164 



air is pure and sweet all the time. The cows are nearly 

 all grade Holsteins, aud the barn will accommodate about 

 120 head. The cows are tied in comfortable stanchions 

 that allow considerable scope for moving about, and are 

 watered twice a day from shallow troughs in front of the 

 stanchions, about 400 tons ensilage and 150 tons of hay 

 are required to keep the stock at this farm. The piggery 

 was another source of attraction, and the visitors bought 

 quite a large number to be sent to their homes before 

 leaving. Taken as a whole it was the most interesting 

 field meeting the society has held for many years. 



COMPARATIVE VALUE OF CROPS AS FOOD 

 FOR CATTLE. 



BY DK, CHAS. W. PAGE, SUPT. ASYLUM FARM, DANVERS. 



Again your committee has to report, as in past years, that 

 no one has presented a statement embodying his experience 

 in testing the comparative value of different crops as food 

 for cattle. 



It appears that the farmers of Essex County do not study 

 this question by practical tests, or they do not care to tab- 

 ulate and make public the results they obtain. 



If the first clause of this supposition is true, it is some- 

 what surprising, since a solution of the questions involved, 

 which can be reached in no other way, is of great pecuniary 

 intererst to every farmer in the county. And besides, the 

 gratuity at the disposal of the committee, although a hand- 

 some reward in this connection, represents but a fraction of 

 the ultimate gain which each man may surely expect as the 

 outcome of intelligent experiments in this line of progress. 



Perhaps the second clause of the supposition conveys the 

 truth in this case. 



It is more than possible that the average farmer dreads 

 the extra care and labor necessary to keep an accurate ac- 



