ADDRESSES DELIVERED AT STATE DAIRY CON- 

 FERENCE, PORTLAND, DECEMBER 28 AND 29, 191 1. 



FEEDS FOR DAIRY COWS. 



By Prof. J. ^l. Bartlett, Maine Agricultural Experiment 



Station, Orono. 



As regards dairying our climate is not the most favorable, 

 our winters being long and our summers short. If we could 

 change for one that would give perpetual grazing such as 

 Maine pastures furnish in June, and new fresh grasses, which 

 form the ideal food for the dairy cow, were springing up in 

 abundance every day, the problem of feeds could be omitted 

 from the program of the annual meeting of the Dairy Asso- 

 ciation, and considered a dead issue in which no one, even the 

 cow herself, Avould be interested ; but as our climate falls far 

 short of giving this ideal condition, and comes nearer to being 

 as Mark Twain said, "nine months winter and three months 

 late in the fall," we shall have to continue to struggle with the 

 question of economical feeding, and endeavor to find some way 

 of saving at least a portion of the check that is received for 

 cream or butter from going to pay the grain bill. 



The dairyman in order to make his business profitable must 

 grow as much as possible of his feeds and to do this several 

 factors must be taken into consideration : 



(i). The adaptability of the crops grown to the soil and 

 climate. 



(2). The adaptability of the crops to the dairy cow. 



(3). The capacity of the crops grown to produce digestible 

 food. 



(4). The protein supply. 



