FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 93 



in a manufactured form and must necessarily be more profitable among 

 small farmers than if they had bought the stock fed and chanced the 

 markets at both ends of the deals. 



To make the most profit from the cattle under consideration the cows 

 should be 



FED WITH THE SAME INTELLIGENCE 



and care that the specialist feeds his dairy cows, quantity- and quality of 

 milk considered, without much outlay for feed which the farm does not 

 produce. Wheat bran, clover hay, cornstalks, oats and corn-meal, roots, 

 or ensilage^ are considered the best food for dairy purposes when fed in 

 proper portions; and by changing the proportions the best results are 

 obtained in the production of beef. The heifers designed for the breeding- 

 herd should be selected from the best products at the pail, if their produce 

 when fed for beef has proved themselves of the right sort. They should 

 be fed those foods which stimulate growth and mu.scle rather than fat 

 producing food. The intelligent farmer will know what food is best 

 calculated to produce the objects sought and feed accordingly. For 

 growth and muscle clover hay. cornstalks, good pasture, oats, bran and 

 roots, with a little corn-meal. For flesh the same coarse feeds with more 

 corn-meal and less of the lighter sorts. 



In what I have said I have tried to state in a plain manner what I be- 

 lieve to be the practical course for a majority of the farmers in Michigan 

 to follow. I have used no technical terms in mentioning the foods to use, 

 have said nothing ahout balanced rations (which to specialists in any 

 -direction are necessary) but have used the terms which a majority of 

 farmers use and will continue to use because they are easily understood 

 and are practical. Among the important needs of the farm, both as to 

 fertility and profit, is an increase in the number and an improvement in 

 the quality of the cattle bred, and fed. If a farmer has not the most prof- 

 itable class of cows he should see to it that he shall start at once to rem- 

 edy the defects by the use of proper males, which should be of the sort 

 for the improvement he wishes to make, remembering that good care and 

 judicious feeding are as essential to improvement as breeding. Two cat- 

 tle well fed are worth more than three head poorly fed. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. Gilbert, Huron Co.: I liave charge of a large farm upon which three years 

 ago I built a silo, hoping to cheapen the cost of growing- steers. The method has 

 now been followed two years. Last year a few feeders were bought and put in in 

 November, when they weighed 1,037 pounds each. They were fed 63 days on 

 silage, bran and meal. They were then sold in Buffalo, where they weighed 1,173 

 pounds. Silage is the proper form in which to feed tlie corn crop, whether the 

 £erd be large or sinall. When fattening cattle are taken into the barn from pasture 

 in the fall, and put on dry feed, there is always a space of thirty days or more 

 during- which they do not gain. This is not so when silage is fed. They gain 

 right along from the start. 



This winter I have flnished fifty steers and have fifty more yet to finish. Our 

 silo has 280 tons capacity, which will last until April first. Heretofore wo had not 

 l>een able to gain enough to compete with finished steers. We could not there- 

 fore get the top prices. The silo obviates this difficulty and shows us that tlie true 

 <economy consists in keeping the corn in the succulent state for steer feeding. 



The cost of putting the corn in the silo may be kept low if the woi'k is properly 



