FIFTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONVENTION 145 



This ration contains 2.05 pounds of digestible protein, 

 14.2 pounds of carbohydrates and fat. Of this the cow will 

 use .7 of a pound of protein and 7.2 pounds of carbohy- 

 drates and fat for maintenance, and the remainder is avail- 

 able for making milk. 



Now if timothy were grown on that farm instead of al- 

 falfa, and if the ration fed were changed in just that one 

 item, substituting 10 pounds of timothy hay — all the cow 

 would eat of this less palatable roughage — for the 12 

 pounds of alfalfa, she would get practically as much carbo- 

 hydrates and fat but only half as much protein with the 

 timothy ration as with the alfalfa ration. For her mainte- 

 nance, the cow would take the same kind and amount of 

 nutrients from the timothy hay ration as from the alfalfa 

 ration, and leave only enough to make an average of 7 

 pounds of 4 per cent milk per day — 2,310 pounds for the 

 year. This reduces her production 72 per cent, takes out 

 more than all the profit, and makes such dairying a farce — 

 or a tragedy. 



This loss is so startling that we can hardly comprehend 

 it, and we must turn to reliable evidence to see to what ex- 

 tent timothy hay is provided on dairy farms instead of al- 

 falfa or other legumes. 



The 1920 census shows that of the improved land in 

 the United States, 4.1 per cent is in timothy and only 1.75 

 per cent is devoted to the growing of alfalfa. In Illinois 

 there are 161/^ times as many acres devoted to growing tim- 

 othy as alfalfa. 



In 1912 a survey of 680 dairy farms in the most inten- 

 sive dairy section of Northern Illinois comprising seven 

 townships, showed that on 71 per cent of these farms tim- 

 othy was the only kind of hay grown; on another 16 per 

 cent of the farms over two-thirds of the hay acreage was 

 timothy; and on only 6 per cent of these farms was the tim- 

 othy acreage less than one-third of the total hay acreage. 

 As the timothy acreage decreased the labor income of these 

 farms increased from $466 to $960 — more than 100 per 

 cent. According to the census figures for 1910 and 1920 

 timothy has decreased and alfalfa and clover has increased 



