Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1913-01-16
N. 9. HERSHEY WRITES
or EARLY sn'0s HERE


tie space In your paper for infor-
nation and correction. notice in
last weeks Reflector an article
written by T. A. Borman. relating
to silos and some farmers who came
from Pennsylvania, Friend Borman
says in 1885. think that the peo-
ple TO whom he refers came In the
spring of 1879 and as most OF them
had been engaged to a certain ex-
tent, in dairying before coming
here, thby naturally would look
over the field and look for an open
ing here. One OF that number one
day brought some good butter as he
thought, and tried to sell 1t and did
sell II, but the price was 90 low that
he concluded better not make butter
and let calves have the milk. The
next thought that struck him, there
might be a better market found
somewhere. He went to see ]. @.
Hamaker who was in the store busi-
ness in Abilene at the time and ask
ed him whether he could not find
a market for good butter somewhere.
He said believe we can. Hamaker
aaid to his SON Ed, you go down IN
the cellar and get two twenty pound
tubs and let this man take them
home and fill them and we viii see
what we can do. Ed did as he was
told TO do and the tubs were filled
and sent to Terry & Grant, Denver,
Colo. When the returns came the
net price was very satisfactory. This
was IN the spring of 1881 or 1882
not positive which. From that time
on butter was sent to Denver by
some Of those people.
Others heard Of the Denver mar
ket. But there never was enough
70 supply the demand and right
there was where the Belle Springs
folks found a ready market Tor
their first product. So much Tor
that. Next the feed problems were
under consideration. In those days
corn grew fine until caring time
ana dry weather and hot winds and
chinch bugs would do much harm to
the crop. One day one of those men
noticed an advertisement in certain
farm paper, "Bailey's Book on En-
silage." The word ensilage arrested
the mans attention. He concluded
to find out what that meant and
what Bailey had to say. He sent
for the book. This was in the win
ter Of 1882 or 'S3. After reading
the Bailey book he decided to give
Is the plan a trial. When spring OPEN
cd he went to work with his hired
HELM. as occasion permitted, dug a
pit and quarried rock and built the
first silo in this county. In those
DAYS the silos were generally built
of stone and cemented especially
along the walls The silo was ~
feet long, ~ feet wide and IL feet
deep. A few years after 1t was In
creased to so feet in length, and
was considered by the owner grand
success. On account of not having
corn sufficient at the time OF Filling
the silo was filled about half full
Az an experiment the owner fed
seven steers on ensilage and bran.
The increase or profit on these seven
steers paid all of the first cost or
the silo, what the cows got ana
other stock not included. This OF
course gave the owner courage ana
al Friend Borman says. these peo-
de had practice Of stall feeding,
had seen nothing else before as to
feeding cattle.
In year or SO another silo was
built by a near neighbor and an
other one later AS relating to stall
feeding the one that built the first
silo he later stall fed cattle more
extensively. He will remember that
some spring in 'S4 or 'S5 he fed
two loads Of steers and took them
TO Kansas City. When they arrived
there they were an odd lot of cattle.
They we're all shed off and slick,
some Of them fairly shined, while
the balance OF steers on the market
had the old coat Of hair on them.
For that reason the buyers were
afraid Of them. They wondered
what those cattle were fed on when
II was said they we're ensilage fed
cattle. This was something new
and thought they likely would shrink
in dressing. Finally Swiht's man
from Chicago took liking to them
and bought them. After they were
sold the men and the commission