The Springdale news., 1917-03-30

of building q Silo should get Into ae- tion. and the man who las not been thinking of the silo should think and aet promptly. Because many farmers are thinking "silo" these days the fol- lowing points as to good silos are worth keeping in mind;
 The walls must be alright. The walls must be smooth inside.
 The best type of silo is round.
 The roof should be waterproof. The substances should be substan tial enough to stand great pressure.
 The silo, with the exception of q few types. is of such construction that it does not need the protection of q GOV cred building. It is not economical to place silo in a building where it will occupy space which may be put to other use.
 Unhandy Location. 4 silo located inside of building is often unhandy to fill. The forage cannot be delivered to the cutter con- yeniently. By locating q silo outside of the building and only connecting it thereto with passage provided with doors, the objectionable odor of the silage may be kept out of the build ing.
 By arranging the silo so as to be connected to the feeding room with Il feedway, it should be as convenient for feeding as when located in the building itself. X very common ar ransement is to so locate the silo that the passageway from the si1o to barn k continuation of the feedway in the barn.
 The fundamental principle in the preservation of green forage when placed in a silo is the exclusion of air It is the purpose of any silo, re- gardless of its construction, to exclude air as far as possible from the silage and in this way prevent decay.
 Construction of Walls.
 The foundation wall, and in fact the walls of the entire silo, should be as smooth as possible. If due care is used in tramping the silage during the filling, doors which extend into the silo
  perfectly flush doors are certainly an advantage.
 A vertical wall is the only satisfac- tory wall to use, as a wall inclined out ward will support the silage to a cer- tain extent and prevent settling sat isfactorily, thus creating air pockets. When the wall is inclined inward the silage will settle away from it. In the ease of concrete silos with tapering walls, these should be vertical on the inside.
 The quantity of silage increases with the depth, due to the weight above. The usual Silo today is 30 or more feet deep. A larger percentage of moldy and otherwise inferior Siiage is found near the top of the silo than at the center or near the bottom, prov ing that a certain weight is necessary to compress the silage and exclude the mir so as to insure it's perfect preser- vation.
 Deep SiIo Best
 By building a deep silo q greater percentage of good siIage is obtained, which is, of course, matter Of econ omy. Good practice at present seems to dictate that the depth should be at least 90 feet. A large percentage of good silos are built considerably deep CT, even 50 to 60 feet.
 Foundations should extend below the frost line, so ii the earth inside the foundation wall be excavated to this depth and the floor placed on a level with the footings, q very cheap addition to the silo is secured without increasing the height of the silo above the ground.
 The difficulty in removing the sill age from the part of the silo below the lower door is objectionable, and be- yond q certain depth the difficulty in removing the silage is so great as to more than balance the economy of se- curing additional space in this way. Three or four feet up to the first door is not considered objectionable.
 Capacity Varies.
 The capacity of q silo varies as the square of the diameter while the wall surface varies directly as the diameter. This means that as far as capacity is concerned the silo should be Of as large diameter as possible.
 But there are other limiting factors involved. When silage is left exposed 10 tie air for a short time, more than day. 1t spells. Enough must be re- moved daily so that it will keep fresh
 In the we'll settled silage, the air does not penetrate much over an inch and if an inch and a half or two inches are fed from the surface daily the silase will remain fresh.
 h warm weather the spelling will take place much more rapidly than in