farmers' institutes. 23S 



I append some figures obtained in our dairy herd for the past two 

 years. The year 1900 being one of the dryest in the history of this sec- 

 tion we found bluegrass completely burned up by July first, but with 

 ensilage for succulent or green feed during July and August and Sep- 

 tember regardless of the extreme high temperature our daily milk yield 

 was very satisfactory and regular. The following figures show sum 

 total of the first day of July and the 15th, August first and the 15th, 

 September first and the 15th and October ist: 

 July 1st, 614 pounds, July 15th, 635 pounds. 



August 1st, 628 pounds, August 15th, 638 pounds. 



September ist, 610 pounds, September 15th, 619 pounds. 



October 1st, 631 pounds. 



These results are as good as we were ever able to make with a herd 

 of cows under any conditions. Please note results obtained during this 

 past summer, with same herd on the best of bluegrass. I also append 

 the statement of a friend of mine who fed 178 head of steers ensilage. 

 This statement is as convincing as I ever read. This Mr. Jones is a 

 thoroughly practical man. In a former letter Mr. Jones told me his 

 cattle, the first sixty days, made gains that made him more profit from an 

 acre of corn (the corn the poorest he ever raised) than he ever did from 

 his best corn fed in the old way. Very few farmers realize the possi- 

 bilities of an acre of corn or sorghum in the silo. An acre of corn 

 fodder will feed a mature animal from three to four months, while the 

 same acre in the silo will feed the same animal from 24 to 30 months. 

 This fall we had ten acres of sorghum that in the silo wdll feed a cow or 

 a two-year-old steer 40 months. There is not a farm in the corn belt of 

 Missouri that is not capable of carrying a thousand pound animal on 

 every acre of the farm. Does it do it now with hay and fodder? 



SILAGE FOR STEERS. 



We commenced feeding the 178 steers weighing on October 7 an 

 average of 1,159 pounds. They were running on dry and exhausted 

 pastures and were losing flesh, and on this account we commenced the 

 feeding of the ensilage on the next day after we finished filling the silos, 

 to wit, October 7, and gave them all they would eat after the end of the 

 first week. The amount consumed during the first thirty days was 45 

 pounds per head per day. The cattle made an average gain of 55 

 pounds per head. They had no other feed but the ensilage and the dead 

 grass, of which they ate very little. The second month we commenced 

 feeding some shock corn along with the ensilage and gave the cattle 

 about one-third of a full feed, as nearly as we could estimate it. This 



