FORTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONVENTION 159 



Mr. Mason: Professor Hall has an open place where he 

 keeps his cows. If he ever had a cement floor and spread it 

 once he would never do without again. 



Mr. : I have two sheds, 16x36 feet, where I have 



no cement floors, and I spread out on the last half of January 

 and took out 25 big spreader loads from that shed. I find it 

 pretty hard to keep bedding enough to keep them clean. Am I 

 losing much fertility in not having a cement floor, where the 

 stock runs loose? We try to keep it clean with bedding and it 

 takes a good deal. 



Mr. Truitt : If you can use enough bedding, so that the 

 bedding will take up all of the liquid part of the manure, you are 

 doing a pretty good job; but, as Mr. Mason said, you never 

 know what you are losing until you put in a concrete floor. I 

 think you are losing quite an appreciable amount, and I think 

 a concrete floor would be a profitable investment. 



Mr. Gilkerson : Our contract conditions are the same as in 

 Southern Illinois. Our bottling plants require the removing of 

 manure and daily cleaning of the stables. I have cemented my 

 barnyard entirely and use a great deal of bedding and try to pre- 

 serve all manure dropped in the barnyard while the cows are out, 

 and it practically paid for itself in two years in preservation of 

 manure. I try not to have any drain from the barnyard floor. 

 Some man advised me to put a drain in, and I said that was the 

 thing I wanted to retain. 



Mr. Sliger : Is a cistern a success in handling liquid ma- 

 nure ? 



Mr. Truitt : Mr. Boyd has one and he pronounces it suc- 

 cessful. 



Mr. Sliger: How do you handle it? 



Mr. Cooper. We in Germany have cisterns, and the liquid 

 manure gets taken care of. We have special tanks, just as for 



