66 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 



Prof. Haecker: It would be a vefy good investment to 

 put part of that ground into the clover to use for balancing 

 the ration. As Mr. Gurler ^dja, corn furnishes the most feed 

 Xer acre of any feed we have. 



Mr. Wyman: If you balanced the ration, can't that corn 

 b( husked and gi-ound and the ration balanced in that way, 

 and wouldn't it make a cheaper feed with the clover? 



Prof. Haecker: You could not balance it with clover; it 

 would require too ranch bulk; you would have to use oil meal 

 or bran or cotton seed meal, but you could use it to a certain 

 extent in balancing the ration so far as roughage is concerned. 



Mr. Wyman: How would it be then where it was put 

 into the stover, worth only |4 a ton? The question is whether 

 it would be cheaper to let the grain go and feed the clover. 

 Wouldn't there be more money in it? 



Prof. Haecker: Only to a certain extent; only to the 

 extent that the clover would balance the fodder corn; but it 

 would not do it. For instance, with corn fodder entirely ex- 

 cluded, and substitute the clover. 



Mr. Plank: I built a silo two 3^ears ago, and we find if 

 we lack that we don't get good results. We feed to every- 

 thing — calves, horses, colts, cows, everything — and I don't 

 know but we will have to feed to hogs pretty soon. I fed a 

 bunch of steers two winters. I did not weigh the silagtf. 

 We gave a good big steer a scoopfu] and a half three times 

 a day, and about four quarts of meal. After we got through 

 with our ensilage, we undertook to keep our steers a little 

 longer and feed them good timothy hay, but they gaunted 

 right up, wouldn't eat hay. I found that we could not feed 

 the ensilage and then drop back onto hay. I had to get 

 some ensilage from my son-in-law. There is no trouble feed- 

 ing corn with ensilage. They hardly eat any hay; they cannot 

 eat stiaw just as well. They take only about one-third the 

 amount of grain that they would if they were eating hay. 



Mr. Gurler: Your silo is partly built of brick mason 

 work; what would you build if you were going to build again? 



Mr. Plank: I was exjierimenting. I never saw but one 

 or two silos before that. 1 dug about three feet in the ground, 

 then ceirtented tlu bottom and laid a three-foot wall on it, 

 put staves on and made a round silo — or, kind of oblong. If 



