Bureau of Farmers' Institutes. 53 



Mr. Smith. — For such a herd I should add some wheat bran 

 to the pods. 



Dr. Smead. — I should also add oats with the bran. There 

 is a tendency to feed too many pods when a man has them. I 

 should prefer to feed one to two pounds of oats, because of their 

 added nerve power. Too much stress is laid on the value of a 

 food to produce a milk now, at the expense of the vital energy and 

 nerve power of the cow. There should be some motive other than 

 that to produce milk. The health of the cow and that of her 

 progeny should be our first object; then may come the one of in- 

 creasing the milk flow, if it can be done without injuring the cow. 



Question. — With clover hay at $10 per ton, what are bean pods 

 worth for feeding to cows ? 



Several farmers gave it as their opinion that a ton of good bean 

 fodder was equal to a ton of clover hay. 



Question. — What is corn stover ? 



Mr. Smith. — Corn stover is the stalks after the corn has been 

 husked out. 



Question. — Are beets profitable to feed cows ? If so, what 

 variety is best ? 



Mr. Woodward. — We grow beets ; we also have silage, but we 

 like to have a variety. We grow two varieties of beets, the " Long 

 Red " for early, and " Golden Tankard " for late. We leave them 

 27 inches apart, and, as we grow them, the cost is not more than 

 five cents per bushel. If one has no silo he should certainly raise 

 beets ; but every man who has a dairy should have two silos, one for 

 winter, the other for summer feeding. 



Qnostion. — I am feeding nine fresh cows all the ensilage they 

 will eat, with quite a liberal feeding of oat straw. The ensilage is 

 rich in com — they get 40 pounds per day. With milk at two 

 and one-fourth cents per quart, would I have made any profit by 

 feeding cotton seed meal or bran ? I have no clover. The cows 

 average 12 1/3 pounds of milk daily. 



Mr. Smith. — That ration needs four pounds of wheat bran 

 and three pounds of gluten meal. As it is, the cow will get only 

 about six-tenths of a pound of protein, with five to six pounds of 

 sugar and starch. The cow giving a good flow of milk requires two 

 and one-half pounds of protein, daily, which she could not possibly 

 get out of the ration described. 



Mr. Woodward. — Those cows did remarkably well on the ration. 

 They must have had some resources other than those named, as 

 they could not take something out of the ration that was not in it. 



