PASTURES. 17 



Other experiments of the New-Jersey station prove that 

 fodders (such as clover, hay, and wheat-straw) and foods 

 (such as brewers' grains or roots made into rations contain- 

 ing the same amount of digestible material as rations of en- 

 silage) are comparativelj' of the same value, both to sustain 

 animals, and produce milk. Experiments in this direction 

 lead the director of the station to publish tliis result : 

 " Ensilage can produce no more milk than any other fodder 

 which contains an equal amount of food." If this ensilage 

 is merely a substitute, its value to us is to be determined by 

 its relative cost. Experiment, and the practical judgment of 

 our farmers, will determine this question after another season. 



The discussion of these questions has been of incalculable 

 value. Never before has there been so thorough an appre- 

 ciation of the maize-plant as now. The value of dried corn 

 fodder, hitherto but little understood by the large number 

 of farmers, has been made apparent by the experiments of 

 men on all sides, and spread far and wide by means of the 

 institutes and farmers' clubs. Other fodders (millet, rye, 

 oat-straw), when fed with the same or a less amount of nitro- 

 genous food than is usually fed with ensilage, have given 

 very valuable results. It is found that an acre of good soil, 

 kept active, well worked, and fertilized for each crop, instead 

 of lying idle for three-fourths of the year, ma}^ by close suc- 

 cession of crops, as winter rye (cut for hay), millet, corn- 

 fodder, or barley in summer and fall succession, produce 

 enough to carry a much greater number of cattle than we 

 have done in the past. 



Our experience in this important matter should convince 

 all of the necessit}^ of a thoroughly equipped experiment 

 station. It is not to our credit that we are compelled to 

 look to the experiments of distant States. 



PASTURES. 



A large portion of the land of the Commonwealth is held 

 as pasture. In a crowded community of manufacturing 

 districts, and many populous cities, we reserve wide stretches 

 of upland, over which cows wander for a few months in the 

 year, and from which the farmer possibly imagines that he 

 derives a profit. 



These pastures are the constant topic of agricultural dis- 



