98 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYiMEN'S ASSOCIATOIN. 



Illinois generally take care of clover hay as they should ; it is 

 spoiled before they cut it. 



Prof. Haecker: It is the most difficult hay, probably, 

 that we have to secure; corn stover is worth |4.70 when 

 timothy is worth |8 per ton. Stover is corn cut when the 

 corn is ripe or nearly ripe and placed in stooks and the corn 

 husked out, the stalks that are left make the corn stover. 

 When prairie hay is worth |8 fodder corn is worth |6.12 per 

 ton. 



Mr. Reed: What do you mean by fodder corn? 



Prof. Haecker: We sow the corn about thirty inches 

 apart in drills, then we cut it and stook it up, just as you 

 do with your corn, and feed it out without husking. Some- 

 times it contains quite a good crop of ears, and sometimes, if 

 it is pretty thick, it has no ears on. We sow common Dent 

 corn. 



Mr. Soverhill: When you say prairie hay, you mean 

 timothy hay? 



Prof. Haecker: Of course not; if timothy is worth |8, 

 millet is worth |9.18; upland prairie hay, |8.23; prairie hay 

 mixed, that is medium bottom prairie hay, |8 ; the sedge grass 

 that grows on the first bottom prairie, not having a stem, but 

 having a leaf from the root up, is valued at |8. Nothing has 

 surprised me more than to find this bottom or slough hay so 

 valuable. I fed it a year ago last winter and the cows were 

 very fond of it; there was hardly a particle of it lost, and 

 they kept up the fiow remarkable well ; as well as with prairie, 

 or any other kind of roughage that we ever fed. 



Mr. Case: In feeding cotton seed meal, if you feed a high 

 ration of it, isn't the butter inclined to be oily? 



Prof. Haecker: It is just the reverse; it makes it hard 

 and crumbly. 



The Chairman: Is not that slough hay you speak of as 

 growing in your country, very different from our marsh or up- 

 land prairie? 



Prof. Haecker: Not the upland prairie, I think that is the 

 same thing, but the marsh hay is different. That would be 

 worth about $3.20. 



Mr. Seeley:* You have not mentioned sweet corn. 



