From the February 16, 1904 Sandersville Progress
Built at a Cost of Eight Thousand Dollars – Fern Crest Dairy, one mile north of Sandersville, is the largest in Georgia. Dr. Wm. Rawlings, the owner, has recently had finished a model barn which will house three hundred cows, each in a seperate stall. The barn is round and is 480 feet in circumference. There are now 175 cows and a large number of calves in the barn. The floor is made of concrete and is kept clean. In the center of the building there is a large silo, cylinder in shape, extending to the roof, which will contain seven hundred tons of green corn. This corn is taken from the fields when the roasting ears are sufficiently matured and is chopped up by machinery and stored in the silo, making the finest kind of forage for cattle. It smells like apple brandy and the cows are very fond of it, preferring it to any kind of feed. Each stall is provided with fresh water which is conveyed through pipes to buckets conveniently arranged for the cows to drink from. Halters are used to keep the cows in their positions, which permit them to lie down or move about without leaving their stalls. When a visitor goes to the dairy the immense circular barn full of animals reminds him of a circus. The dairy is now turning out one hundred pounds of butter daily, besides supplying the demand for milk and cream at Sandersville and Tennille, two modern dairy wagons being in use for this purpose.
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