DAIRY ASSOCIATION. 305 



No. 2 is also a good ration. I consider it better than the first. 

 These rations admit of an infinite variety of changes to accommo- 

 date them to tlie dift'erent kinds of feed we may have or can buy at 

 reasonable prices. 



SILOS AND SILAGE. 

 (Wm. Plummer, Grace, Mo.) 



It seems to me that I am out of place to try to discuss the sub- 

 ject of silos and ensilage before this convention, but as I have been 

 placed on the program, I will try to give my experience with the silo 

 as best I can. I have had my silo built for three years and it has 

 given me the best of satisfaction, but if you could come to Clover 

 Hill Dair}' I could show you better than I can tell you, as I like the 

 jMissouri idea of having to be shown. 



Three years ago I decided to make dairying my business. I had 

 a herd of thirty-two grade Jersey cows of good quality. I concluded 

 that the next most important thing was proper feed for my cows. 

 After getting all the information that I could out of Hoard's Dairy- 

 man and Colman's Rural World. I called on Mr. Brooks of Caven- 

 dish, Mo., and Uncle John Patterson of Kirksville, Mo., and got 

 their experience with ensilage as feed. I decided to build a silo. I 

 built my first silo in the fall of 1900. I built it round, sixteen feet 

 in diameter, and thirty-four feet high, four feet of it was under 

 ground. The silo proper is made of 2x6 pine, 14 and 16 feet long. 

 It is hooped with 13 iron hoops made of ^8 iron rods. I then filled 

 this silo with corn and with this amount of silage I fed thirty-two 

 cows from the 15th of November till the 27th of April. I also fed 

 some bran and a very little corn and allowed the cows to run to 

 sorsrhum cane durinof the dav. Mv cows milked well all winter and 

 in the spring were in good condition. As evidence of the value of 

 my method of dairying, I wish to state that my butter brought one 

 cent more per pound on the New York market than the top price. 

 The dry cows I wanted to put off, I sold for $3.25 per hundred, with- 

 out extra feed. 



In the fall of 1901, I refilled my silo with corn, this time it v.-as 

 mostly fodder and this enabled me to keep sixty-five head of cattle 

 of all kinds through the winter, thirty-four of them cows, without 

 buying any rough feed. I fed a little corn meal to'the best milkers. 



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