476 



STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



tailed work of weighing feed, milk, etc., recording the same and caring 

 for animals as individuals or in groups in order to get definite accurate 

 results, more than doubles the labor cost. (2) The station farm lia.s 

 insufficient cleared laiul in proportion to its live stock, resulting in lieavy 

 purchase of feeds. The pressing need for stimulating the live stock 

 industry seemed to warrant the rapid increase of herds and flocks. (3) 

 Transportation has added heavily to costs of all imported materials. 

 Chatham is nearly four hundred miles distant from Chicago. 



DAIRY BARN AND SILO 



DAIRY. 



The following figures are given in detail to illustrate more clearly the 

 work of the station, and the qualifying factors just mentioned should 

 be borne in mind. 



The Station dairy herd numbers seventeen heifers, fourteen cows and 

 one bull at the present time. An average of twelve cows were milked 

 through the year. The average milk production of these cows was 

 10,35G pounds. Six of these cows were only a little past two years old 

 at the time of freshening. 



Five of the best ones were used in conducting ration tests. The object 

 of the ration test was to enable us to determine the economic value of 

 each kind of succulent feed in the production of milk, and in maintain- 

 ing the general health of the animals. The feeds used in conducting this 

 test were: Roots versus oat and pea silage, and the combination of 

 roots and oat and pea silage versus roots alone, and versus silage alone. 

 This test was started on December 25, 1917, and carried through to 

 April 8, 1918. The cows were fed for a period of one week on one kind 

 of feed, then an intermission of one week was used in changing them 

 over to another feed, and so on alternately until the end of the tests. 

 Each test was carried on in triplicate. 



