196 ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



shed with a yard, I had enough grass for her and four horses. The 

 cow gave more milk, kept iu better flesh, and the horses appreciated 

 the change. 



The succession of soiling crops you fully understand, and by its 

 use you can quadruple the number of cattle the farm will maintain. 

 A silo is indispensable and inexpensive. My friend, Mr. Manley, 

 of East Canton, put one in his barn two years ago, 17 by 14 in the 

 clear. Independent of his own labor it cost him |G9, with a capacity 

 of 120 tons. Prof. Hamilton assures me that he can raise IG tons 

 of corn silage per acre, and that it requires four tons with clover 

 hay and bran to keep a cow or steer for 200 days. It is well to use 

 roots for your cows. At the Danville Hospital farm four acres 

 gave 108 tons of mangle wurtzel. The corn on 35 acres yielded 4,500 

 bushels of ears. The farm has 81 cows, whose average yield for 865 

 days is 15 pounds. We have not found it profitable to pasture them. 

 In addition to this milk, the Hospital purchases from the neighbor- 

 ing farmers from three to four hundred dollars' worth of milk per 

 month annully. We have not been able to secure an appropriation 

 to erect silos, which we hope to build in one season. I prefer a cir- 

 cular or octagonal silo. Independent of succulent winter food, 

 it gives cheap food when the high temperature produces a crop 

 failure. 



There is a constant demand for large milch cows in the dairying 

 district near Philadelphia, where they place their dry cows in the 

 shambles and find it more profitable to purchase fresh ones. It is 

 more advisable for the farmers to ship jointly their cows to this 

 market in carload lots, than to sell them to dealers, who make 

 large returns. Where herds are once established they are a source 

 of permanent income with increased fertility of the farms. I pre- 

 sent a clipping from the "Dairyman" that expresses farm production: 



HOW MANY COWS ON EIGHTY ACRES? 



"How many cows can I keep on eighty acres of land where corn 

 will go sixty bushels to the acre, clover two to three tons to the 

 acre, but land too rich for oats — all goes to straw. Would have 

 a rotation of corn, barley and clover, cutting the latter for hay 

 one year, and pasturing in it the second year, and following with 

 corn after manuring. 



Hillsboro, Wis. G. K. R.» 



A man could easily keep forty cows on eighty acres of such land, 

 but what with horses and other stock, and some general farming, it 

 would be better to commence with a smaller number. 



