144 AGRICULTURE OF MAINE. 



a completer digestion so the cow actually got about the same 

 benefit from the corn and cob meal as from the corn meal alone. 

 The same principle will apply in the feeding of dairy cows. 



Again, we should in our dairy ration, endeavor to make it as 

 cheap as possible, while still doing the work. By that I mean 

 that we should endeavor to buy those feeds which will supply 

 the food nutrients cheapest in the form that we want them. 

 A few years ago, when grain feeds were cheaper, we could afiford 

 to buy practically all our concentrates and raise all the roughage 

 that the farm would produce and could make more in that way. 

 But times have changed. The grain concentrates are much 

 higher and the prices of the dairy products have not quite kept 

 up to the increase of the feeds, and it simply means that we 

 must do a more intensive farming, and I am going to make this 

 proposition, — that the dairy farmer who is growing to a large 

 extent his own feeds, and buying perhaps just a few of the 

 concentrates, like cottonseed or linseed meal, is the one who 

 h going to make the greatest success in the future. 



We find it to be true, that certain men are feeding a far 

 greater amount of protein than their cows actually demand. 

 We find that others are not feeding anywhere near as much pro- 

 tein as their cows need. We should each of us study into our 

 own conditions and determine as closely as possible what our 

 cows need. For instance, I presume it would be safe to say 

 that an}' cow that is owned by any man in this audience would 

 not need over three pounds of protein if producing 60 or 70 

 pounds of milk daily, and probably there are no cows repre- 

 sented here that would require less than i^ pounds. We can- 

 not say definitely. We find that the most approved rations are 

 running from 1.8 up to about 2.8 pounds, from the highest 

 producers to the lowest producers. Another feature which I 

 think is the worst feature of all is that overfeeding of protein 

 is wearing out the cows far more rapidly than there is any 

 necessity for wearing them out. 



I think men who are feeding dairy cows ought to supply them 

 at least some form of succulence during the winter. Diflferent 

 sections of the State of ]Maine vary materially in regard to the 

 crops which can be grown. I would say to those farmers 

 where corn can be grown, and who have silos, that they should 

 grow silage corn. In other sections where it is impossible to 



