No. 4.] GRASSES AND FORAGE CROPS. 213 



Question. Can we get the soy bean at the college? 



Professor Brooks. Yes ; we can also furnish you with 

 the soy bean. There are soy beans and soy beans. The 

 green one is the best for the forage, so far as my observa- 

 tion goes. We have another very promising one, which I 

 got through a missionary from China. We probably have 

 half a bushel this year. 



Question. What is the use of shelling the corn? Do 

 you not have crushers that take it cob and all ? 



Professor Brooks. Yes ; but you have to pay more for 

 grinding, for the miller grinds it for you. It is more work 

 to cut, bind, stack, husk and shell corn than it is to cut it 

 and put it into the silo. I am thoroughly convinced that 

 you cannot afford to try to make milk and butter without 

 having a silo. 



Dr. Lindsey. I know there are a great many here who 

 desire to say a word, and I do not want to take but just a 

 moment. I want to say a word relative to what I call Pro- 

 fessor Brooks's enthusiasm over millet. I believe in millet, 

 but I cannot get up quite the amount of courage over it that 

 he does. It seems to me, so far as I have been able to ob- 

 serve, that the Japanese millet, or so-called barn-yard millet, 

 is of value chiefly as a green crop for the month of August, 

 provided the weather is not sufficiently dry to prevent its 

 growing. But I do not believe, from what I have been able 

 to observe and from the data I have been able to obtain 

 upon it, that it is superior to Indian corn. Our experience 

 has been that, when we compare the Indian corn with the 

 millet, our milk pail shows an increase in favor of the corn. 

 Neither can I consider it of special value as a silage crop, 

 in comparison with Indian corn. If we did not have Indian 

 corn, millet would be desirable ; but as long as we have the 

 corn, I should very much prefer it as a silage crop. I do 

 not agree with Professor Brooks in regard to the value of 

 the seed, but I have no data from which to speak. It seems 

 to me that the practical value of the millet at the present 

 time is as a green crop, to be fed during the month of 

 August. It is susceptible to dry weather. We planted 

 one-fourth of an acre of it this year, and by its side had a 

 fourth of an acre of corn. The corn withstood the drought 



