132 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



One difficulty in pasturing cows on rye in the spring 

 where the soil is largely clay, is that tramping the land 

 when wet causes it to become very hard. For this reason, 

 the rye pasture should be confined to as small an area as 

 possible. 



Sweet Clover Better Than Rye. 



There is no question that catch crop pasture can be 

 grown to add greatly to the feed, to the variety of feed, 

 and to the health and tone of the cows, without displacing 

 any regular crop on the land and with but slight cost. In 

 the light of the last several years' experience on many dairy 

 farms, sweet clover makes a far better catch crop than rye 

 for fall and spring pasture. But where clover pasture is 

 not available and blue grass is the kind used, a small amount 

 of rye pasture is positively to be recommended for use in 

 the spring. The cows can be turned on this early and by 

 pasturing the rye long enough, the blue grass pasture is 

 allowed a good start. 



Production Per Man. 



Farmers in foreign countries often are lauded because 

 the production per acre is greater than in the United States, 

 but labor is cheap there and they obtain their high yields 

 per acre at a great reduction in yield per man from what 

 we get here. The high yield per acre must be secured econ- 

 omically and return to the farmer a good profit to be of any 

 significance to him. High yield per man as well as high 

 yield per acre was secured in this demonstration. The to- 

 tal hours of man labor put upon this twenty acres and ten 

 cows averaged for the six years about three-fourths of what 

 one man does on the ordinary dairy farm. Only such meth- 

 ods were employed in raising crops as are in common prac- 

 tice on the best dairy farms. As little hand labor as pos- 

 sible was used and large tools were employed because they 

 are economical of man labor. The farmer in charge of 80 

 to 160 acres would have some natural advantages in econ- 

 omy of labor that could not be secured in a demonstration 

 like this. 



