74 



COMPARATIYE YALUE OF CROPS, ETC. 



REPORT 



OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE COMPARATIVE VALUE OF CROPS AS 

 FOOD FOR CATTLE, ESPECIALLY NEAT STOCK, IN 

 PRODUCING MILK AND BUTTER. 



To the Trustees of the Essex Agricultural Society: — 



Your Committee have waited until the last available 

 moment for making up their report, hoping that we might 

 receive a statement from some intelligent farmer, in conformity 

 with the rules of the society, in competing for the premium of 

 twenty-five dollars, which the society has so generously offered. 

 But no sucli statement has been received by your committee, 

 consequently, the most we can do in making our report, is to 

 make such statements and suggestions as the facts will war- 

 rant, that have come to our knowledge from a very extensive 

 correspondence with the farmers of the country, and especially 

 our own county. 



The question of the comparative value of different crops as 

 food for cattle, especially neat stock, is one of the most import- 

 ant that can engage the attention of our farmers at the 

 present time when the competition is so sharp in producing 

 milk and butter, and wlien the margin of profit is so small, 

 and when our success depends so largely upon our ability to 

 furnish a imtritious fodder at a cheap rate, and not only in the 

 production of milk and butter, but in the development and 

 growth of our young stock and the fitting them for the stall. 

 And yet it is one of the most difficult subjects to comprehend, 

 and involves questions upon which there exists the widest dif- 

 ference of opinion, even amohg our most intelligent and prac- 

 tical stock raisers, and perhaps this should not be a matter of 

 surprise when we take into the account the different objects to 

 be secured, and the varying conditions under which we labor 

 in securing those objects. 



In producing butter , we need different stock from what we do 



