314 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
you to investigate this matter of cheaper production for the express pur- 
pose of proving that I am mistaken you will then begin to learn some- 
thing. On our farm at home the silo has almost entirely solved the 
question of cheap feed. Men often say to me: "If a silo is as good a thing 
as you say it is how does it come we don't all have them?" The silo 
never was as good a thing as I say it is until within the last few years; 
that is, since we have learned to let a corn crop get ripe, not ripe like a 
dried apple, but ripe like a ripe apple, before we put in into the silo. 
Both stock and ears must be well matured. Our plan of rotation is from 
corn to pasture. During the past five years we have used but very little 
hay. The old method of feeding corn and hay for producing milk is cer- 
tainly very expensive with corn at the present prices. The only reason 
your cows do not starve to death on timothy hay is because the winter is 
not long enough. When any healthy animal is getting lighter in weight, 
it is pretty good evidence that it does not have enough of nutritious feed. 
Ten acres of corn in a silo will furnish more feed and better feed than 
fifty acres of timothy hay. Corn silage for the bulky and succulent feed 
and alfalfa or clover hay for the protein feed will make an almost perfectly 
balanced ration and one upon which cows will give a full flow of milk 
and keep in good condition. We are often asked if we limit the amount 
of silage we feed our cows. My answer is, "We do limit them to what 
they will eat." We have known herds of cows to stay in good flesh and 
give good flow of milk through the entire winter where corn silage was 
their entire feed with no other grain or rough feed. Farmers take to 
new ideas about like they take castor oil; that is, well mixed with pre- 
serves. If you will spread preserves on thick enough we are willing to 
take almost any kind of a dose, but to get out of the old rut takes a long, 
hard pull. In our opinion the question of cheaper production will be 
solved on most farms when we learn to grow all the corn we can grow 
on all the good corn land we have, and put enough of it in silo in the fall 
to winter all the stock on the farm. We have all been reading silo 
literature for many years;; we have read just how thick to plant the 
corn and no two writers agree on the question. We hav3 read of how to 
cultivate the corn, and no two cultivate alike. We have read just when 
to cut the corn and very few agree. In reading these small technicalities, 
we are liable to lose sight of the main question, which is the one ques- 
tion on which all writers and feeders of ensilage feed agree; that is, 
grow all the corn you can on all the corn land you have, according to 
your best methods, and put enough of it in the silo to winter your stock. 
We are satisfied from our own observation and personal experience 
that alfalfa will some day be grown in Iowa on a commercial basis, as 
it seems to grow very readily on any land which is well drained. We 
have it growing on our farm at Anamosa on top of a clay hill on the 
poorest land on the farm. Still it is hardly worth while for the Iowa 
farmer and dairyman to experiment with alfalfa until he learns to grow 
clover. There are 205,000 farms in Iowa. Statistics show that there is 
an average of one acre of clover on each farm, so until we learn to grow 
lots more clover than we are growing at present it is hardly worth while 
to experiment with alfalfa. 
