Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-10-12
way TO BUILD A SILO'
Home Made Article Better than the
Factory Product and Cheaper
Beside.
(By r, B. Rushing, Illinois.)
7<O BUILD stave silo first decide
F&on size Of silo and then get the

(By r, B. Rushing. Illinois.)
T<O BUILD stave silo first decide
ton size Of silo and then get the
material most abundant in your
locality. Any timber that will not
warp h suitable. Have 1t as dry as
possible.
II your siio is to be above 20 feet
In height buy lumber of two lengths
For a "a foot building get IA and 10
foot, or for a 26 foot silo get - and
IA foot lengths. Set your STUFF on the
ground during some dry days, lay
Ing 1t closely like floor. Then take
an. old broom or whitewash brush
and a bucket Of coal tar and paint the
lumber, not skimping the amount. Let
It lie day or two and then turn up
another face OF the lumber and again
give It the gass tar paint Continue
till all sides and edges are painted.
Gass tar has been found to be the
pest preserver of silo walls yet found
and / may add that for rough work,
such as farm gates, corn cribs and
board roofs 1t is. not equalled by many
Of our paints. If tar is too thick to
spread easily thin with gasoline.
While our lumber is drying we will
put in the silo foundation. We must
decide where to biuld and the best
rule is to build just as near the
animals mouth as possible to save
the work OF feeding. At gable end
Of barn or shed Is the best place,
To lay Foundation drive a peg in
center OF ground selected for founda-
ton, take a fence board, bore a hole
In end; slip over peg, then at half
distance Of diameter of silo slip
pin or bolt, that will mark ground as
board is moved round. After this
mark is made set pin out as far as
width Of foundation trench is to be.
which lis about 18 or 1s inches.
Now dig trench 1S or 20 inches
deep, then fill up within six inches of
top with small rocks, brickbats, or
very coarse gravel, over this pour thin
cement. After this part Of the foun-
dation Is complete start wall six inches
from outside of trench leaving six
inch jog. The jog is to fool any rat
that may wish to explore contents of
silo. He will dig to the concrete work
Ind then stop, not knowing enough to
follow the six inch step to outside of
concrete.
It Is better to finish the narrower
wall with fiat rocks or brick. built up
or 10 inches above ground level.
Ehe dirt should then be thrown up
lgainstswal on outside, even with top
81 wall to turn water from building.
The inside circle or silo bottom
should be Of dirt only. Many people
put down costly floors Of cement only
to ind that large amount of en-
silage is spoiled each year. do not
know the cause but do know that
The last foot or 18 inches Of ensilage
on cement has a very offensive smell
Ind is not relished by cattle. while en-
silage on dirt can be fed to the last
basketful.
In making this statement am
speaking from experience. have
fed from many cement bottoms and
always with the same results.
A sill is not necessary, but al
ways use one. To make the sill. take
10 inch width lumber, one inch thick,
and cut in segments of circle Of wall.
Cut enough of these to make sill three
or four inches thick. Bed first in
layer of mortar, then give coat Of
gas tar, then lay on another course,
breaking joints, nail down to lower
layer, continue laying, tarring and
mailing till desired thickness is reach
ed. We are now ready for the tarred
slaves Of AKA.
But you may wonder how to make
start-what to use for fastening
hoops and silo and what to fasten
staging to. To do all of this requires
four tirnbers of hard wood, Axe
inches in size and as high as silo is
to be.
Before putting up these timbers, or
frame Of the silo, we box enough holes
in these sticks to receive the hoops.
These holes are in pairs and are two
and one-half inches from what will
be the inside edge of silo.
Holes are to be three inches apart,
length of the timber. The circle is
laid off to find one-quarter of the
distance. There we stand one Of these
sticks and secure it by toenailing ii
to sill. We again measure another
quarter and set up the timber till we
have the four up. At the same time
we brace these pieces well with fence
boards. always keeping outside of silo
After we have braced them well we
set 2x4 on outside of silo opposite the
Axe timber, or as wide as you wish to
build scaffolding. Nail lumber from
these 2x4 to the 4x6 pieces at inter-
walls of about eight feet On this the
scaffold lumber is laid A silo rs
feet high will require three Of these
stagings.
Now we are ready to build or sci
up the slaves. Three men or boys
sare enough to do the work. For the
work all the necessary tools are three
hammers and plenty of sixty-penny
nails.
Set up one of the 2x4s, edge against
4x6 piece and the men on different
stages will attend to mailing un to tor