SOME AMERICAN BREEDERS. 243 



poultry house and carthouse, and has put in a silo of seventy-five tons capacity. 

 He puts his corn into the silo after breaking off the best ears. In feeding he 

 gives one ration of hay and one of ensilage each day, and a supplementary feed 

 of gluten, linseed, bran, and corn and cobmeal combined. 



Mr. Ayers is an earnest worker, pushing whatever he undertakes with vigor. 

 He keeps eight horses, and they are generally busily employed, with two or 

 three men, besides his son and himself, at work on the place. He is an enthu- 

 siastic member of the order Patrons of Husbandry, having joined Capital 

 Grange, at Concord, ten years ago, and transferred his membership to Ezekiel 

 Webster Grange, of Bosca'wen, after his removal. He is at present overseer of 

 the latter grange, while his wife is secretary, and his eldest son, John R., is 

 assistant steward. Mr. Ayers is also a member of the Holstein-Friesian Asso- 

 ciation of America. 



MR. E. T. BEDELL of Springville, la., was born in the state of New York in 

 1852. He came to the then pioneer state of Iowa as a two-year-old and has 

 lived in Linn county, Iowa, ever since, or over forty-two years. When the 

 Bedell family settled here, there was not a railroad west of the Mississippi 

 river ; now the Belmont Stock Farm lies almost in sight of two of the greatest 

 roads in America, viz.: The Chicago & Northwestern R. R. and the Chicago, 

 Milwaukee & St. Paul R. R. 



Mr. Bedell was the youngest of a family of seven children, and, his parents 

 being in limited circumstances, he was early taught the necessity of persever- 

 ance and self-reliance and to make the best of the hardships and privations 

 incidental to any one starting in a new country ; and having a fair share of 

 Western pluck and " get there " in his make-up, he was capable, at his father's 

 death which occurred when Mr. Bedell was in his seventeenth year to take 

 the management of his father's farm and run it successfully. This he did for 

 about ten years. 



In 1880 he bought the farm he now occupies, comprising nearly a quarter 

 section, which has since taken on the name of " Belmont Stock Farm." A firm 

 believer in tile draining and good cultivating, he at once began to improve this 

 farm by building good fences and draining all the wet land and also building a 

 large and commodious barn and other out-buildings, and. today the farm is one 

 of the best improved and most valuable in the country. 



Mr. Bedell was always a lover of fine stock. In 1888 he started out to 

 acquire a herd of Holsteins. Steadily the herd increased in number and value, 

 and now it is considered one of the best in the state. It is at the present time 

 headed by one of the grandest bred Holstein bulls in the world, whose dam has 

 a record of 33 Ibs. of butter in one week. Six cows in the herd have an average 

 record of over 90 Ibs. of milk in one day, and an average yield of over 26 Ibs. of 

 butter in one week. 



The foundation stock of this herd was purchased at a great price, but it has 

 been a profitable investment to the owner. There has been shipped from this 

 herd, cows, bulls and heifers to many states of the Union. There is evidently 

 no place in the Union better adapted to the growing of fine cattle than the 

 state of Iowa. 



MR. W. M. BENNINGER of Walnutport, Pa., was born at Lehigh Gap, Lehigh 

 county, Pa., in 1854. In the same year his parents moved across the Lehigh 

 river to Lehigh Township, Northampton county, Pa., where he has since 

 remained, and where his noted stock farm, nursery and creameries are located. 

 In addition to a common-school education he attended one term of the Key- 

 stone State Normal School. 



He was raised and worked on his father's farm up to 1873, when he started 

 on the road as a nursery agent, selling trees. In 1874 he started in the nursery 

 business as a dealer, employing quite a number of agents, and met with great 

 success, making increased sales over the same territory every year; continuing 

 in this till 1885, when he partly abandoned the retail department of the busi- 

 ness, having then become widely recognized in furnishing the Grange and Alli- 

 ance in Pennsylvania and a number of other states with nursery stock. In the 

 same year he made his first investment in Holstein-Friesian cattle, making his 

 first purchase from James Black and Mr. Cole of New York state. He after- 

 wards purchased some of the finest specimens from different breeders, and in 



