Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1896-02-11
FARMERS INSTITUTE.

met last Thursday. Snow nearly all
gone and the roads bad, but notwith-
standing this when the meeting was call
ed to order at 2 in the afternoon, the
audience room of the court house was
vel filled with ladies and gentlemen
from both town and country.
Rev. Mitchell gave beautiful prayer,
after which, without any ceremony, May.
or Kellow was introduced, who babe the
farmers welcome to the city of Cresco. in
neat, we'll turned, sensible talk Of about
fifteen minutes in length. He dwelt up
on the necessity of good will and good
feeling between the town and the country
because their interests were SO interwov-
en- that whatever benefited the town, the
country became an equal partner in it,
If the town enhanced the value of farms
around it, because of its superior facill-
ties as market, the growth and value of
the farm enhanced property values IN
the town and made it desirable place
in which to invest, live or do business. =
The address was decidedly appropriate
s. A. Converse responded on behalf of
the farmers. Said the Mayors address
was more to the point than any he had
ever before heard in an Institute. He
spoke of the necessity of pleasant social
and business relations between the farm
ers and the people of the town, cordially
endorsing what Mayor Kellow said; paid
high compliment to Cresco as q moral
town. that its schools and churches had
impressed that feature upon its public as
we'll as all other avenues of life, and that
this had gone out as potent influence
in the world IN it's behalf. His talk was
full of good thought.
President B. P. Norton, in his annual
address, said, among other good things,
that success was not luck, but on the
contrary it was hard work. constant aud
careful management. A neighbor had
said to him that COWS do not pay on the
farm and later he found that instead of
housing, caring for and properly feeding
he allowed them to rustic in the field
for food, of course they did not pay?-
How could they. when every condi-
ton necessary to success was con-
spicuously absent. The day had gone by
when slap and bang was all was neces-
sary on the farm. To get valne there
must be as careful attention to details as
the successful merchant; had his friend
fed sllage, hay and q little ground feed
he would have found liberal returns in
the milk pail.
~. W. DouAoUt, VI AFlpOll, ld., IdlkluR
on the "relation of the silo to the dairy
and the management Of the dairy cow
said nothing can come from farm with.
out impoverishing. it. The crops taken off
must be returned in some way, and the
best way is to feed them out to Stock
He then entered into scientific talk on
the value Of the different kinds of food
for COWS, showing their muscle, bone and
fat producing qualities. His conclusion
was that silage alone would not do for
the dairy COW, that she must have foods
that will combine to produce fats, bone,
flesh, force, energy. Foods as they are
produced, are suited to natural condi.
tions, but when you shut the COW up in
the barn and produce summer in winter,
you had to solve the problem of how to
get food in line with this new condition,
hence the silo. For feed he recommend
ed silage, bran, oats: in the absence of
sllage, corn fodder. Bran is safe food
because it distends the stomach and rem.
dered digestion easier. Thought ground
oats was best substitute for bran, and
next to oats clover hay. He was firm in
the belief that bran was best to feed with
silage and grain, even though somewhat
expensive, because it kept the ANIMALS
in better health and condition.
j. e. Doolittle took issue with Mr..
Bennett on the bran question; he paid
SIG ton for bran, fed to his COWS, a
careful estimate only gave SlS return, to
say nothing of the labor. He had, before
he got silo, mixed hay and coru with
corn fodder with very good results, but
the thing that brought the best returns
in milk and butter was ensilage and he
thought it the best feed in the world for
dairy COWS.
Mr.. Evans of Wisconsin hauled farm
ers over the Goals for selling COWS. Said
600 head had been shipped from Cresco
to his state; COWS i'll milk. He says his
people will get $50 pounds of butter be-
tween December and June-the full
value paid for the animal. Thought it
would have paid farmers better to have
kept them. He recommended that COWS
be kept in the barn the year round, car.
ed for, groomed and kept warm; that
tests show that COWS that run out do not
produce as we'll as those that are kept in
the barn. He fed silage, oats, bran and
corn. Said, however, that in selecting
cows care should be taken to get only
the best; thought if the right half of the
COWS in Iowa we're struck by lightning
it would be better for the dairy interests
of the state.
j. S. Trigg, Rockford, Iowa, said that
up to corn crop failure of 1894 the farm
ers of Iowa had been wasting 80 per
cent of that crop by husklng it and leav-
ing the stalks in the field; but that
drouth had set them to experimenting
and 10! they had discovered that fodder
was better than hay for the COW. Those
who tried the silo firmly believed in that
food for the COW because of it's palatabil.
lty, because it was food the COW eager
ly ate, just as the human being ate a
particular thing because he liked it..
About forty pounds of silage should be
fed to COW or steer each day. An acre
will give eight tons of good siIage; eight
acres makes an hundred tons. Feeding
forty pounds day it is easy to figure
how much to put up for your stock.
1t is better to leave out the tim
othy when you can get from six to eight
tons palatable food from the corn field.
EVENING SESSION.
The evening session at the opera house
was largely attended and the program
presented was rare treat.
The discussion of the question GLOW
Can Farmers Children be Educated to
the Best Advantage?" by E. B. Champ
lin, Supt. MCPHERSON and M. O, Perry.
\A/om,2:an's