THIRTY-SIXTH ANNUAL CONVENTION. 377 



A good flow of milk can be obtained from simply feeding 

 corn stover, clover hay, and the bran from corn and wheat, to- 

 gether with some straw. On a feeding experiment at the Uni- 

 versity, several cows produced as high as 40 pounds of milk per 

 day for fifty days, on corn silage, alfalfa hay, and straw, and 

 there is no question but what this is an economical method of 

 milk production. A race of dairy cows can undoubtedly be de- 

 veloped that will produce, on a ration composed largely of rough- 

 age, much better than these did, because these cows not only de- 

 scended from a Hne of heavy grain fed cows, but up to this time 

 had been fed a high grain ration themselves — as much as 20. 

 pounds of grain per cow per day. 



It has been generally assumed that animals will keep getting 

 fewer in number as the population becomes more dense, but this 

 is not necessarily true if we are to maintain a high type of civil- 

 ization, which, after all, should be the highest aim of humanity. 

 Whether or not the world finally becomes stocked with the actual 

 maximum number of people the soil is capable of keeping alive, 

 regardless of their degree of civilization, will depend upon the 

 standard of the masses. 



From these facts it is seen that animals must be considered 

 in our future intensive farming methods, or a large amount of 

 the nutritive value of our agricultural crops will be wasted. As 

 the demand for human food becomes greater, it will be increas- 

 ingly important to feed these products to such animals as are 

 capable of returning the largest possible percentage of the energy 

 which the coarser food contains. 



Wherever the density of population actually taxes the powder 

 of the land to supply sufficient food of any kind to nourish the 

 people, clover has been grown. Yet of course it is possible to 

 raise some other legume, as beans or peas, which would also fur- 

 nish human food in the form of concentrates. Yet were this 

 done, there would still be a large amount of leguminous roughage 

 to be fed green, made into silage, or dried into hay for the dairy 

 cow. 



