No. 4.] GRASS AND CLOVER. 121 



patience witli this talk, so often heard, and have yet to hear 

 of a farmer who has plenty of land making a success of 

 farming and the dairy business who bases his work on that as- 

 sumption. The so called ' ' worn-out " farms of New England 

 are fairly clamoring for more and better tillage. It is a cardi- 

 nal principle of good husbandry that permanent agricultural 

 prosperity consists in raising crops on the land, feeding these 

 crops to animals, selling the animals or their products, and 

 returning to the soil in the shape of manures and fertilizers 

 much and in some cases more than has been taken out by the 

 crop. 



If I were speaking on feeding the dairy herd, I vshould 

 certainly not overlook the matter of silage — preferably corn 

 silage — as a primary factor in cattle feeding ; for in most 

 instances, while dairy work can be carried on quite success- 

 fully without a silo, it can be carried on much more success- 

 fully if silage is used. 



It is a common practice to speak of grass and clover to- 

 gether, — I suppose naturally because both of them are sown, 

 cut, cured and fed in much the same manner. Grasses on 

 the one hand and clover on the other are two distinctly dif- 

 ferent families of plants ; they demand diiferent treatment 

 from seedino; time to feedino; time, and for this reason I shall 

 speak of our methods of producing each separately. 



Our problem is much the same as that of any farmer. We 

 have a large dairy herd and considerable other stock to feed. 

 We are after large crops, and at the same time are striving to 

 improve the fertility of our land, rather than to " run it out." 

 While we are able to produce 4i;'2 tons of cured clover hay 

 to the acre, we do not use excessive amounts of fertilizers or 

 expensive methods. We are not experimenting farther than 

 to settle for ourselves the question as to the best treatment 

 of our land. Our land is a heavy, late, poorly drained clay, 

 with a hard clay subsoil, so that you will at once see that 

 our conditions are not ideal, — perhaps not quite so good as 

 those on the average New England farms. In other words, 

 we believe that our pi-actices are such as can be profitably 

 followed l)y any New En.gland farmer. 



The last census taken by the United States government 



