Newspapers / The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, … / May 31, 1906, edition 1 / Page 2
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2 BUILDING A STAVE SILO. There is Nothing the Farmer Can Do This Summer That Will Pay Him Better No. 27 of the Sunny Home Stock Talks. Messrs. Editors: .1 have recently received a number of letters from friends making inquiry concerning silo building, and I think an answer through The Progressive Farmer might perhaps be of interest to other readers. We. belive that at the present time the concrete silo' is the most economical to build, taking into condsideration the permanent nature of a struc ture built of this material; but as the cost of this form is consider able and the material for its con struction not easy to obtain in all c i t ' - 0 ci V 4 f 6 sections of our territory, we will discuss another mode of construc tion that is within the reach of every farmer of any means at all, and one that will give as good results, no doubt, for ten years or more. How to Build a 100-Ton Silo for $35 Cash Outlay. We refer to the stave silo built of 2x6 or 2x8 pieces. By having the staves got out of one's own woods a hundred-ton silo (16 feet in diameter and 24 feet high) can be built for thirty-five dollars of actual cash out lay, not counting the hauling or rough work performed by the reg ular farm force. Or it can be made to cost one hundred dollars or more by having an expensive foundation or roof, neither of which is at all necessary (especially the roof) in the South. Moreover, if the farmer is not burdened with ready cash and yet wants a silo, he can use old moth er earth for his foundation, with the result that the silage will keep equal ly as well as where a stone or ce ment foundation is used. A Silo is Easy to Build. We have built several by simply leveling the surface of the ground, setting up the tub, then digging out the center of the space enclosed and throwing the clav thus obtained around the inner edge of the staves and tamping solid. Some- of these have been erected five years and are apparently in as good condition as when first put up. Good heart pine seems to last about as well set up on the ground as on a wall, and there lis iittuce iui tut; air to get in around the bottom and spoil some of the silage, as sometimes happens if care is not taken to cement the connection between the staves and the wall when using the stone foun dation. It Doesn'e Pay to Have a Roof. The matter of a roof we have tested quite thoroughly and invaria bly have had less loss of silage on top when the silo has been left open so that the rain can fall directly 'on the feed. This is reasonable, as the silage is obliged to rot on top in order to seal the mass, and of course the wetter it gets the surer it will rot, and therefore the air will pene trate to less depth than if it be al lowed to dry on top. Another ad vantage of the open top is that when the silage gets up to near the top of stakes, short pieces of boards can be tacked on the inside of the staves extending above the top for four or five feet, and on these pieces a piece of canvass or fine mesh poultry net ting can be used to raise the height of the silo that much; thus when the silage settles, as it will settle four or five feet in a twenty foot silo, the silage will be even with the "top of the staves, thus increasing the capacity of silage by about ten tons and doing away with the extra height of four or five feet of staves (saving considerable in timber) and at the same time lessening the danger of damage from wind by having less height. . The Round Iron Rod should be used for hoops, and in stead of having jugs for tightening the ropes, use pieces of timber 4x6 set edgewise to the circumference of the circle and taking the. place of one stave in each side of the silo. Through these pieces, about two inches from the outer edge, holes should be bored at intervals from top to bottom the distance apart we wish to space our hoops. This plan calls for each hoop to be in two pieces, and the half hoops will need to be J about ten inches longer than one half the circumference of the silo. Then a four or five-inch thread shotild be run on either end of each half hoop, these ends passed through the holes in the 4x6 pieces, when a half-inch thick cart washer and a nut will be all that is needed to com plete the job. Spacing for the Hoops. Use -inch rods at the bottom of the silo and -inch for the upper two-thirds of the height. The dis tance apart these should be spaced will depend on, the height of silo used: the deeper the silo, the closer, of course, the hoops should be placed at the bottom where the pressure comes. On a twenty-foot silo, eight hoops are sufficient; on a 24-foot silo ten, and for a 30-foot, eleven or twelve. We prefer our timber to be tongued and grooved as it is very much less work to erect a silo when the material is tongued and grooved than when it is simply jointed, and it stands up better when it is empty. Before beginning to empty the silo take some pieces of half-inch lumber four inches wide and make a hoop for the inside of the silo, at the top nail securely to each stave, and your silo will not fall. to pieces when emp ty and dry. A Bit of Preliminary Work. Before starting to erect the silo take the rods (hoops) and bend them to about the shape they will need to be when in the silo. An easy and quick way to do this is. to plant two posts in the ground about three or four inches apart; spike a piece across the top to keep them from spreading. Thrust the end of a rod between the posts, twist it around until the bend is about right, shove it through a couple of feet further and bend again, and so on. The Best Thing the Stockman Can Do. When ready to erect, the first thing to do is to set up the 4x6 pieces .and stay them well from every direction; then set - in about two staves at intervals on the circle be tween the 4x6s, put in your bottom, top and. middle hoops; then fill in with the balance of the staves, keep ing them plumb and driving them well together. - i There is nothing the stockinan can do during the summer that will pay him any better than building of one veniences will allow. I This method or more silos'. The drawing here- will hold good .in any State however with willexplain the manner of using I cold or however far South you may the 4 x 6 pieces, and also method of be. No amount of machinery, how- erecting the silo. ever costly and scientific it may be, A. L. FRENCH. i can possibly compare with the pre- R. F. D. 2, Byrdville, Va. serving power of the breath of "Jack Frost" and if you are never able to go lower than forty j degrees in the direction of the "frost j line," you can just roll in your barrels of "Blue Tf rl CP "MTminfa in Rr 1 rl wi n a ' n n rl "htro xur. oruus vu ooutiveeping ami, them on from 0ctober to Easter rrxiir idling uie rruii. MORE APPLES NEEDED. W. Apples ought not to be quite so scarce as they are at the present time. Besides having a fair at home last October I went up near Pilot Mountain and secured a few loads of apples of fine quality. I tried to ship from the Blue Ridge Mountain but, by some mishap, I failed to find a man to furnish me a parrel. I proposed to furnish the empty bar rels in the best of shape and to pay the freight both ways, and yet I failed to find a man to favor me in this. However, this last winter season there was a fair crop of win ter apples in the mountains. 1 in tend, in this article, to say some thing about the possibilities for win ter fruit here in North Carolina. We have not the best climate for fruit, nor have we got a very fast fruit market, but the possibilities are; good very good. Right where we should get in -shape for the best in all this there is usually a stop. Thousands of fine fruit trees are planted, but. the cultivation is not what it should be. Not half the win ter fruit of our Blue Ridge Moun tains is saved. The mountain people could much easier save their winter fruit than produce it, however cheap the production may be, but it seems the most of them have not learned this. About six or eight years ago, ap pies being very scarce in" the country, and over the world, I went in late gathering time to Wilkesboro, in tending to go out into the Brushy Stokes Co., N. C. F. GRABS. Stunting Corn. Will Mr. Williamson reply? Now, if Mr. Williamson's stunting process proves with all of us to be as profitable and satisfactory as it has with Mr. Williamson, we can then see what a fool we have all along been for losing so much sleep over the corn stunting habit of our free ne groes and some of our white tenants, too. We have watched this seeming ly unavoidable stunting process going on about us more or less every year, with a great deal of displeasure; counting the apparent loss as wre passed by. But if Mr. Williamson's success in this improved stunting corn practice proves to be as good with others as with himself, we can truly say to one another along , the line, farmers, "what fools we mortals be."- 1 , . .' Mr. Williamson we do not once doubt has been thoroughly convinced that his stunting plan is all right or he would not practice his plan, let alone advocate it in public print. But what we want to know from Mr. Wil- liamson now is, howl does he know that there is more in the stunting of his corn than there was in the side application of the fertilizer? Did Mr. Williamson make repeated com parative tests upon different soils and different seasons by the actual weighing of the different yields and actual mptasiirpmpnts 1 as tn tKo atm mountains in searcn or appies, out under his comparative tests? or did I was told at once that "you need ka riot, go: a Yankee has been all through there and has about cleaned up all the apples, by furnishing the empty barrels and paying forty cents a bushel for the apples, those fur nishing the apples hauling to the depot. I saw many of that "trading" man's barrels at the denot la- hear from Mr. he form his conclusions as many of us have done before, by the mere looks of the thing? We would like to Williamson on this subject, as many of our people are making these point ed inquiries of our bureau about these tests. ' With the Aldrich system of plant- beled "Blue Ridge Mountain Bald- inJr corn and cottnn aftpr th Hnnhi win tx. njiig pup uiai name. xiitJse old-fashioned, red Limbertwigs were shipped to England but they were all needed here in the South for that row alternation and rotation plan of. Mr. Williamson, and the breeding of new varieties of cowpeas to suit our different nnrnnses. hv Mr. Rrnhham season, and would have been cheap L n,. wo fi n for our people, at the price paid. like tnere is something doing along mat project was an ooject lesson lor the ri ht line.Dy our farmers, which iiie, anu snouia De ior tnose wno would procure apples for winter use. If an enterprising "Yankey" could do such as thing as to collect car loads of "Blue Ridge Mountain Bald wins", at a low price while apples were comparatively scarce ("while men slept") why not get him to come while they are plentiful all through is gratifying to the whole progressive family of our farmers. This progressive turn of the minds of our Southern farmers away from the all-cotton system to the more sen sible rotation plans, and the inclina tion to build up the land upon a permanent plan of rotation is like the dawn of a bright new day for our the mountains, and buy up.not only Smitnprn farTT1prs. Tt lnnV nv a rew carioaas, out nunareas or car loads, and fill the cellars of Raleigh and Greensboro and High Point, and the manyv other towns and villages? Mr. W; C. Phillips, late from Pin- nacle (near the Pilot Mountain y is future; that is the kind of farmers now locateu at xiign foint. Mr our people were abOut ready now to call the farmer that can make a reason able profitable crop-from his, land and leave the land richer than before he grew the crop, the best farmer of the Phillips could at once tell a man (having or owning a big cellar) that that the whole country must now look to, to turn the tide of the long nracticeri rnhhpr svstftm nf slrinninsf" the thing to do is to just brush out hA lnnH hv mniimUnt. rrnnS. of its the old cellar, and roll in the few Cnii Wt ofn n'fnturp carloads of apples, 'and ventilate ootnHrtT, i wide open at night, to let in all the cold; but keep the cellar well closed during the day. There is positively no strange mys tery about keeping our winter apples successfully and safely, in a small cellar or in a large cellar in a bush el box, op in a hundred bushel box. Put the apples in the cellar, inside of such cool or cold air, as your con- Cheer up, farmers, you are on the right road. ' - J. C. STRIBLING. Anderson Co., S. C. Do not wait for extraordinary 'op portunities for good actions, but make use of common situations. Goethe.
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N.C.)
Standardized title groups preceding, succeeding, and alternate titles together.
May 31, 1906, edition 1
2
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