132 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



ence must be made up by the value of the foal she produces if a 

 mare is to have the same value for farm work as a mule. The cost 

 of raising mules to 2^ years of age was found in the case of four 

 animals to be $156.27 for a mule averaging 1,066 pounds. 



A beef herd of high-grade Hereford range cows and native scrub 

 cows, headed by a pure-bred Hereford bull, is kept for producing 

 feeder steers and breeding heifers. 



During the winter the steer-feeding exj)eriment of previous years 

 was repeated, using 80 steers and feeding them for 100 days. In 

 this a comparison was made of different kinds of silage for roughage 

 when used w^ith cottonseed meal. It was found that the lot of 10 

 steers fed on corn silage made the largest gain at the least cost. 

 The lots finished in the following order with respect to daily gain 

 and low cost of gain: Corn and soy-bean silage; sorghum and soy- 

 bean silage; corn, sorghum, and soy-bean silage; Japanese cane 

 silage; whole cane silage; and cane top silage. The profits on the 

 lots fed were in the same relative order, the corn silage making the 

 largest profit and the cane tops the least. In a comparison of 

 difterent cjuantities of velvet bean meal, ground with the pods, 

 when fed in conjunction with sorghum silage, it was found that when 

 7 pounds was the average daily feed compared with 9j pounds that 

 the cost was much less per 100 pounds and the gain practically the 

 same. 



Grazing and feeding experiments with hogs, begun the previous 

 year, have been completed and new grazing tosts are under way. In 

 a 29-day feeding experiment composed of three lots of five pigs each, 

 one lot received shelled corn and tankage, the second lot rice polish 

 and tankage, and the third lot rice polish. The cheapest gain v/as 

 made with rice polish alone, with the corn and tankage coming second 

 and rice polish and tankage ranking third. In the grazing experi- 

 ments with fall pigs, the best gains were made in corn alone, with 

 corn and soy beans and corn and velvet beans close behind. Oats 

 barley, rye, sorghum, and bur-clover did not make gains that were 

 at all comparable with the first-mentioned crops. In the grazing 

 tests with spring pigs the best gains were made on corn, soy beans, 

 and cowpeas, with corn and soy-bean stubble and red clover, corn 

 and soy-bean stubble, and velvet beans ranking in the order given. 



The dairy herd, which consists of 13 pure-bred cows and an equal 

 number of grades, together with both grade and pure-bred calves, 

 has been used for studies in milk production and for feeding and 

 management studies. Velvet-bean meal, ground with the pods, was 

 compared with cottonseed meal in a feeding trial of 80 days with 

 two lots of four cows each. It was found that there was little dif- 

 ference in the cjuantity of milk, butterfat, or total solids produced 

 under the conditions of this trial. 



LIVE-STOCK EXTENSION. 



Because of the adaptability of the soil to the growth of calie and 

 cotton, many sections of Louisiana have made slow progress in live- 

 stock production. As a means of bringing before the farmers the 

 value of live-stock production, local demonstrations in the ditrerent 

 branches of live-stock husbandry have been carried on in the diiferent 



