756 IOWA DEPARTMENT CF AGRICULTURE. 



before him to consider Avhat to raise that will make most, best and 

 cheapest feed. I think I have studied all parts of the known world for 

 all the different plants to find something good and very productive. I 

 have tried nearly all the new things, such as Pencelaria, sunflower, 

 vetches, sugar cane, cow peas and clovers, and, of course, our greatest 

 of all feeds, the common corn. I say greatest because I think it is best 

 and yields mor.e per acre. But the common way ' of letting it get dry 

 and hard, then gathering only the ears, grinding or feeding whole, is 

 not the best. When I first begun dairying I would cut and shuck it, 

 run it through a cutting machine that mixed the corn with the fodder 

 and two to four pounds of bran. I thought I did as well as I could to 

 get the most benefit of the corn, but that left a great deal of corn stalks 

 they would n®t eat with sufficient amount of clover hay that was fairly 

 good. 



Next I raised cow peas and built silos, cut the corn when it was some- 

 what green and the corn a little too hard for roasting ears. I mixed 

 corn and cow peas, one load of peas to two of corn. That makes an 

 ensilage that cows will eat better than corn alone. But the ground I 

 had in peas did noc produce more than one-third as much feed as good 

 corn. So I think corn pays best because you get the most, and with 

 good clover hay and plenty of ensilage, you get something near a good 

 ration. But for full flow of milk it needs something of what corn lacks 

 mixed with ensilage. This time oats were a good crop and cheaper than 

 bran. A rew pounds, say three to six pounds, mixed in the ensilage,, 

 seems to give good results. Don't need to grind oats when mixing with 

 ensilage, as the cow Avill grind it good when mixed with something she 

 has to chew. 



When I speak of the economy of putting corn in silos to feed cows, 

 I don't mean it is good for cows only — it is good for all kinds of stock. 

 All seem to like it and thrive on it, and when you get building and 

 machinery for it, it don't cost any more to put it in silos than to cut, 

 shock, etc., and it is much more convenient to feed in barns or sheds, 

 where stock can be kept com.fortable and all the manure can be saved. 

 That subject will need more and more to be considered. Our lands are 

 showing the need of it, and when applied they make great increase in 

 production. I think it belongs to good farming to make and apply fer- 

 tilizers as well as to cultivate good. 



KXSILAGR YIELnS RICH FERTILIZER. 



There is a subject m this that I have never heard mentioned: that 

 any plant cut at the best time for making good feed is also the best time 

 to make good fertilizer, and that corn stalks left standing until they are 

 dead and weather-beaten have nearly no fertilizing quality in them, and 

 other vegetation the same way. I can not tell where it goes to, only I 

 don't think they are any benefit to land. That makes me think corn pirt 

 in silos makes more valuable fertilizer than dried stuff and frosted and 

 weather-beaten vegetation. I think silos are sure to comQ into general 

 use, although the farmers who only aim to raise beef are very slow to 

 turn to it. It seems too costly to build silos and buy cutting machines. 



