674 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



PROTEIN IN THE SILO. 



I have stated that corn silage was not a perfectly balanced feed, 

 being short in protein, the flesh former. How can we get succulent 

 protein into the silo and secure the most perfect feed imaginable and 

 make us still more independent of clover. Of all the legumes or nitrog- 

 enous plants the soy-bean which ranks with alfalfa in protein con- 

 tents, is best adapted for cutting up with corn into the silo. It grows 

 erect, yields about as much as corn, can be cut and bound with a corn 

 binder and matures with corn. Hamphrey Jones of Indiana raises from 

 150 to 250 acres of soy-beans, the greater part of which is cut up with corn 

 into the silo at the rate of one load of soy-beans to three of corn. This 

 gentleman has tested no less than a dozen varieties of soy-beans and pre- 

 fers the medium black as the best kind suited with corn silage. My own 

 efforts with soy-beans have been disappointing, the first planting with the 

 corn in the hill was too early a variety, maturing too fat ahead of the 

 corn. My second planting last year proved to be worthless seed and 

 did not grow. This year I shall renew my attempts with several varieties 

 of the late type. There is no question in my mind but what the silo will 

 be a necessary adjunct in the future to every well-managed farm and once 

 being established it might as well he filled with a wholesome, well bal- 

 anced, delicious feed for the livestock. 



ALFALFA ON EVERY IOWA FARM. 



BY A. A. BURGER. 



(In the Iowa Homestead.) 



Alfalfa is grown in almost every county in Iowa. A small part of this 

 must be considered as a failure; a part as a fair crop, and some of it as 

 a splendid success. The average yield in 1909, was 2.85 tons per acre 

 and in 1910, 2.7 tons per acre. Here is evidence enough at least that 

 alfalfa can be grown successfully in every section of the state. But the 

 failures which we have had, have led some to believe that alfalfa can- 

 not be grown successfully in Iowa. In this connection it will be of 

 interest to note that in the replies which are being received from farmers 

 a great majority express the opinion that it can be grown upon their own 

 farms. We have made a good beginning. Unquestionably there will still 

 be many failures, but the time is not far distant when alfalfa will be 

 grown successfully, permanently, and profitably upon every farm in 

 the state wherever reasonable precautions are taken. Let us bear in 

 mind that we are starting a plant with which we are unfamiliar and 

 which is new to our soil. 



Alfalfa is no more difficult to grow than clover. This is the opinion of 

 the most eminent alfalfa authorities in the land. We forget that when 

 clover was first introduced, it refused to grow. Many there were who de- 

 clared that it never could be grown. It had its opponents then as alfal- 

 fa has its opponents now. But, in spite of its opponents, clover grew; it 

 became our principal hay crop, the great source of nitrogen in maintain- 



