STATE DAIRY ASSOCIATION. 335 



being milked. In winter our cows are kept in the barn except they are 

 turned out twice a day for water and exercise. Our winter ration con- 

 sists of timothy, clover and alfalfa hay, thirty pounds of silage, and 

 fifteen pounds of mixed bran, ship and meal. 



"We ship cream to St. Louis, a distance of no miles, and it Is 

 sold to a dairy company who bottle it and deliver it to their retail trade. 

 We have shipped one eight-gallon can of 40 per cent cream each morn- 

 ing for four years, and during that time w^e have lost only three cans, 

 which soured. During the summer the skim milk is fed to calves and 

 pigs, and in winter we have a demand for it here in Mexico. 



"Up to July, 1904, w^e also had a retail business in Mexico which 

 required about 70 gallons a day ; but the work was so great and help was 

 so scarce that we sold our retail business with 30 cows, and now devote 

 our time to shipping cream, which we find as profitable and much less 

 work." 



KEPORT OF .T. W. PLUMMER. HALE, MO. 



"I have a four hundred acre farm and my son bought one hundred 

 and thirty acres last spring which I rent. I have 46 grade Jerseys and 

 3 full bloods, my bull is a full blood Jersey. We are wintering 175 head 

 of cattle and 16 horses and mules. We raise lots of hogs and fatten ail 

 of them. In 1903 we sold $1,901.63 worth of hogs, and we have the crop 

 of 1904, 180 head on hand. We have one pasture for hogs, which we sow 

 to rape in the spring and to rye in the fall. ; 



"We try to take the best possible care of our cows. When the 

 nights commence to get cold in the fall we put our cows in the barn 

 and do not let them out at night until the grass is good in the spring. 

 W^e commence to feed ensilage as soon as the grass begins to fail. We 

 feed about 20 pounds of ensilage to each cow twice a day. We also feed 

 wheat bran when we can buy it for $15 per ton or less. W^e keep hay in 

 a rack for cows to run to during the day. We are now feeding a little 

 shelled corn to our best cows. We have 40 winter pigs that follow the 

 cows to pick up the waste corn. In the spring the cows are turned ou 

 the grass when it gets good. We have two pastures, one for daytime 

 and another for night. 



"I have two silos, one 16 feet in diameter and 34 feet deep, which 

 holds 100 tons. Another is 20 feet in diameter and 34 feet deep and 

 holds 200 tons. We commence to fill the silos as soon as the corn is fully 

 matured. I would rather have the corn too ripe than to have it too green. 

 We do not use anything but corn for ensilage. The corn is cut with a 

 binder and bound in small bundles, and is hauled to the silo on low- 

 wheeled wagons. Four wagons will haul the corn fast enough to keep 



