256 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



7. It is the best solution of the problem for the drouth and 

 .short pastures of summer. It is a fine substitute for bare pas- 

 tures, and the farmer forearmed with a few acres of corn in his 

 silo is safeguarded against drouth. 



For these and many other reasons I especially commend the 

 silo to dairymen and also to farmers on small farms. It seems 

 to me an absolute necessity to the success of the dairyman. It 

 multiplies the possibilities of the small farmer. Instead of his 

 attempting to rent more land, or buy more land at $100 per acre, 

 let him, with the silo, make his 80 acres double its product. Then 

 he will know how to make $100 land produce a profit. 



In conclusion : From that ten acres of siloed corn I fed, from 

 the 1st of November till grass came, 30 cows and 15 head of fall 

 calves; and from the 1st of March, 20 head of yearlings, and after 

 all that when grass came I still had four feet of silage left. How 

 else could I have gotten so much feed from so little ground at so 

 small a cost? In coming down from Centralia on the Wabash I 

 was talking with a lady who informed me that a man near Spring- 

 field, Mo., built a 400 ton silo a year or two ago and more than 

 gained the cost of silo in the first year's feed. This speaks for 

 itself. 



THE DAIRY COW AND HER REQUIREMENTS. 



1^ \ (By I. T. Van Note, Herdsman, Missouri Agricultural College Dairy.) 



When we speak of the dairy cow we speak of an animal whose 

 mission in life is to produce milk. Her value is measured by her 

 ability to produce a paying quantity of milk in one year. In order 

 for her to do this, she must be a persistent worker. A question 

 now arises in our minds as to the kind of an animal it takes to 

 perform this duty. We may differ a little on this, but I think 

 that our ideas are getting to be about the same. In late years we 

 have learned a great deal about the dairy cow. 



I will give you in brief my idea of this animal. She is angu- 

 lar and spare fleshed; has a broad muzzle and heavy lips; head, 

 clean and all lines distinct; eyes, full and oval — flashing with energy 

 and intelligence; ears, medium and showing good secretion; neck, 

 lean and length in proportion to size; shoulders, thin at withers 

 and loose, wide at lower points ; chest, deep and wide ; barrel, long 

 and wide, well supported by heavy muscles; ribs, well sprung, of 

 good length and showing good spacing; loin, broad and not too 



