148 



BOAED OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



are the best that can be grown for feeding cows summer and 

 winter ; and this is, as far as my talk to-day is concerned, 

 the conclusion of the whole matter. If I were running a 

 dairy farm down here and could grow these crops, I would 

 grow them mainly to feed my cows at the very lowest- cost 

 to myself, and to protect the soil. 



Chart No. 9. 

 Quantities of Nutrients per Acre. 



I will speak a moment of horse beans. I do not know that 

 that plant is well known here. It ought to grow here, 

 because the soil is similar to ours, and your climate is similar 

 to ours. The horse bean is a plant with a square stem as 

 thick as my little finger, growing four or five feet in height, 

 and with pods on the sides. We grew that crop last year, 

 planting two-thirds of a bushel to the acre. We cut nearly 

 thirteen tons of green fodder per acre. We grow it in rows 

 three feet apart, like corn. It was grown quite largely last 

 year on our side to mix with corn to make ensilage. We on 

 our side have been compelled mainly to look after reducing 

 the cost of these things. By the introduction of machinery, 

 as well as by the stress of competition from elsewhere, our 

 farmers have been compelled to try to reduce the cost of their 

 products, and this is one means w^hereby we have been able 

 to reduce the cost of feeding our cows a great deal. An 

 analysis of horse beans gives six hundred and fifty-three 

 pounds of albuminoids per acre, and I think the largest pro- 



