FIFTY-SECOND ANNUAL CONVENTION 137 



For this reason, dairymen must set to work to breed this 

 kind of cow — or find other more productive and depend- 

 able pasture than bluegrass. Obviously, the latter is the 

 more practicable. 



This test, and common experience show that bluegrass 

 fails more than half the season and fails at any period of 

 drought. The most certain thing about it is its uncertainty 

 and the loss that comes to the whole herd from lack of 

 supplying a sufficient pasture or ration during the hot, 

 dry weather of summer is almost beyond comprehension, 

 and may easily amount to the difference between success 

 and failure to the dairy farmer. 



Need Much Supplementary Feed With Bluegrass 



According to the four years' test of bluegrass, and 

 allowing one and a half acres of bluegrass per cow, a good 

 cow would require to properly and adequately supplement 

 pasture, an average of 30 pounds of silage, eight pounds 

 of hay, and ten pounds of grain per day for five out of the 

 six summer months and it would require one and a half 

 acres of land per cow to produce this supplementary feed. 

 Thus for a herd of twenty cows, it would take, besides the 

 30 acres of bluegrass pasture, 30 acres of other crops and 

 all the labor of raising them; threshing the oats, making 

 the hay, filling the silo, husking the corn and grinding the 

 grain, besides the labor involved in feeding in the barn 

 the year around. In other words, one acre of cultivated 

 crops would be required for every acre of bluegrass pas- 

 ture, and much labor in addition. This is expensive sum- 

 mer feeding and makes the profits lean indeed, but the 

 loss is much worse with the many herds that are not given 

 this extra feed because they go hungry, lose flesh, and fall 

 off in their milk flow, thus cutting off all chance of profit. 



Because sweet clover gave promise of being such a 

 reliable pasture, I began raising it on my farm in northern 

 Illinois twelve years ago. The results were so excellent 

 that I have spent considerable time during the last few 

 years studying this crop wherever possible. 



To continue this study and to get a broader view of 



