SILO MADE AVAILABLE. 193 



Mr. THOMPSOisr. I can tell you of one in particular that 

 has been a winter cow for some six years. All who saw her 

 last spring said she was a hundred pounds heavier than they 

 ever saw her before in the spring of the year. I do not 

 know how that was ; but, at any rate, my cows looked better 

 than they did other years. 



Mr. Hadwen. How many acres have you that you cul- 

 tivate ? 



Mr. Thompson. There are about thirty acres, pasture 

 and all. We have now twenty-one head of horned cattle, 

 and two horses. 



Mr. Hadwen. Have you ensilage and hay enongh to 

 carry them through? 



Mr. Thompson. Yes, sir, I have. 



Mr. Taft. You cut but very little hay ? 



Mr. Tho]MPSON. I cut, perhaps, six or seven tons of good 

 hay. 



Mr. Cheever. Will you tell how many acres you have 

 of tillable land, aside from the pasture ? 



Mr. Thompson. There are about five acres of river- 

 meadow, we call it bog-meadow, land. 



Mr. Cheevee. About how much tillable land ? — that is 

 the point. 



Mr. Thompson. There are about eight or nine acres of 

 pasture ; and the rest is tillage-land, — about sixteen acres 

 of tillage. 



Question. Don't you feed any grain to your cows? 



Mr. Thompson. If I am feeding cows, I put in meal, 

 and sometimes a little shorts. My stalks are cut three- 

 eighths of an inch long, and well trodden down. 



Question. Any injury to the cows from feeding three 

 quarts of cotton-seed meal a day ? 



Mr. Thompson. No, sir. 



Question. Does it not affect the bags ? • 



Mr. Thompson. No, sir. I feed it in two feeds. 



Question. Do you raise your own cows, or buy them ? 



Mr. Thompson. I raise some, and buy some. Sometimes 

 I keep a cow one season, and sometimes two, three, six, or 

 eight, just as it happens. If I get good ones, I keep them 

 six or eight years. 



Question. You do not find that the cotton-seed meal 



