No. 4.] CATTLE FOODS. 51 



The question with me is, how I can supplement this ensilage 

 corn with oats and peas so as to make a balanced ration. 



The Chairman. I see that Dr. Goessmann is here. We 

 are always glad to hear from him. 



Dr. Goessmann. We have raised during the past season 

 several mixed fodder crops for green fodder and for hay ; 

 one acre of Canada peas and oats and one acre of summer 

 vetch and oats. We used, sowing broadcast, two bushels 

 of Canada peas and three bushels of oats per acre, and 

 obtained six tons of green fodder per acre, of a feeding value 

 equal to clover hay. The Canada pea grows rank, and 

 lodges to a considerable degree in spite of the oats, and for 

 this reason I prefer the summer vetch and oats. The A'etch 

 is a slender plant, and more apt to be held up by the oats. 

 From forty to fifty pounds of vetch, with four bushels of 

 oats per acre, seeded broadcast, has given us eight tons of 

 green fodder per acre, of an equal if not superior food value 

 to the Canada peas and oats. Both mixtures of crops may 

 be fed green or as hay, or may be made into ensilage. 



The introduction of annual leguminous plants, like peas, 

 vetch, Scotch tares, soja bean, etc., on a more extensive 

 scale, is in my opinion a step in the right direction to cheapen 

 the production of milk and meat by increasing the produc- 

 tion of home-raised cheap and valuable coarse fodder articles. 



Mr. F. W. Sargent (of Amesbury). I am very much 

 pleased to have this subject of oat and pea fodder brought 

 up, because I am deeply interested in it ; in fact, it forms 

 a very important ration for my cows during the season. 

 I have grown an oat and pea crop for ten years, and have 

 found it remunerative. At the present time I am feeding 

 my cows in the afternoon of each day on this cured fodder 

 of peas and oats. I can hardly see the necessity of putting 

 it into the silo to cure it, and I should doubt whether it 

 was advisable. I am a friend of the silo, although I have 

 none. I can cure oats after they get to the stage in which 

 I wish to cure them, very cheaply, that is, with the usual 

 good hay weather along about the first week in July ; and I 

 am satisfied that, if the fiu'mers of Massachusetts will grow 

 more oat and pea fodder for their cows, it will be a money- 

 making operation. 



