CUTTING, HANDLENG AND FEEDING CROPS 39 



Care should be taken that the cows are kept clean 

 where soiling is practiced, as the animals are not 

 ordinarily as clean as when kept in pasture, for the 

 reason that in the latter case they keep clean natu- 

 rally. It is important to feed dry hay in connection 

 with the soiling crops, to give the manure a proper 

 consistency and to aid in keeping the stable clean. 

 Forage as a complete ration. — The advantage of 

 green forage in providing an abundance of roughage 

 throughout the growing season, as well as the rela- 

 tive cheapness of certain of them, makes the ques- 

 tion of whether they may not constitute the ration 

 of the entire herd a practicable one — that is, whether 

 it is practicable and profitable to use soiling crops 

 exclusively and thus reduce the necessity for pastur- 

 age and for purchased feeds. An experiment was 

 conducted by the writer to learn the influence of a 

 ration composed entirely of forage and its economy 

 as compared with a food consisting of a mixed ration 

 of green forage and fine feed. The forage ration 

 consisted of lOO pounds of oats and peas, while the 

 forage and feed ration was made up of 60 pounds of 

 oats and peas (green), five pounds wheat bran, and 

 three pounds of dried brewers' grains. Notwith- 

 standing the relatively large bulk of the forage ra- 

 tion, the animals consumed it readily and no un- 

 favorable effects upon their health were noticed, 

 though the gain in weight was somewhat less than 

 for the ration consisting of forage and feed. Milk 

 from the forage and feed ration was produced at a 

 cost of 46 cents per hundred, and from the forage 

 ration at a cost of 39 cents per hundred. The results 



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