Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1914-07-11
CONCRETE ON THE FARM.
Many Uses to Which the Material
Is Being Put.

From rhe Literary Digest.
Not long ago the farmer hardly knew
what concrete was. Now he builds barns,
silos. henhouses, bridges and cellars of it.
An article on Concrete in New Uses.
contributed to the Technical World Mag
azine. is taken up entirely with a de-
scription of the employment of this ma
terial on the farm. Where some years
ago the farmer used a pile of old boa rds
a saw and a hammer to build his hem
coop. his gatepost and his water trough
he usually now takes part of bag of
cement. mixes it with sand and gravel
and adapts concrete to his purposes We
read further:
To-day he has many appliances about
the farm that are neat. that are sanitary
and that last forever. This change started
with silos and fenceposts and there is no
end to the uses to which the handy-man-
about-the-house can put the versatile
machine. Out on farm in Illinois. where
an acetylene generator supplies gaslight
to the farmhouse, one man built sort of
cyclone cellar for the plant. Owing to the
danger of explosions. the ordinary eau
tious citizen no longer cares to put A
gas plant in the basement of his resi-
dence, but If this generator should eX
plode. il probably would not even shatter
the walls of the little concrete house that
contains 1t.
Fresh water is supplied to the chick
ems on another farm with the aid of
concrete pool. 1t Is long and wide and SO
shallow that ducks and geese do not try
to swim in it. pump at one side sup
plies it with fresh water. This same flock
of fortunate chickens has A solid con-
crete house, of two rooms: one room has
concrete floor and perches for the con-
venience of its occupants, and the other
room has a floor of earth where the
chickens can scratch about in the winter
time. The roosting room. with the con-
crete hoor' can be flushed out and kept
perfectly sanitary. the water running
from 1t to a waste outlet at one side.
when 1t comes to drainage on the
farm. concrete steps in and helps out the
farmer. Culverts are now being made in
sections so that. after the excavation is
made and a solid concrete foundation nut
in. the sides and the arch can be added as
necessity demands.
The sanitary system of a farm near
Ogden. ILL.,. is centered about dry well.
lowest grounds Of the farm. The well has
no outlet and. being concrete-lined is
practically water-tight. At intervals the
farmer cleans it out and uses the sewage
for fertilizer.
The silo, the first appliance to adapt
itself to concrete, has grown enormously
in size. One of the biggest of them is
slxty-two feet high and has walls that
are eight inches thick 1t will hold
enough ensilage to fatten five carloads
of beef cattle. 1t only took a month to
build it and its total cost was but 5000.
This is the latest type of silo, built tall
and with small diameter, because in
this way the room is used more econom-
cally- The smaller the diameter. the
less waste there is in proportion =
The piles of discard lumber on the
farms Of the nation contain a few ce-
ment-encrusted boards. They are knock
down forms which one nodded some little
device which will never have to be remade
on that farm"