SIXTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VIII. 757 



etc., but that will be changed. I look for this way of making artificial 

 rock out of sand and gravel, and cement will be the material for build- 

 ing. Such will be air and water tight, and that is the essential in a silo. 

 The machinery will soon be gotten ly those who run threshing outfits, 

 the machine is on wheels and can be folded and set up and taken down 

 quicker than a threshing machine. 



Some experiment station publish finding 45 per cent of the food value 

 of the corn was in the stalk, leaves, husk and tassel. That is nearly as 

 much as the corn, and when put in silos at the right time it will all 

 be eaten and be good food, and I don't know any way to handle corn so 

 it will be eaten so well. So I think it good policy to work the corn 

 crop into the silo, and they that don't do that allow themselves to suffer 

 big loss that could well be prevented. 



NECESSITY FOR GOOD COWS. 



I can hardly stop till I say something about the necessity of good 

 cows, as almost all farmers will fool away valuable time and fed with 

 what they call "all-purpose" cows, thinking they must have a sort that 

 will bring a steer calf that the feeder and butcher will have. Try to get 

 cows that will produce good quality and quantity of milk. Never mind 

 the steer calves if you aim to make on dairy products. If you feed them 

 well you can make them good to butcher when a month to twelve months 

 old, even if he is Jersey steer, and the heifers should be raised for cows. 

 If you get heifer calves from unprofitable cows, use them the same as 

 the steer calves. 



THE SILO ON THE FARM. 



i 



CHAS LAU. R. F. D. NO. 4, DAVHNPORT, lA., BEFORB SCOTT COUNTY 

 FARMHRS' INSTITUTE. 



When land values have reached the hundred dollar mark, and over, 

 the farmer is forced up against the serious proposition what to do, to 

 make the returns for his farm represent a resonable dividend on the 

 capital invested. Though land values may rise somewhat higher, there 

 is no prospect that crops will tee larger or prices than what they Tiave 

 been in recent years, known as years of prosperity. With still lower 

 prices or smaller crops, or both, investemnt and dividends will still grow 

 more out of proportion and farming will become discouraging as a finan- 

 cial enterprise. In the face of such discouraging possibillities at any 

 time in the future, what can be done to restore farming to a reasonable 

 interest paying basis? I will answer. We must and we will do what 

 peasants of older countries on much higher priced land are doing; farm 

 more intensively — farm better. Not only must we guard against habit- 

 ual wastefulness by stuffing up all the leaks. Not only must we in tro- 

 duce all labor saving implements and four horse machinery to curtail 

 the exorbitant wages. Not only must we economize improve all along 

 the line in the matter of seed-selection, cultivation, care of live-sto(!k, 

 fertility of soil etc, but we must likewise be awake to the adaption of 



