REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURIST 



57 



SESSIONAL PAPER No. 16 



corn will grow to a fair state of maturity. Pease and oats cut in the millc stage of the 

 oats will make fair ensilage as will almost any other cereal and legume mixture cut at 

 the same stage, but such mixtures seem to be rather unsatisfactory and are not com- 

 monly used. 



For concentrates or meal feeds the common farm grains, oats, barley and pease do 

 very well, particularly for summer feeding. In winter the addition of bran, shorts, oil 

 meal, gluten, or cottonseed meal has been found to give excellent returns. 



The amount to feed should depend upon the possibilities of the cow as a milk pro- 

 ducer and upon the stage she has reached in the lactation period. Very heavy meal 

 rations are not as a rule as profitable- as those of medium character. 



The meal had better be fed along with the roughage. 



KEEPING RECORDS. 



The eSort to interest dairymen in the returns from their individual cows has 

 been continued, and many farmers seem to be awakening to a knowledge of the fact 

 that the improvement of the whole herd demands the study of the unit; that is, a close 

 acquaintance with the expenditure upon the individual cow and the returns from the 

 same. 



This can be determined in no other way than by keeping an exact record of the 

 daily milk yield. A record of the daily food consumption would also be of great use 

 if it could be kept. 



Many farmers who have been keeping such records for some time report very 

 strongly in favour of this line of work. 



As soon as the farmer sets to work to know what his cows are doing by keeping 

 a record he finds himself much more closely in touch with his business. He sees at 

 once the effect of better care and better feeding. He notes the great difference in 

 leturns between the best and the worst cows in his herd and cannot help but determine 

 to get rid of the poor ones and replace them with good ones. Even the poor cows are 

 hnproved because better feeding is almost certain to be tried and quite certainly poor 

 feeding is responsible for many of our unprofitable dairy cows and even for many un- 

 profitable dairy herds. 



To facilitate the keeping of such records and to help in the building up of dairy- 

 iiig interests in Canada forms similar to the following are supplied on application : — 



DAIRY MILK RECORD. > 



Herd belonging to (This form supplied free by Live Stock 



Post Office , . Division, Central Experimental 



Record for week ending Farm, Ottawa, Ont. ) 



COWS. 



