THE DAIRY COW, HER FEEDING AND CARE. 43 



ducer of food nutrients. No other New England fodder plant 

 can compete with it. Its cultivation promotes tillage. It use 

 increases the quantity and improves the quality of the milk and 

 butter, and aids materially in sustaining the cow. It is very 

 fully and easily digested. It is 26 per cent more digestible than 

 timothy hay. Taking this as a basis it will require five and two- 

 thirds tons of timothy to equal the digestible matter in an acre 

 of corn, of the larger varieties. Corn is a soil renovator. It 

 grows fastest through the hottest days of summer, when the 

 unlocking of plant food is most rapid. Let us all remember that 

 we shall never reach a high per acre production of foods with 

 only 18 per cent of our arable land under the plow. The aver- 

 age dairy farmer is yet fully unaware of the great capacity for 

 food production lying dormant in his land. He avoids labor 

 with plow and tillage implement, leaving the bulk of his land 

 in old fields, and rushes to the market to purchase the high 

 priced by-products of his more enterprising brother, the manu- 

 facturer. Instead of this, he should see to it that the largest 

 possible proportion of his farm is in some crop that has large 

 food producing powers and that will yield a good proportion 

 of protein ; that all his harvesting is done at a time when each 

 plant produces its smallest amount of indigestible woody fibre, 

 and its largest amount of digestibility and succulence. Early 

 cut hay is essential, both as a feed and as a means of renewing 

 the soil. Where early cutting is practiced, the growth of clover 

 is stimulated, the second cutting is increased, and the soil is kept 

 more open and porous. 



Clover will come second to corn as a feed for the cow. It 

 thrives best on the actively tilled land on which corn has been 

 grown. It is rich in protein, and when fed with corn forms a 

 highly digestible and very palatable ration. By its beneficial 

 effects upon the soil it increases the growth of those plants that 

 follow it. The help in this direction, when combined with 

 active tillage, forms no small proportion of its total value. 

 Com, clover, oats, early cut hay, roots and vegetables in their 

 season, with such of the higher concentrates as may be deemed 

 necessary, will furnish the abundance and variety. Corn, 

 through the silo, will largely furnish the succulence. Except 

 in the most northern portions of New England, the silo is essen- 

 tial to the successful feeding of the dairy cow. It has a place 



