HOME GROWN DAIRY FEEDS. 25 



as a nurse crop for the grasses and clover, to add variety and 

 bulk to the hay mow, when cut for feeding green, and as a grain 

 to take the place of wheat bran in the ration of the cow and the 

 growing heifer. Many careful experiments have shown them 

 to be more valuable, pound for pound, as a milk producer or as 

 a promoter of growth, than bran. They are uniform in their 

 content, and taken either as a fodder or as a grain, they form 

 a link between the corn with its high starch content and clover 

 with its richness in protein. If peas are added, for soiling, a 

 larger amount is secured and a higher protein content results, 

 but with the prevailing high prices of peas for seeding, and the 

 fact that they have to be continually renewed in a mixture, 

 together with the difficulties of harvesting, I very much doubt 

 if there is much gained by adding them for the mow or the grain 

 bin. 



THE GRASSES AND THE MILLETS. 



It might at first be supposed that a crop of so much value as 

 the grasses should have been considered earlier in a paper of 

 this kind, but I think a careful study of the situation will con- 

 vince otherwise. Dairymen are constantly striving for a larger 

 milk or butter production per cow, but it has truly been said 

 that they should go further and strive for a larger production 

 per acre. This is, I think, eminently true, as the per acre food 

 production of a farm determines its value. If we observe 

 closely, we shall see that in countries where the grasses are 

 made, in any great measure, the basis of food production, the 

 per acre capacity of land is small and the number of farm 

 animals limited. It is only in countries where tillage is active 

 and where the larger growing cereals are extensively cultivated, 

 that we find the milk or butter product large per acre. Grasses 

 are to. be encouraged, but not to the extent of keeping them 

 growing on a large proportion of the farm. A field newly 

 seeded to grass, yielding from two to four tons per acre, adds 

 much to the value of home produced dairy foods. The old 

 grass field yields no profit, is a constant spot for the depreda- 

 tions of insects and the ravages of drought and, each year, 

 pumps available plant food and organic matter from the soil. 



The millets are drought resisting plants and on farms with 

 light, sandy soil, they may be made to form a valuable addition 



