88 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



• 



3. Insufficient help, or possibly two or all of them. Let me say 

 there is only one profitable way to conduct a farm and it is to conduct 

 it right. 



Iinportance of the question.- — How important is this subject and to 

 what extent shall it be emphasized? The time is at hand when the farm- 

 er must secure greater average returns from his farm; he must seek to 

 reduce the cost of production; he must learn to utilize every resource of 

 his farm; and clearly from what has been said above, a puddled soil will 

 not conduce to any one of these ends. 



There are hundreds of thousands of acres of soils in this country 

 today, rich in every plant food — saving possibly nitrogen — and yet un- 

 productive. They are without owners to till them simply because they 

 are suffering from a state of chronic puddling. The}' were once produc- 

 tive, today they are deserted and seeking owners. 



There are probably many acres in Michigan at this time suffering from 

 this same ailment. 



NEW FORAGE PLANTS AND CONCENTRATED FEEDS. 



BY PROF. C. D. SMITH_, AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE. 



As axioms leading up to the general proposition on which this article 

 is founded, let me make these preliminary statements of generally ad- 

 mitted facts, 



(a) On nearly all Michigan farms the rule ought to be adopted of 

 deriving the chief revenue from the sale of live stock or the products of 

 livestock. 



(b) The function of the livestock, whether swine, sheep or cattle ought 

 to be to convert the crops grown on the farm into more salable products. 



(c) Nearly, if not quite, all the feed for the stock should be grown on 

 the farm and only such feeds purchased as are needed to make the con- 

 sumption of -the home-grown products economical and productive of 

 the greatest amount of produce of best quality. 



(d)It is now generally agreed among the feeders of dairy cattle, 

 at least, that to secure the greatest possible amount of dollars and cents 

 from a given number of cows, or a given weight of feed, it is necessary 

 that the feed be so combined that the mixture shall furnish somewhat 

 definite amounts of protein per day per animal, and that the protein 

 supply shall bear a fairly definite relation to the amounts of starch and 

 sugar, or their equivalent, and fats. 



(e) Chemical analysis has shown that some of our home-grown stock 

 foods are lacking in protein and that we must rely largely upon the 

 legumes to furnish us this all important nutrient. 



If the truth of these preliminary statements is admitted, we are ready 

 to begin a discussion of the various legumes adapted to Michigan as 

 practicable sources of protein leading to another part of the paper, the 

 discussion of the derivation of protein from commercial feeding stuffs. 



