SILO MADE AVAILABLE. 195 



Mr. Cheever. I will answer that by asking another 

 question, — the same question that was asked me this after- 

 noon. My impression is, from what I have heard Mr. 

 Thompson say — I have never put it to him directly, and do 

 not know as he can give a direct answer — my impression 

 is, that, having been in the milk business for twenty years, 

 perhaps (a good many years, certainly), having had the same 

 trouble that all others have had of low prices for milk, and 

 feeling uncertain whether it were best to give up the business 

 or nof — my impression is, that he feels stronger now in the 

 milk business than any time before within ten years ; that 

 he is satisfied, from his books, that his farm is bringing him 

 more money for the labor and capital expended in the milk 

 business than it has done before. Is that impression correct, 

 Mr. Thompson? 



Mr. Thompson". Very nearly, sir. 



Mr. Cheever. Then, if Mr. Thompson can introduce a 

 silo, and go right on in the same business, and make a 

 number of dollars more on his balance-sheet at the end of 

 the year than ever before, why does not that answer the 

 question ? 



Mr. Taft. It seems to me that the audience ought to 

 understand a little about the condition of Mr. Thompson. 

 He is not on a farm like those that we see here in Norfolk 

 County or up in Franklin County. I presume that on Mr. 

 Thompson's farm, when he took it, there was not an acre 

 from which he could get five hundred pounds of English 

 hay. It was utterly useless for a man to think of pasturing 

 cattle on the land that Mr. Thompson had. 



Mr. Thompson. I will say this : twenty years ago, all 

 the hay that grew on the land I cultivate now one horse 

 could have drawn anywhere. 



Mr. Taft. There is no question about that. I much 

 wondered, when he started, that he had the pluck to do it. I 

 know, of my own personal knowledge, that he has got a good 

 living there, and is making mone3^ Whether 3^ou want silos 

 on your fine farms may be a question ; but I am satirsfied of 

 this, — that, if you are going to make milk on such land as 

 Mr. Thompson has, you cannot do it by pasturing; you 

 cannot do it by raising crops, as our friend Mr. Cheever 

 would : you have got to raise your crop before the drought 



