THIRTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 307 



Several Reasons for Poor Results. 



The investigations of the Department of Dairy Husbandry 

 during the past dozen years show plainly that the dairy farmers 

 are . not getting the profits they should and could get for the 

 investment of their time and money. There are several reasons 

 for the poor results so frequently obtained. One is inefficient 

 cows, and the Department has done much investigating to show 

 the difference in efficiency of individual cows, and has published 

 the striking results. Another reason is the great waste in rais- 

 ing crops that do not yield anything like the maximum amount 

 of digestible nutrients per acre. This is especially true in regard 

 to the protein contained in the crops commonly raised on the 

 dairy farm and so essential in the ration for dairy cows. For 

 example, an acre of timothy hay does not contain more than one- 

 tenth as much digestible protein as an acre of alfalfa hay. Not- 

 withstanding this fact, timothy hay is still extensively grown on 

 many dairy farms and fed to dairy cows. 



Conditions Found in Dairy Sections. 



A few examples may help to bring out the conditions exist- 

 ing in the dairy sections of Illinois. Not .long since the writer 

 visited a large dairy farm in the Elgin district, where the tenant 

 had been on the farm for 14 years without sowing clover or 

 other legume seed during this time, thus showing the same defect 

 as in System No. i. Just across the road was a large dairy 

 farm on which ten acres of clover were grown. In March this 

 man still had the clover hay in his barn and was inquiring for a 

 market where he might dispose of it, as he said he had so much 

 corn stover he could not feed it out before time to turn the cows 

 to pasture. He made a gross mistake in not feeding this legume 

 hay, which would have taken the place of rnuch of the high- 

 priced bran which he had been buying in large quantities all 

 winter in an attempt to balance the ration for his dairy herd. 



