No. 4.] SOILING AND SUMMER SILAGE. 53 



mobile, put in a luuulred-poimd box of gilt-edge butter, and 

 with your best girl, or, better yet, your lifetime helpmate, 

 travel the same road, receiving as much or more for this 

 dairy product, with the satisfaction that you have robbed 

 the farm of less than 10 cents' worth of plant food, to say 

 nothing of the extra fun that can be had on this trip ? I 

 want to tell you good people assembled here to-day, and 

 especially the young men, not to overlook some of the great 

 possibilities of a home life on the farm, and some of the 

 enjoyments of owning a splendid herd of dairy cows, as well 

 as to consider some of the problems of feeding and caring for 

 them. 



Personally, we at ]\Iillbrook farm have gotten so far away 

 from the summer-soiling process, as relates to sowing several 

 varieties of feeds on as many strips or plots of ground, cut- 

 ting the same and feeding from day to day, that I have been 

 obliged to call upon one of my good friends of Connecticut, 

 Mr. F. E. Duffy, to help me out in furnishing facts to pre- 

 sent to you at this time. 



]\Iany of you know that we are practicing a crop rotation 

 that furnishes us with all the green feed we need for our 

 herd of cows, and these crops are placed in the silo, doing 

 away with a long list of endless labors as compared with the 

 other system, and which we believe is more profitable. I am 

 glad, however, to have the opportunity of presenting the two 

 systems for comparison here to-day, and I want to call your 

 attention to some charts I have prepared as illustrative of 

 the two systems. In one chart (No. 1) I will endeavor to 

 show you the amount of green feed required to supplement 

 poor pasture, or to be fed with a limited amount of hay if 

 no pasture is available for the five summer months, beginning 

 May 20 and lasting until October 20 ; also showing the time 

 of seeding and the acreage required for a herd of 20 milking 

 cows. In the other chart (No. 2) I believe I can show a 

 lesser acreage required, or a greater food production from 

 the same number of acres, as practiced by our summer silage 

 system. You v/ill notice, if you will follow me carefully, 

 that to feed 20 cows for five months requires 11 to 12 acres 

 of soil, but by gathering some of the crops and planting 



