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not supply enough food for the rapid increase of our herd. Then 

 we were obliged to grow corn after corn continuously, until we 

 were shown a better way by adopting a crop rotation. Our farm is 

 small, relatively speaking, according to the number of cattle we 

 are keeping, there being only 72 acres that are tillable, while out 

 of these 72 acres only about half is adapted for corn growing, the 

 balance being meadows which are kept in permanent grass. 



We found that by growing fields of corn, oats and clover we could 

 get results in crop production far in excess of a continuous cropping 

 of corn alone, and we are able to prove that 36 acres, producing 

 one year of corn, one of oats and clover, one of clover, and then 

 back to corn again, will produce more tons of silage in these three 

 or four years than we ever grew in the same length of time where 

 corn was the continuous crop. 



In this system it is possible to produce 8 to 10 tons of clover and 

 oat silage as a first crop, with a chance for a good second crop of 

 clover roweu or ensilage the same year, and in the year following 

 8 to 10 tons of clover silage per acre as a first crop, and also a good 

 second crop for silage or rowen hay. 



To bring this matter down to the latest experiences we find the 

 best results are gained by planting corn on the clover sod in the 

 spring following the second year's growth of clover, using 15 to 20 

 loads of stable manure per acre; then follow the next year with 

 oats, 1^/2 to 2 bushels drilled per acre, with 8 quarts of clover seed, 

 mixing 5 or 6 quarts of red clover and 2 or 3 quarts of alsike and 

 3 quarts of timothy, sowing these after the oats, and lightly har- 

 rowing in and rolling, sowing 1/2 ton of burnt lime or 1 ton of raw 

 lime-stone per acre, and harrowing thoroughly into the soil before 

 sowing the oats or clover seed. 



The following fall or winter season, or early in the following- 

 spring, top-dress this clover with 10 loads of stable manure, and 

 gTow a maximum crop of clover silage. In harvesting these silage 

 crops we cut the clover with a mower, load with a hay loader on 

 our flat platform wagons and haul to the cutter, throwing off on to 

 a table or platform on a level with the top of the cutter, and cut 

 all into half-inch lengths and pack in the silo. 



After this clover crop, which is part timothy, is stored away in 

 the silo, for the first three or four weeks the silage will come out 

 hot, and we spray water on the same while filling the silage trucks 

 before feeding the cows; but after three or four weeks the silage 

 becomes cured, and a sweeter, more palatable food can hardly be 

 furnished, and nothing will be more relished by the dairy cow. Per- 

 sonally we feel that even if we could grow corn enough to supply 

 our herd all the j'ear we would prefer to fill and feed clover silage 

 during the months of June, July and August. Other good summer 



