Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-12-03
Farmers in the Vicinity of
Parkersburg Find Them
Profitable
FARMING OUT STATES WARDS
Boys From Industrial School Being
Placed With Farmers During Busy
season-some New Features in
Butler County Barns-c. E. Will
sons Rural Observations.
Special to, Times-Republican,

Special lOi lines IeI) uUilGttIl.
Parkersburg, Dec. S.-For several
years agricultural writer's have been
solution of the winter feed problem on
the farm, and while UP to this present
day very few of them have been built
in this state, it has been claimed az
along that the price IF land will after
awhile rise to figure that will neces-
State their general use. SO far as one
locality near here is concerned the silo
will soon cease to be an experiment.
thirteen of them having been erected
last summer within radius of three
or four miles. The largest of them,
one with a capacity of $50 tons. has
been put up by MIR. r. l.. Brown, in
the mammoth bagn which he is now
erecting on his farm northeast OF this
town. 1t is "a feet in depth and lS
feet in diameter The material used is
tamarack plank. and there is row OF
small steel frame doors extending from
top to bottom. arranged so as to form
ladder, and each can be taken out as
the slage is fed down. Mr.. Brown filled
his sio from a 12-acre field of very
heavy corn. The corn was cut by
binder. and half day behind the ma
chine seven men, each with team and
low wagon equipped with special
rack, hauled the CROP to the barn where
cutting machine cut 1t into pieces
three quarters of an inch in length and
elevated it into the silo. Two days is
about the time required for such an
outfit to work up $50 tons of feed. The
owner of the cutter used to fill all the
silos in this neighborhood, charging 10
cents per ton for his part of the work.
The stage of maturity at which the
corn was cut was the same as where 1t
is intended for fodder. AS the silo is
a new institution in this part of the
country, and but little ensilage has thus
far been fed by those who have erected
them here, the results obtainable are
as yet uncertain, but the owners are
very confident that the money they
cost was well expended. The one de-
scribed is the only one of the entire
number that was placed inside anoth-
er building. Its cost was about $3.50.
All of them were put up by Michigan
contractor, who shipped them in
knocked down"
Mr.. Browns barn is 100x40 feet, with
an L S4x4S feet. Ii is one of the larg-
est in the country, and was built with a
view of affording space and shelter for
all the horses, cattle. hogs hay, fod-
der, ensilage, everything raised on the
fp~ q
is surmounted by three cupolas, and
standing as it does on hill it presents
an imposing appearance to the traveller
on the nearby road.
w. w. Conn and William Watkins,
living on one of the routes from here.
and owners, of adjoining farms, have
each recently completed a fine barn.
Thirty perch of stone We're used in the
foundation and basement of the former
and either of them aside from practical
usefulness is in ornament to the neigh
borhood in which it is located A
hasty inspection of the Watkins barn
disclosed some unusual features. It's
size is 3SX54 feet. with 16-foot plates,
and it's height is SO feet to the peak of
the roof 1t will shelter ten cows and
an equal number Of horses contains
bins for 500 bushels of grain and space
for sixty-five tons Of hays. Last VIM
ter the owner bought twenty large cot
tonwood trees, paying 81 apiece for
them, as they stood in a grove not
far from his place, felled them and had
them sawed into beams, studding and
sheeting. The result was 1850 feet
of lumber and twenty loads of fuel be-
Sides The barn contains some tim
bers as large as Sx9. inches and in this
respect resembles those built twenty
years ago, when lumber was compare
lively cheap. In addition to the usual
barn equipments are milk room
with cement floor and tight walls,
where the milk may be strained and
kept without danger of contamina ton,
and a harness room. also with cement
ed floors, that material having been
used to exclude rats and mice which
sometimes ruin valuable harness. OBJ
tanning large part on the lumber in
the manner described and not taking
into account his own labor, the owner
of this really fine barn was enabled to
build it at a cost of less than $780,
Several farmers of this vicinity have