1013. 
THB RURAL NEW-YORKER 
315 
The Cow to the Acre Problem. 
Is it possible as well as practical in New 
York State or in the New England States, 
of a 10-acroplot of ground, feeding, by means 
of silage, 10 large cows the year round, 
that is, grain being bought? Also will a 
cow fed the year around on silage composed 
of drilled corn, cow peas and rye, and per¬ 
haps some other legume, fed with a. 10- 
pomul ration of grain a day, remain in good 
health, without being fed hay or anv 
other roughage? a. w. b. 
Baltic, Conn. 
The question of keeping a cow to the 
acre is one that bobs up every little 
while through discussions in the agri¬ 
cultural press, but tiie practical working 
out of the problem has seldom been 
demonstrated, except under very unusual 
conditions. In the first place we need 
to understand what is meant by feeding 
a cow to the acre. Some argue that 
feeding a cow to the acre, outside of 
pasturage and grain, covers the case. 
Others say that it means furnishing all 
fodders outside of the grain ration, 
while with some it may mean producing 
all the feed needed for the cow for the 
year, and being able to carry a cow to 
eacli acre. As I understand the case, 
feeding a cow to the acre, as generally 
accepted, means supplying all of the 
coarse fodder and pasturage, or soiling 
crop, but not the grain ration from the 
farm, and being able to feed a given 
number of cows from the same number 
of acres. If we analyze the case a lit¬ 
tle this is about what we find. In New 
York and New England, under average 
conditions, it requires three acres of 
pasture to support a cow, not counting 
the enclosed woodland. Even under the 
best conditions of pasture a cow to the 
acre is the best one can expect to do. 
I know of a few pasture lots that will 
feed a cow to the acre in favorable sea¬ 
sons, but such pastures are rare. This 
shows that the cow to the acre theory 
must rest in theory, and not in prac¬ 
tice, if pasture feed is to be relied on in 
Summer. 
The usual plan proposed in the cow to 
the acre scheme is to feed grain crops 
in Summer, by the soiling method. With 
a light grain ration it is possible to feed 
two cows to the acre on soiling^ crops 
from the first of May to the first of 
November or later. With a small grain 
ration, less than most milkmen feed, 1 
have done this with a small herd from 
May 25 to November 10. and kept up a 
more even and larger milk flow than is 
possible with pasture feed. In New 
Jersey or southern New York, by start¬ 
ing with rye and vetch, it is possible to 
feed on this basis from early May to 
early November, or for a full six 
months’ period. On this basis of Sum¬ 
mer feeding it becomes necessary to plan 
for six months on the basis of two cows 
to the acre. Now for the possible out¬ 
look in coarse fodder for Winter. 
Where good crops of ensilage corn are 
produced, we can get a yield of 20 to 25 
tons of well developed silage corn pet 
acre. With a rotation of corn for si¬ 
lage, oat and pea hay and two years oi 
clover and mixed grasses, we may ex¬ 
pect the following crops on four fields 
of four acres each, by heavy crop feed¬ 
ing with manure and fertilizers; four 
acres silage (at 22 tons per acre), 88 
tons; four acres oat and pea hay (3E* 
tons per acre), 14 tons; eight acres 
clover and mixed grasses (two crops), 
four tons per acre, 32 tons. This should 
provide feed for 32 head for six months, 
and 16 acres devoted to soiling crops 
and late cabbage will do as much for 
the six Summer months. 
In feeding we can calculate on the 
following basis: Herd of 32 cows, silage 
for six months, 30 pounds daily, 86 
tons; clover or oats and pea hay, 15 
pounds daily, six months, 44 tons. On 
the basis of the above yields, it will be 
noticed that there is very little margin 
of total crop over the herd requirements 
if the “cow to the acre’’ idea is to be 
carried out. The chances are that with 
variable seasons it will be difficult to 
keep the yields of corn and hay up to 
this estimate, although I know of sev¬ 
eral farms that feed a cow to the acre 
in Winter. In some studies made of 
the cropping system of New England 
dairy farms, by the Office of Farm Man¬ 
agement, it was found that on 11 farms 
the amount of tillable land (not includ¬ 
ing pasture) used in raising feeds, 
varied from .83 acres to 1.77 acres for 
each cow kept. These farms were evi¬ 
dently selected as among the best. 
I question whether silage alone with 
grain, fed right through the Summer 
will he equal to soiling or soiling crops 
and silage. My own preference has 
been to use soiling crops, produced 
mainly from the legume group, and then 
to supplement this with corn silage and 
to use a small exercise lot where the 
cows can be out of doors several hours 
each day. Where pasture lands are 
cheap and good pasture feed grows na¬ 
turally, I doubt if we can afford to re¬ 
place the pasture entirely, but I do feel, 
very strongly, that we should be pre¬ 
pared to supplement pasture feed from 
the middle of July through the balance 
of the Summer season. AH through the 
East our rainfall is so irregular that wc 
cannot safely rely on pasture feed alone, 
for the entire Summer, if we are striv¬ 
ing for the greatest profit from our 
herds. cuas. s. phelps. 
Soy BkaSS tx Silagk Cohn. On page 
136 IV. W. R. asks about Soy beftns. 1 
planted Medium Long Green Soy brans 
with my corn last year, they grew about 
three fret high and were full of pods. One 
stalk bad 240 pods on It, all full of brans. 
We put them in thr silo with the corn and 
this Winter the cows arc giving about 10% 
more milk with 12Mt% less grain, which 
inukes us well sati.siled with results so far. 
We planted one-third beans to two-thirds 
eorn but increased the amount of seed to 
the acre one-third. Don't put much seed 
In the drill at a time, as the beans are 
smooth and round and work to the bottom. 
CaBsadaga, N. Y. b. b. f. 
Corn and Kaffir Silage. —Out In Kan¬ 
sas they are testing corn silage with that 
made from cane or Kaffir corn. The cows 
in an experiment last year gained in live 
weight when they were changed from corn 
to cane sorghum, and they lost weight 
when put. back on corn silage. The pres¬ 
ent experiment Is intended to confirm those 
results. Of course all the feed is weighed 
carefully in every experiment. ThS milk, 
also, is weighed and analyzed for hutter 
fat and other properties. 
TIME TESTED 
I f a member of your family were 
dangerously ill you wouldn’t think 
of calling in an inexperienced 
doctor? 
Certainly not! You would call 
a physician, who] 
had built up a 
reputation, a man 
with experience 
and a successful 
practice. 
Why not use 
the same care and 
common sense in 1 
your selection of a 
cream separator? 
Every little 
while you hear of 
some new cream separator, claim¬ 
ing to be a “world beater" arid 
just as good as the De Laval but 
a little cheaper. 
These “mushroom” machines 
stay in the limelight only until they 
arc “found wanting” by the users 
and in a short time drop out of 
sight. 
It takes years of experience to 
build a “good” cream separator. 
More than 30 years of experiments 
and experience have made the 
De I.aval pre-eminently the best 
machine on the market for the 
separation of cream from milk. 
Even were other concerns not 
prevented by the De Laval patents 
from making a machine exactly 
like the De Laval they could not 
build as good a machine as the 
De Laval, because they all lack 
the De Laval manufacturing ex¬ 
perience and organization. 
1 f you buy a De Laval you run no 
risk of dissatisfaction or loss. It’s 
time tested and time proven. Why 
experiment? Why takes chances 
with an inferior machine when you 
KNOW that the De Laval is the 
BEST MACHINE FOR YOU TO 
BUY? 
The ncw*7--page De Laval Dairy Hand 
Book, in which important dairy ques¬ 
tions arc ably discussed by the best 
authorities, is a book that every cow 
owner should have. Mailed free upon 
request if you mention this paper. New 
1913 De Laval catalog also mailed upon 
request. Write to nearest office. 
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165 UWOADWAY, 28 E. MADISON ST.. 
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I -- J 
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\ Dept- A-12 5® Pine Street 
\. NEW YORK CITY 
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^ 1 All Steel, Triplejj 
■ Power Stump Puller ^ 
■ Biggest stump pulled in live minutes or 
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MORE POTATOES PER ACRE 
Think of finding one to’cleven $■$ bills 
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I oral Labor Saving 
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Louden Machinery Co. 
601 West Broadway 
£-. .fAIRflELD,". A IOWA 
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