. 
By this time the framework for the silo is complete. 
What about foundation and floor? Foundation may be anything solid 
and level—blocks of wood, bricks, concrete, or stone that may be handy. The 
floor may be of earth, antbed, or, if expense is no concern, asphalt or concrete. 
Earth, or ‘clay, well rammed, will do very well, especially if covered with a 
iayer of antbed. ‘The site should, in any case, be free from springs or wet. 
The lining consists of one layer of hardwood, tongued and grooved. As 
this timber shrinks a good deal, it should be well seasoned. The mills cannot 
work it when thoroughly seasoned ; they must work it rather fresh, and it will 
