The Question Box. 365 



cn-er, the price of milk at the station is just on a par with that at 

 the creameries and cheese factories. The stations never put up 

 the price for milk till the price of cheese and butter goes up, and 

 they always drop the price as soon as those of butter and cheese 

 drop. 



Will it pay to sow rape in coru for fall feed for cows? 



Mr. Van Alstyne. — Yes, sir; but I would not sow it for fall feed 

 for cows that give milk, because the milk would be condemned. 

 But for cows not in milk, or for sheep, it is a good food. Sow it 

 in August or in September. It will remain green a long time 

 after the frost comes. Sow it in corn, not with oats. 



Are vetches valuable as a green food for cows? 

 Mr. Van Alstyne. — It makes a clover crop sown late in the fall, 

 but the seed costs so much it makes it expensive. Sand vetch is 

 said to be the best. 



I have 10 fresh cows in milli, giving 300 pounds per day. Grain 

 rations of gluten bran or bucliwheat middlings, costing 12 cents per cow, 

 all they can be made to eat. Can the ration be improved? 



Mr. Cook. — I don't know whether it could or not, with the 

 present food at hand; but with some succulents — ^ensilage or 

 roots — I think it could. It would also depend on the time the 

 cows had been in milk and their condition and the freshness of 

 the hay. I think, however, that the ration as given would be 

 pretty narrow. 



The Questioner. — ^The ration costs about twelve cents per day. 



Mr. Cook. — The cow will have to keep herself warm by burning 

 up some of the protein in her food. I would feed a little more 

 starch. It is just as expensive to feed a too narrow ration as one 

 too wide; would add corn meal, which would not add to the cost; 

 it should be cheaper. 



What proportion ought corn meal and bran to be fed to milch cows to 

 give best results? 



Mr. Cook. — It would depend on the cows and the coarse fodder. 

 As a rule, however, with clover hay, half-and-half by weight will 

 be about right; yet some cows would require more of the bran or 



