A PENNSYLVANIA MILK DAIRYMAN'S HERD. 
HOLSTEIN BLOOD WITH ENSILAGE AND BRAN. 
Buying Cows Cheaper Than Breeding. 
The picture shown on this page, was taken on the 
farm of Mr. Geo. N. Glass, Venice, Pa. Mr. Glass 
gives us the following account of his operations : 
The farm connected with the picture contains 111 
acres. It is situated 20 miles southwest of Pittsburgh 
on the Pennsylvania Railroad. The production of 
milk for the Pittsburgh market is made a specialty. 
The farm is well adapted to the production of corn 
and grass, and has one strong spring located at the 
spring-house to the left of the barn, which furnishes 
water for the cooling and keeping of the milk and 
watering the stock. The water is raised to the barn 
by wind power, and thrown into a cistern above the 
barn in the winter, and drawn into the barn for stock 
as wanted. In the summer, it is thrown to the top of 
use the buckets for watering. Their feed is ensilage 
and bran only : all the ensilage they will eat and bran 
in proportion to the amount of milk that they give. 
Ln the summer, I pasture, mostly clover, with some 
Timothy and Blue grass. I feed some bran in the 
summer, but not so much as in the winter ; also 
green corn if the pasture is short. The building at 
the left is a horse stable and wagon house com¬ 
bined, so arranged that we can harness and hitch 
up before starting out. Hay and straw are stored 
overhead. The house is in the rear on the other side 
of the road. 
R. N.-Y.—Mr. Glass says he is able to ship an aver¬ 
age of 80 gallors of milk per day. The price in Pitts¬ 
burgh is regulated by a milk dealers’ exchange. For 
the six summer months the average was 10% cents per 
gallon, and for the six winter months 14% cents. An 
effort is being made to organize the shippers. As we 
understand Mr. G., his main crops are corn and pasture 
ENSILAGE AND BRAN ALONE. 
NO HAY IN THE COW’S RATION. 
Is It a Good System of Feeding ? 
1. Do you consider it a wise plan ordinarily, to 
leave hay out of a cow’s ration ? 2. Is not the di'y hay 
an improvement to the ensilage ration, aside from the 
food it adds? 3. Would you be willing to feed ensilage 
and grain alone to your cows ? If not, what injury 
would you expect ? 
Some Ensilage Sets Their Teeth “ On Edge /’ 9 
1. No. 2. Yes, it makes variety, and will help to 
keep up the appetite. I feed but little hay, as my 
cows get about all the ensilage and grain they will 
eat. I have not tried the ensilage and grain alone, 
but would not think of doing without some hay. 3. 
No. I would expect the cows to develop an appetite 
for something else, although it might not be the case 
the hill which is a central point on the farm where 
the fields corner. 
Six years ago, when I was 19 years of age, I started 
in the dairy business, with nine cows—three pure¬ 
bred Holsteins. I rented my uncle’s farm, and ship¬ 
ped an average of 20 gallons of milk per day for the 
first year. Three years after, I bought the above 
farm. This year, I have had an average of 23 cows 
all purebreds. I have kept a purebred bull from the 
first, but never made any attempt to grade up a herd. 
I have raised some, and bought the rest. 1 consider 
grading up too slow, considering the price of pure¬ 
bred cattle. I shipped from the herd this year to 
Pittsburgh, 22,580 gallons of milk, for which I received 
$2,781.83, besides about 500 gallons of surplus made 
into butter, and about 500 more fed to calves. 
The cows are kept in the stable all the time through 
the winter ; they are not out from November 1 till 
April. The barn to the right is 40 x 60 feet, and con¬ 
tains cattle only. It has a silo in one end, 13 x IS feet 
and 38 feet deep, two rows of stanchions, 13 in each 
row’ and two box stalls: the cows faee out. The 
water runs into a trough in front of the cows, I still 
grass—thus dispensing with haymaking and much 
other farm labor. There is little labor about such 
farming aside from care of the stock, and that ration 
of ensilage and bran is certainly a cheap one. As to 
the economy of feeding no hay, we have our doubts 
and have referred the matter to some of our dairy 
friends—whose opinions follow. It seems to us that 
a little hay or straw mixed with the ensilage, and some 
cotton-seed meal with the bran would make a more 
satisfactory ration. Still Mr. G. certainly gets good 
returns from his cows. We would like to know how 
long such cows last ” under that system of feeding. 
Some people argue that it is better to crowd a cow 
hard for three years and get as much milk or butter 
as you would in five years of moderate feeding—even 
though you break the cow down by doing it. That is 
in line with the spirit of the age, but we would not 
care for heifer calves from such cows. You will 
notice that Mr. Glass does not raise many heifers 
from his own stock, but depends on the purchase of 
thoroughbred stock to replenish his herd. That 
certainly pays better than buying scrubs at random 
or breeding haphazard from a scrub bull. 
this year, as our ensilage is not so sour as formerly. 
Possibly the drought had something to do with this. 
The past two winters, my cows would eat the bark 
from apple trees when let into the orchard, and had to 
be taken out to save the trees. This winter, the same 
cows running in the same orchard, have not touched 
the trees. The ration and manner of feeding is the 
same, except that the ensilage is not so sour, and I 
use gluten meal in place of pitted brewers’ grains. 
Columbia County, N. Y. N. H. 
Would Give Some Dry Roughage. 
In feeding a large amount of ensilage, I would pre¬ 
fer to feed a little clover or good mixed hay, or stover 
(preferably cut), or even fresh, bright straw, to act, 
both as an appetizer and in cold weather to counter¬ 
act the too laxative effect of so much ensilage. Of 
course, if the cows never get where the thermometer 
is below freezing, and never in a chilling wind, the 
last reason would not hold. In my circumstances, 
where the cows are allowed to run during the day in 
a closed, covered yard, at this season, I do not con¬ 
sider it well to give so much succulent food during the 
