34 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



iiigs and hoiiies, prove the folly of such a system of agri- 

 culture. 



I also believe in feeding good hay every day in the year that 

 a cow will eat it. Where the pastures are good, there are a 

 few weeks that a cow does not care for hay ; but if she is hun- 

 gry enough to eat it, she should certainly have it. I believe a 

 cow's health is better and that she will last longer if she con- 

 sumes ten pounds of hay a day, though she may produce the 

 same amount of milk cheaper from other feeds. 



Clover is a valuable feed, but it seems to be a crop to talk 

 about and write about more than for every-day use by the 

 dairyman. The seed is expensive, runs out quickly, gives 

 small yields to the acre unless heavily fed, and is very difficult 

 to cure in IN^ew England weather, where we have to make hay 

 with a fork in one hand and an umbrella in the other. In a 

 limestone region, where there is a guarantee of no rain during 

 summer, it may be grown to better advantage. However, 

 what clover we are able to get cured nicely is valuable feed, 

 and the sod is valuable for growing a crop of corn. 



The heavy applications of manure on a dairy farm, or on 

 such dairy farms as save all the manure, tend to make the land 

 acid, and the clover plant will not flourish on an acid soil. 

 This condition may be corrected by applications of lime, wood 

 ashes or Thomas slag. I have used all these, and wood ashes 

 have proved the most successful on my farm, though I cannot 

 tell why. 



Alfalfa is like clover, only more so, — its advocates write 

 longer and " holler " louder. The agricultural papers have 

 been booming alfalfa for Connecticut and Massachusetts for 

 twenty years, and possibly twenty years before that, — I don't 

 remember. We hear wonderful stories from new ehthusiasts 

 every year. Some of the earlier ones have quieted down, 

 possibly, after having sold their farms by the ton, to inoculate 

 the soil of new converts. But I am not personally acquainted 

 with very many in Connecticut or in Massachusetts who have 

 laid by any great amount of wealth accumulated from raising 

 alfalfa. Undoubtedly it is a valuable crop, and Avill be more 

 extensively grown for dairy stock ; but it has not yet solved 

 the old-time problem of getting something for nothing. 



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