554 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. Gurler: Yes, it is of greater value. 



Mr. Burnside: Now, what do"you feed in connection with silage? I 

 don't mean your concentrated feed; what I mean, do you try to feed more 

 dry fodder with your silage? 



Mr. Gurler: Yes, sir: I have fed this winter some fodder, and then I 

 fed some old hay. 



Mr. Helmer: What does it cost you per ton for plowing, planting and 

 putting the silage in the silo? 



Mr. Gurler: Well, sir, for several years I don't know, for I have made 

 my boys do that. I have grown the corn and put it in the silo for just a 

 trifle under a dollar a ton, and I figured into that the interest on the land 

 and the labor. Some men can do it for less than that. 



Dr. Woolen: What is it worth a ton? 



Mr. Gurler: Now, you have got me; that depends on what other people 

 consider it worth. 



Mr. Wood: Mr. Davis bought his at wholesale the other day and paid 

 $3.50 a ton for it. 



Mr. Gurler: He must be a lover of silage; that is a pretty good point 

 in favor of it. 



Mr. Schlosser: What do you consider a fair price? 



Mr. Gurler: One-third the price of hay. Now, that is theoretical, but 

 I mean that and I think that is putting a low estimate on it. 



Mr. Schlosser: What kind of hay? 



Mr. Gurler: Take a mixed hay. 



Mr. Burnsides: Is it your experience that silage is the cheapest feed 

 tliat you ever fed? 



Mr. Gurler: If I had to give up the silo I should be compelled to quit 

 business, I think now we are milking 2C>0 cows. I have 195 in the stable 

 that are producing certified milk; then I have some strippers in another 

 stable, I have a lot of dry cows, and I have some forty or fifty heifers I 

 am feeding. I have made the claim for years that my two-year-old heifers 

 will give me more milk than the average cows. 



Mr. Burnside: I wanted to ask you a moment ago if you wanted to 

 feed any meal with your well-eared ensilage? 



