STATE DAIRY ASSOCIATION. 295 



Mr. Do you feed silage in the summer? 



Mr. Haecker — Yes, sir. 



We have twenty acres of corn and 35 milk cow's, on an average, and 

 25 yearlings and two-year olds and the 40 acres takes care of the whole 

 herd. 



Mr. For the year around? 



Mr. Haceker — Yes. Of course I have to buy meal and my hay, 

 but the cows are returning me double what this feed costs. I do not 

 care what I have to pay for my feed, every pound of feed I give to my 

 cows will pay me just about twice in butter fat everything that that 

 feeds costs. The average yearly board bill amounts to $30 per cow. 



THE SILO. 



Mr. : — What are the dimensions of your silos? 



Mr. Haecker — 35 feet high and fifteen feet in diameter. 



Mr. How are they built ? 



Mr. Heacker — 2 by 6 studding, upright, staved silos, no grooves, 

 no beveling, just faced on four sides. One of them has now been in 

 use for nine years and it is just as good today as it was the day it was 

 built. 



Mr. Do you have stone foundations? 



Mr. Haecker — We have a stone foundation for about six or eight 

 inches above the surface and concrete on top and studding on the cement. 



Mr. Does it go down into the ground? 



Mr. Haecker — Yes, four feet, because it freezes deeply in Minnesota, 

 perhaps it is not necessary for it to go so far down here. 



The silo has been oiled inside every fall as we filled it. I get five 

 gallons of linseed oil and we have a mop, and as the silage comes up, we 

 keep oiling the staves and that is all we have done since we built it. 



Mr. Do you screw up the hoops? 



Mr. Haecker — We have never changed a hoop since we built it. 

 It is built of white pine. This silo is built on the inside of the barn. 



This fall we built one on the outside with 2 by 4s and short slats 



between the 2 by 4s, ran down in grooves, to try and find out how that 



works. The others were entirely satisfactory, built on inside the barn, 

 but we wanted to have an additional one outside and did not think it 



safe to put a stiff siding outside unless there was additional support, and 



we wanted another kind. We are running an experiment station and 



wanting all the information we can get. 



A few words in regard to the silo. I am aware that very few 



farmers have a silo, very few farmers are going to have one within the 



