The ranch. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1902-1914, 1905-10-15
Cows in Holland.


they are turned out to pasture in May,
and do not return to the stable until
November. During the cold, damp
days of early spring they wear blan-
kets in the pasture to protect them
from the weather. At milking time
they are not driven to the barn to be
MIXED. as is the custom in this coun-
trv. but instead the millxmaids go TO
the COWS, wherever they may be In
tbe pasture. and carry back the milk,
not wishing to give the COWS any I'M
necessary travel.
From the time they leave the barn
in May until they return in autumn
thew receive no feed other than grass
During the winter the grain feed con-
sists almost entirely of oil cake, feed
ing from two to four pounds each day.
The principal feed, however, is nay
each COW receiving nearly thirty
mounds daily. 1t takes the great capac-
itv of these COWS to handle SO large
q quantity of hay. The COWS are put
in the stable in the fall, and are not
let ont again until the following spring.
During this time they are given the
nest of care; scarcely an hour passes,
dav or night, that they are not visited
nv an attachment They are watered,
fed and MIXED with the greatest reg
ularity and given every comfort pos
sible.
The Dutch owe their success In no
small degree in establishing so fine
breed of dairy cattle to the careful
selection of their breeding stock Only
a few of the choicest bulls are kept
for sires and the greatest care is also
exercised in selecting females. In thls
country nothing but black and white
Holsteins are eligible to registry, and
red and white are met with only oc-
casiona1lv. while in Holland the req
and white are numerous and seen in
all parts of the country. In the prov
ince of Friesland there are three men
who are breeding nothing but req anu
white Observation-Disclosures.
Valuable information on the Silo.
The university of Illinois recently
issued from it's agriculture experiment
station a bulletin, No. 1O1, on the
crops to use for the silo, with lnforma-
ton on the cost of filling the s1lo and
the effect of silage on the flavor OF
milk. The constantly increasing inter
est in the silo makes a bulletin of this
sort timely and useful. The digestive
organs of animals which chew the cud
makes juicy bulky food an important
matter, since they cannot live so well
on exclusively dry food, as the horse
can. Good pasture is, of course, the
ideal succulent food, but in many Sec
lions this is not available for half the
year. and then some substitute for the
grass is important. Roots like man
gels and turnips will furnish this, but
corn yields an average of twice as
much dry matter per acre as the root
crops, and is far more cheaply pro-
duced, reference being had to those
sections where corn does well. In
silage the corn as we'll as the fodder
is consumed in a succulent state and
is far better and more digestible than
dry. Then, too, the silo furnishes
means for removing the crop from the
field before damage from frost, and at
time when it can be hauled from the
land without injury to the soil. One
cubic foot OF hay in the NOW con-
talns 4.3 pounds of dry matter, while
a cubic foot of silage pressed in &c.
loot silo contains 8.9 pounds of dry
matter. Hence the storing in the silo
is an economical and compact method
No crop furnishes more feed per acre
than corn, and in the silo it can be
used both winter and summer more
cheaply than by the ordinary methods
of soiling.
Varieties of corn or other fodder
that make good yield of grain are to