ILLINOIS DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION. 297 



quality which is secured by the care exercised in producing them. 

 A short distance from the barn a dairy house has been erected 

 and equipped with an engine, boiler, separator, churn and cooling 

 apparatus. The whole constitues a neat equipment and should 

 interest any man who cares to do things well. The productioi? 

 of the herd is aoove the average, though not as high as one might 

 expect from grade Jerseys. The best cow produced 292.82 

 pounds of butter fat, while the poorest yeild only 158.07 pounds 

 in a year. The average for all the cows was 242.94 pounds of 

 butter fat. A finely bred Jersey bull is at the head of the herd, 

 the intention being to select for greater production. It has been 

 the practice to weigh the milk from the different cows of this 

 herd for some time, so that the taking of samples was little addi- 

 tional trouble. The interest taken in the work and the care ex- 

 ercised in weighing and sampling add greatly to the value of the 

 results obtained. 



During the summer months, the herd received in addition 

 to pasture, three pounds of bran and five pounds of clover hay 

 per day. In winter the ration was composed of three and one- 

 half pounds of bran, twenty-five to thirty pounds of corn and cow- 

 pea silage and either six pounds of timothy and clover hay or five 

 pounds each of clover hay and corn stover. The amount of cow- 

 peas in the silage was not large though it added materially to its 

 value. The peas were planted with the corn to which they at- 

 tached themselves as they grew, allowing both to be cut at the 

 same time. From the amounts just given it is quite clear that 

 the owner erred in feeding too little concentrated food. His 

 thought was to feed as much rough farm -grown food as possible 

 but in so doing the digestive capacity was overtaxed by bulky 

 material. Slightly more concentrates in the form^af bran or oats 

 should have been fed and the timothy replaced by clover, cow- 

 pea or alfalfa hay. It is never advisable to feed timothy to dairy 

 cattle when leguminous hays can be secured at anything like 

 reasonable prices. A large use of farm-grown foods should be 

 made, for they contribute to economy. Not often can a criticism 



