58 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



provide full rations, and we know of no way so economical 

 as this system of growing clover, rye, wheat or oats and put- 

 ting them into the silo to tide over the dry pasture period. 

 We find in an average season that we can readily grow 10 

 tons of green food on an acre of clover, and as much in rye 

 or wheat, so that, allowing 30 to 40 pounds of this ensilage 

 as a day's ration for the dairy cow, or from 1,000 to 1,200 

 pounds per month, we are able to feed a cow for five months 

 all the green feed she requires with 21/2 to 3 tons of this ensi- 

 lage. Comparing that product with the summer green soil- 

 ing previously mentioned to feed 20 cows five months, we 

 would need only 5 acres of clover and li/> or 2 acres of wheat 

 or rye to supi)ly what is needed against the 9 or 10 acres 

 used in the soiling process, with the added advantage of 

 minimizing our work in harvesting and always having a 

 supply right at hand for feeding, to say nothing about the 

 great value to the soil in future cropping by using the crop 

 rotation all over our tillable fields. 



In maintaining our permanent grass fields we give them 

 an annual application of 10 loads of manure to the acre, 

 spread any time from October to April, and then as early in 

 April as the land will bear the horses we start the cutaway 

 harrow, — cutting np the surface of these fields quite thor- 

 oughly. We sow clover, red top and timothy seed in alter- 

 nate years on these fields, sowing 3 to 4 quarts of red and 

 alsike clover mixed, and 2 or 3 quarts of red top and tim- 

 othy; and after following this treatment for four years we 

 find our meadows are stronger and better than ever, with a 

 splendid, firm, full sod, which even in this dry season has cut 

 two good crops. I think we can maintain these grass fields 

 for fifteen, or possibly more, years without taking u]i and 

 reseeding, as we have some fields that have been cur for over 

 ten years, and the yield is better than it was four years ago. 



With the right nse of the manure spreader and other mod- 

 ern machines much of the hard labor has been eliminated, 

 and the science of agriculture has become a fascinating 

 study. Why should it not be, when we realize the fact that 

 this soil upon which we ti'cad is not mere dirt, but a living. 

 breathing organism, made up of countless minute atoms, 



