The weekly soliphone. (Paragould, Greene County, Ark.) 1907-1918, 1915-01-01
HOMEMADE S|LO
COST BUT S10l90
Was Built at Jonesboro Agricultural
school Five Years
Ago.
Arkansas Gazette

I
district state agricultural school of
Jonesboro, to Littrell McClung, pub
licity man for the International Har-
vester Company. The cost of mate
rial used, in building the silo was
S101.9O an IAN and boy did
the work.
| The following is Mr.. Rays letter:
| "Your letter of Wednesday receiv-
| ed today. | will tell you as briefly
as possible about the homemade silo
| which we built here at the agricultur-
al school at Jonesboro, five years
ago, and which is still giving us good
service
| eve obtained the plans and speci-
fications for this Modified Wiscon-
sin Type Silo' from the dairy divis-
| ion of the United States department
of agriculture. These may be had
by any farmer by writing to the de-
| partment at Washington, ID. c. This
silo is IA by 80 feet, with nine-inch
concrete foundation, ard six-inch
| concrete floor. A circle IA feet in
diameter made of inch material, four
inches wide and doubled, making it
two inches thick, was fastened in
place on the foundation by bolts set
in the fresh concrete when the foun-
dation was made. Two by four studs,
| II inches apart on center, were nail
j ed to this circle. One half of these
were IA feet in length and one-half
| 16 feet in length. These were so
arranged that the spices in the stud
ding were alternately IA and 16 feet
from the foundation. The first studs
were held in place by circles IA feet
and eight inches in diameter made of
telephone wire, and the studs were
spaced by fastening them to the wire
circles with staples. The tops OF
inch material, similar to the circular
sill above mentioned.
after carefully plumbing, guyine
and anchoring the studs, the struc
ture was curbed tightly on the in
| side of the studs with 3-S inch cy.
'press boards, six inches wide. The
inside of this cypress curbing was
then covered with a layer of acid
proof building paper. Then a Sec
ond layer of 3-S inch cypress was
put over the building paper in such
a way as to lap the cracks and break
the joints of the first layer of cy-
press. This cypress is best obtained
! by using Ike cypress, sized on four
sides, which has been resawed, thus
making two 9-S inch boards from
| each inch board purchased. The
| outer layer of cypress should be
placed with the sized sides out and
| the inner layer should be placed with
| the acid proof paper between the
| two resawed surfaces, and will leave
and outside. Four penny lathing
nails should be used for mailing this
cypress. No boards with loose knots
should be used. The roof may be
made to suit the convenience of the
owner, usually some cheap, prepared
roofing is used rather than shingles.
The doors may be made of Ike tom
gued and grooved pine flooring.
These should be 1Sx24 inches in size,
and be placed from four to six feet
apart, as the owner desires.
THE cost of materials used in the
Modified Wisconsin Type Silo' at
the first agricultural school at
Jonesboro, is as follows:
1000 feet 2x4 studding, $3.50.
1000 feet 3-S inch cypress, $72.
800 feet No. 6 inch flooring for
sheathing and door, $3.50.
rolls acid proof building paper, SO
100 pounds nails, $3.50.
Tolls prepared fOOllHS pow.
yards gravel 1915.
barrels cement $40.
Total, $101.90.
Zone man and a boy did the work.
"The silo holds, when filled to the
roof, about 10 tons and the cost of
labor was SIS or $40, making the
silo cost approximately 81 for~each
ton capacity. The cost of the two
piece stave pine silo of this size
ranges from 1926 to $3.50, without
the foundation or cost of erection
We have found that the ensilage has
kept excellently in this homemade
silo, and can see no difference in the
palatability or loss between that
which is kept in the homemade and
that in the Staye Silo ANY farmer