ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 169 



The professor at Red Bud las t year told us that one ton of timothy- 

 was worth two tons of clover hay to feed steers. If so, we surely had 

 better feed for milk and make a market for clover hay. I think it might 

 have been that the hay he experimented with was poorly made, like most 

 clover is, past it prime before cut and then lay and dry till most of the 

 leaves and heads shell off when raking is done, or left to dry and burn till 

 there is no substance left in it, so they can use a hay loader. I don't like 

 that kind of clover hay. Clover in fair weather should not lay more than 

 two to four hours before raking; then put up in small bunches to cure and 

 covered with hay-caps if showery weather. 



I may be getting off my subject, but clover hay, cows, and the fertility 

 of the soil are so interwoven that i t is hard to separate them. A man 

 can hardly get along with one without the other. I wouldn't know how 

 to farm without clover, and what could I do with clover hay without the 

 cows, and the land needs the help of both. 



We cannot afford to raise clear timothy if the market does de- 

 mand it, or if it is the best to feed steers, for it does not help the land any 

 and we might just as well raise a grain crop. We must grtfw clover and 

 keep such stock as will consume it, or keep on raising half-crops or grain 

 as too many are doing, and growling about hard times and never attend 

 an Institute or Dairy Association. 



Maybe I could better illustrate or prove what I say by giving a history 

 of one of the patrons of our factory. He was one of the first patrons, with 

 twenty cows. What grain he had in the spring was fed in boxes, tubs, and 

 old pails. At calving time*; no barn ; sheds made of straw and slough-grass. 

 Owned 160 acres of land, about half of it cleared, with plenty of stumps. 

 Owed about one-half its cost. Ke has stayed by the cheese business, in- 

 creased his herd to about 30 cows ; all he could pasture and feed by buy- 

 ing some hay and grain; 'raised 1 no calves for ten or twelve years. Since 

 then he has raised' his heifer calves; no steer calves raised. Sells his old 

 cows and raised young ones; feeds mostly what he raised on the farm. 

 Buys some bran and a little flax- seed meal. Feeds mostly clover hay 

 and corn in the ear, or shock corn, and has hogs to pick up the waste. Has 



