FIFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART IV. 249 



Mr. Trow : Always in rows drilled north and south on the 

 'richest land, at least twice as thick as for husking. 



Mr. Anderson: What variety of corn? 



Mr. Trow: Always the corn that does best in your locality 

 for husking. Another thing, when you come to fill the silo, wait 

 until the corn gets well dented. It is more liable to freeze on 

 the inside than that which we allow to get quite ripe. Three 

 years ago the frost struck our corn and we had not commenced 

 to fill yet. We had to put the frosted corn into the silo and it 

 came out good. Since then we have not worried about frost, 

 and we put water on top to make it pack good and to exclude 

 the air. The secret of good silage is to keep the air out of it. 

 When we first commenced to fill our silos, three or four owned 

 the machinery together. It is quite a burden for one man to 

 own all the machinery. A good feed cutter, mounted on trucks, 

 <;osts $175. Then one of my neighbors concluded to own the 

 whole outfit, and now he owns the feed cutter and power, a gas- 

 oline engine, and does the work, and I have not a dollar tied up 

 in machinery. 



Mr. Anderson: What do you mean by filling twice ? 



Mr. Trow : We fill it to the top, let it settle, then fill it again. 

 The total expense is one man to cut the corn in the field, five or 

 six men to haul it, one man to feed, one man in the silo, and you 

 £11 it in about three days. Thirty-five dollars for the engine 

 and cutter. It will cost you pretty close to one hundred dollars 

 to get 170 tons of ensilage. 



Question: Did you say you got all that from thirteen and 

 one-half acres ? 



Mr. Trow: Yes, but I want to qualify that a little. That is 

 the best yield I ever got, but I did get it last year. 



Question: How many cows do you keep ? 



Mr, Trow: We keep about twenty-five, and that will make 

 the most of their coarse feed for the entire winter; and all the 

 little calves that are two or three months old are fed from that, 

 and also about thirty -five head oi yearlings and two -year -olds. 



Question: What do you put on top of your silos ? Do you 

 have waste ? 



Mr. Trow: The air might spoil it a little next to the staves 

 at the very top, and you might have altogether on the top of an 

 eighteen-foot silo perhaps a load of waste. 



