lo Aug., 1908.] A Farm in the Making. 495 



of airing the slied and drying the floors. A small yard at the shed 

 entrance, between it and the receiving yards, allows of the coming in 

 and going out of the cows from each side of the shed quietly and quickly. 

 When completed, the bringing in of the feed and removal of manure 

 from all the sheds will be done by tramway. The situation of all this 

 shedding is similar to that of the shelter-shed, being high and dry on 

 an easterly slope. Space has been reserved for another milking-shed 

 and roadway beside this one ; and adjacent to that are erected two of the 

 proposed four silos. 



The silos are of concrete, constructed on the Monier system, circular, 

 35 feet high bv 25 feet in diameter ; erected by contract at a total cost 

 of ^397 for the two, and estimated to hold 350 tons of fodder each. 

 This would appear to be a very conservative reckoning of their capacity ; for 

 the one filled took over 500 loads of maize, at an estimated average of 

 I ton per load, and the 189 loads put into the second one did not half 

 fill it. The heavv pressure on the lower half of the filled silo forced the 

 sap to permeate through the wall, and it kept oozing out and trickling 

 away for days, no provision for drainage having been made when building 

 them. It would appear also that more care in construction especially at the 

 union of the cement blocks is necessarv. The maize was chaffed, the 

 cutter and elevator being driven by the farm traction engine. The work 

 of filling, shown in the illustration, was carried out at the rate of about 

 50 tons a dav. The other two si^os when built are to be between these 

 and the stabling. 



When the full proposed extension of the milking-shed is built it will 

 occupy a portion of the space now taken up by the receiving yards ; and 

 the barn and stack-yard will be together below this, and following up the 

 line of the silos. A grain-crushing machine has just been put up in the 

 barn. The mixing bins will be finally built there, and the feed tramways 

 lafd from there through the milking-shed. Below the silos and bam, 

 and across another road space, down the whole length of the side of this 

 farm-yard, have been constructed five laige yards, the whole being fenced 

 in and subdivided with 8 ft. iron. These are at present used — four as 

 bull pens, and one for the boar and eight breeding sows. 



The Farm Stock. 



The bulls are pedigreed Ayrshires, three yearlings, and two rising 

 three years old. These, with nine Ayrshire heifers, were purchased at the 

 clearing sale of Mr. Grant's Toolern herd : and their breeding is a guarantee 

 that no better beginning could have been made in the formation of a herd 

 of pedigreed Ayrshire milking stock. The rest of the milking stock on 

 the farm (about 300 head) has been purchased in lines as springing heifers. 

 These as they come in are branded on the horn with the milking-shed 

 number. At two milkings weekly, a night and the following morning, 

 each cow's milk is weighed, and the week's yield estimated therefrom. 

 The bails are numbered from i to 50, and as the cows stand bailed theii 

 numbers and that of the bail thev are in, are noted from the feed-alley ; 

 and as the attendants bring up each cow's milk for weighing the bail 

 number is given, and the cow's number is beside it in the book. This 



system has now been tried in practice for three months, and is satisfactory 

 both as to exactness and quickness of execution. The regular testing for 

 butter fat quality of the milk will be proceeded with as soon as the 



