Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1899-05-25
GROWING PROTEIN.
bairymeR Urged to Raise wins
Grain They Need.

Grain They Need.
In an interesting letter to The Ma
tional Stockman F. A. Converse of
New York expresses the belief that
more than half the money put into
grain for our dairy cows can be and
should be saved by raising the grain on
the farm A farmer with silo never
needs to buy any cornmeal. as his feed
already has enough starch What is
wanted. then. is some feeds to take the
place of the bran. gluten. middlings, etc
What. then. can be raised to best take
the place of these feeds and balance up
the silage or the other coarse fodder we
may happen to have, such as mixed
hay. cornstalks and straw The an
swer to the question, it seems to me, is
TO raise oats and peas.
| have tried several ways of raising
this crop and will describe the one
most successful Our rotation of crops
is ID clover. (2) corn for the silo, 81
potatoes, "a oats and peas.
After the potatoes are dug rye should
be sown to keep the ground covered dur
ing the winter with growing crop AS
early as possible in the spring pillow this
rye under and fit the land thoroughly
for the oats and peas.
Mix the seed, one bushel of White
Canada peas to two bushels of oats, and
put on az to bushels of the mixture
per acre. drilling it in rather deeply.
Three bushels of seed per acre should
be used Only where the land is very
fertile and wei cultivated. After the
grain is sowed roll the field or go over
it with '.clod crusher, " followed with
a weeder or smoothing harrow. Never
leave piece of grain inst as the roller
leaves it: always ''roughen" it to hold
the moisture. Go through the oats and
peas once week with the weeder until
they get SO high you must stop. This
will hasten the ripening of the grain,
keep down the weeds. especially wild
mustard, besides increasing the fertility
by cultivation.
Just as the top oat begins to turn cut
the crop with a moving machine and
cure as you would hay. The advantages
of the early cutting are: The straw is
worth as much as timothy hay to feed,
the peas will not shell in moving and
raking, and the grain cut thus early
will fill out and be as plump and weigh
more pounds to the bushel than it will
if allowed to stand and mature before
harvesting The grain is cut so green
it cannot be cured cut if cut with a
binder, but with a mower it can be
treated exactly as you would treat hay
When dry, it is ready to be thrashed,
and we will get grain enough from one
acre to feed dairy COW one year. In
other words, ON good land we can raise
so bushels per acre, which will weigh
2.200 pounds, about the amount ordi
narily fed to dairy COW in 12 months,
or an average of six pounds per day.
The analysis shows that cats and peas
have nutritive ratio Of about one to
FIVE OF course this is more or less vari-
able as the two crops mix.
On some land person can SOW more
peas per acre. As rule, would say
sow as may peas with the oats as will
stand up and not lodge. Some years
have mixed them half and half with
good results. but cannot depend on it.
AS a basis of grain ration for a
dairy COW no grain is better or cheaper
than oats and peas. To this cream GIN
ten or cottcnseed or linseed meal can be
added in small quantities to suit the
needs of the animal fed AS soon as
this crop of oats and peas is taken off
seed to clover The land will be in a
mellow. loose condition and can be fitted
with a spring tooth harrow without
blowing. Sow on the clover seed eight
quarts to the acre and harrow in light
ly. l seeded this last year the first week
in August and have good results. l
heartily commend this plan of growing
protein to the dairymen to stop that
everlasting feed bill When a farmer
draws So worth of milk to the creamery
and draws back So worth of grain, be
has to do lot of business to get much
money from his dairy Let our motto
be to raise more and buy less.