CATTLE FOODS. 31 



is to have several farmers combine and purchase a small power 

 cutter. By exchanging work they can fill the silo without extra 

 help. If one is obliged to hire a cutter at a dollar an hour, 

 together with extra help, the cash outlay is considerable and 

 unduly taxes the resources of the dairyman. 



I like to go through the field just previous to cutting, and 

 break off some of the ripest ears as a food for my horses and 

 pigs. I prefer to do this rather than cut and stook the entire 

 plant in the old way. 



If some dry corn stover is needed to piece out thehay crop, 

 I would cut the stover fine before feeding it in order to induce 

 the animals to eat it clean. Corn stover fine cut and fed at the 

 rate of six or seven pounds daily has a feeding value nearly 

 equal to average hay. If corn stover is fed in too large quan- 

 tities the animals soon tire of it, because of its lack of flavor. 

 It also injures the gums more or less, and the result is a de- 

 creased consumption and hence a lessened milk yield. 



You will notice that I have emphasized the fact that the 

 corn should be quite well matured before cutting for the silo. 

 This also means that we should select varieties for ensilage 

 which will mature in our latitude. I consider it very unwise to 

 attempt to grow Southern varieties of corn in the north. We 

 simply obtain a large amount of stalk with a minimum quantity 

 of nutritive matter. 



A word in regard to the leguminous crops. I believe in 

 clover, the medium red and the alsike. I like to use some of 

 the seed in all my grass mixtures. If you are successful in 

 curing clover, so as not to have a great loss by the breaking 

 off of the leaves, it is a very desirable crop to raise and feed. 

 The coming season on land which I intend to keep in corn for two 

 or three years I shall seed with twenty pounds of Red clover 

 seed to the acre after the last hoeing of the corn. I shall allow 

 this clover to grow until the 20th or 25th of the next May, then 

 turn it under, spread on 250 pounds of muriate of potash, 300 

 pounds of acid phosphate, and 150 pounds of nitrate of soda to 

 the acre, and seed to corn again. 



We have had considerable success at Amherst with the soy 

 bean, the medium green variety, brought from Japan. It is 

 valuable to be fed green or as a silage crop. We have grown 

 at the rate of nine tons per acre. The beans have been planted 

 with a corn planter about a bean to the inch in the row, the 

 rows two and one-half feet apart. They are cared for in the 

 same way as corn, during the growing season. They need no 

 support, have a large amount of foliage, and during the latter 

 part of August cover the field with a dense mass of green foli- 

 age. They are ready to cut in September with corn for the 

 silo, if sown about May 25th at the rate of eighteen quarts of 



