164 FARM ANIMALS 



In feeding meadow hay, timothy and other 

 similar hays, it should be remembered that the 

 nutritive value is much lower than the legumes 

 and that this material is also inferior to corn stover. 

 It is necessary, therefore, to use, in connection 

 with such hays, a large amount of nitrogenous 

 grain feed. As already indicated it seems to add 

 to the effectiveness of the ration if some hay is 

 mixed with the silage ration. Thus in Maine 

 it was found that twenty-five pounds of silage, 

 thirteen pounds of hay and eight pounds of grain 



fave better results in milk yield than when the 

 ay ration was reduced one-half. 

 Soiling. The importance of using soiling crops 

 in dairy farming must be obvious even upon the 

 slightest consideration. In the vicinity of large 

 cities, where land values are high and where a 

 crowded population renders it impossible to use 

 large areas as pasture or for the production of 

 single crops, it nas been found possible to raise 

 much larger yields of milk-producing material 

 in the form of soiling crops than by any other 

 means. In the various systems of soiling which 

 have been adopted by the agricultural experiment 

 stations which have taken the matter up, a number 

 of schemes have been devised by which, through 

 a suitable rotation, an abundance of green material 

 may be obtained from May to November in the 

 latitude of New Jersey. In a system of rotation 

 it is necessary to use a number of different crops 

 such as rye, crimson clover, oats, peas, soy-beans, 

 wheat, cowpeas, millet, corn, barley, sorghum. 

 As compared with pasture, it has been found that 

 three to five times as much material can be obtained 

 from an acre of ground by the soiling system as 

 from pasturing. By the system of soiling, various 



