STATE DAIRY ASSOCIATION, 51)5 



CONCLUDING REMARKS. 



Now ia conclusion, I have to say tbat you have here a very fine 

 country with a soil naturally fertile, peopled with intelligent and enter- 

 prising inhabitants, as is evidenced by the fine farm buildings and the 

 excellent system of drainage, which I admired very much. 



You have done very well in the dairy business as far as you have 

 been engaged in it. On the average, those I have interviewed in taking 

 this census have made it profitable. Some have made it very profitable, 

 while others have worked for nothing or nearly nothing. It is so every- 

 whei'e. Here, as elsewhere, there is great room for improvement. That 

 is why we are doing this kind of work, hoping that we can all learn 

 something. 



There is one serious criticism I have to make about your dairying 

 here, and that is you don't do enough of it. You ought to do four times 

 as much, and then you could stop the depletion of the fertility of the soil 

 which I see on many farms is going on; you could make more money, 

 have more of the good things of this world while you live, and when you 

 go, you would leave, in the form of more fertile soil, a rich inheritance 

 to those who come after you. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Rlppey: What do you think of feeding too much silage to the 

 cow? 



Mr. Goodrich: I think it is not best to have a full ration of silage. 

 I think the cow will do better to have some dry fodder with it. I 

 thought about thirty pounds with my smaller cows was about enough. 



Mr. Rippey: Some cows will eat more than thirtj* pounds, and still 

 eat sonio dry loed. 



Mr. Goodrich: Yes; it depend^ on the cow. There is a good deal of 

 difference in the silage. T^ it is weil eared you do not need to give so 

 many pounds. Prof. Heacker, of the Minnesota Station, advocates plant- 

 ing the corn so thick that it will have no ears on it, and he is very posi- 

 tive he is right in it, while I do not believe in it. 



Mr. Rippey: You like pretty good ears? , 



Mr. Goodrich: My idea of planting corn for the silo is to plant it 

 about thick enough so you can get the largest proportion of grain, and 

 the largest amount of fo<lder to go with it. So I plant It about twice 

 as thick as I would if I plant for ears alone. Thus I get nearly twice 

 as many ears, but they are smaller, and I get more fodder to go with it. 

 I want to get all the corn I can and all the fodder. 



