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Show PAINTING SILOS FOR FUTURE USEFULNESS Of Great Importance to Protect Against Decay. Good Inside Coating Is Coal-Tar Solution, Solu-tion, Thinned With Gasoline Wooden Staves Usually Begin to Rot at the Base. (Prepared by the United States Department Depart-ment of Atrrieulture l Now that the cost of constructing silos Is high it is more important than ever to protect against decay those that are already built. A good inside coating for silos, specialists spe-cialists of the United States department depart-ment of agriculture say, is coal-tar solution, so-lution, thinned if necessary with gasoline, gas-oline, and applied with a paint brush. The best plan is to apply it one or two days before the silo is filled, but it can be done successfully during filling, the men in the silo painting a strip as high as they can reach, and repeating the process periodically until the top is is reached. When put on in this way the material must be thinned with gasoline which evaporates almost immediately and leaves the coal-tar dry enough not to injure the silage. The same preparation is good also for coating the outside wall. The only objection is that black outside paint, is not as pleasing in appearance as that of a lighter color. The high cost of linseed oil and prepared paints, however, how-ever, cause many silo owners to neglect neg-lect painting with those materials, and a black outer coat is certainly preferable prefer-able to deterioration for lack of paint. Wooden-stave silos that have begun to rot at the base where decay usually usu-ally begins can be saved by sawing off the rotten portion. It is necessary, of course, to block up the silo before the sawing is done, and then to lower it gradually. Carefully handled, a silo can be sawed off and lowered absolutely absolute-ly without injury. After this operation there is likely to be three or four years of life left in a silo that without it would have been -worthless. |