SILO MADE AVAILABLE. 191 



vice that I gave last ■winter ; and that is, Wait a little longer, 

 those of you who would have to hire money to build silos — 

 wait until the matter is better understood, until we mav 

 know and feel a more positive certainty that it is a good 

 investment. Farmers work hard for their money ; and there- 

 fore I do not think that it is good policy for them to put 

 it out in any very expensive experiments. And yet I am 

 in favor of experiments. I believe that it is the duty of 

 every farmer to try more or less experiments which are not 

 expensive every year. There are many which he can try 

 on his farm, the results of which will be beneficial to him. 

 But here is an experiment which is expensive. It cannot be 

 otherwise than expensive, to build a silo of rocks and cement. 

 If the experiment can be tried in a cheap way, as has been 

 stated here, it would not be open to the objection which I 

 raise against an expensive silo. 



Mr. Cheever. We have a gentleman here who is a 

 practical farmer, who has built a silo (one of the first in the 

 State), who, I believe, thinks that he has converted me. I 

 have been almost converted. He works every day on his 

 farm ; and I want him to make a few practical remarks. I 

 refer to Mr. Thompson of Hopkinton. 



Mr. Tapt. I want to say that Mr* Thompson has a farm, 

 that, when he took it, would not grow a mulleiu'Stalk. 



Mr. Thompsox. I had thought about preserving fodder 

 for several years. My son wanted to go into it some time 

 ago ; but I told him we did not know any thing about it, and 

 we would wait and see. I went and looked at a silo, told 

 my son how it was made, and he said he would build one : 

 he knew he could do it ; somebody else had done it, and he 

 knew he could. We went at it a year ago last July, after 

 we got done haying. We were about six weeks in finishing 

 it. • It cost us about three hundred dollars ; perhaps a little 

 over, reckoning every thing. It is thirty feet long, twelve feet 

 wide, and thirteen feet deep, and will hold one hundred tons. 

 It is built with concrete, sand, granite, and cobble-stones. 

 The first of September we put in some forty-five or fifty 

 tons of fodder-corn, — what we grew on two and a half acres. 

 About the 25th of November we opened it, and commenced 

 feeding it. We make milk for the Boston market. We could 

 see a marked difference in the quantity of milk the next week 



