558 BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. 



Ml*. Gniler: I was going to say that I have figured practically the 

 same thing, and I do believe that I can get it Jn the silo a little cheaper 

 than I can shred it at the barn. After filling my silos this year I had some 

 Beventy-five acres of my own to put in the shock. Some of that was 

 planted very late and wasn't shocked until October. 



Now, i will touch tipoli the point of the milk. In my tirs^t work done 

 testhig the quality of milk, or rather it Was a test of the butter, that was 

 bv&r twenty yeslrs ago, I had the milk in my dairy brought to my creamery 

 ttnd it was made into buttei- by itself and shipped to New York. Silage 

 butter was first, and then butter made from dry feed. I numbered the 

 tubs, and they did not know which was which, and when we got the re- 

 poi't they did not see any difference ih flavor; what difference there was 

 was in the quahtity. Thei"o was a small amount of silage butter in our 

 churns and we did not get it worked and salted just right, and wheu I 

 come to realizing what effect silage might have, I realized I must be care- 

 ful, and all the first winter I did not ship any silage milk to Chicago as 

 certified milk. But for several months I had samples of the milk at my 

 house and on my table, so that I knew the silage milk and the dry food 

 milk, and I had the two butters, and my wife and I had each on the table 

 each morning, and we all passed judgment, and in the majority of the 

 cases my wife and daughters picked out the silage butter and milk, and 

 finally became convinced. When you use intelligence in the care, and 

 making and feeding, you will have a first-class product, and if I wanted 

 to make a high-flavored goods, I would insist on silage. Now, they can 

 talk as much as they please; I have left myself wide open to be picked up 

 by somebody, but nobody would do it. When I have offered to put up 

 money on it they would let me alone. I will tell you, a person's im- 

 agination does a good deal on some things. I remember one time a doctor 

 Avrote me of the silage flavor to the milk when the cows were out on green 

 grass pasture; and so I wrote him back the facts, gentlemen. I tell you. 

 a person's Imagination is a terrible thing. 



Speaking of the shredded corn. I had some run in about a month ago 

 and it came out soft and got a little tough, and I can't use that for my 

 cows at all, and I am putting that out to my young stock and dry cows 

 and mostly in bedding. My foreman called me up and wanted to use my 

 shredded corn for bedding, but I told him, "No, you can't." 



Now, we are down to the point of construction. I am going to tell 

 you, going away back to 1870 Avhen I built my first barn on my farm, 

 I looked up the question of silo at that time, but all I could learn then 

 was that they were built of masonry; but in a few years when they began 

 to be built of wood. I built a wooden silo and sheeted it inside with one 

 layer of match planks, wiute pine, that was first-class flooring. And then 

 a few years later I built a double wall. I put on surface lumber, then a 

 layer of paper, and sheeted matched lumber inside of that. That did very 

 y\^ell for a few years, but the moisture went through those cracks from 



