THE RURAL WORLD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 565, 7 May 1913, Page 3

THE RURAL WORLD.

A GALLING THAT IS NOT OVERCROWDED. Dairy farming may well be called a profession. It takes into consideration a knowledge of so many different hneß of work that a proper fitting for successfully carrying on dairying implies a mastery of more branches than are required in the preparation for almost any other line of work.

Dairy farming has the further advantage of being the one profession that is not overcrowded. There are million i of mouth 3 in this country that muat be provided with food. It is the dairy farmers in a very large measure whoust furniih this supply. Commercial stagnation, political uproars, financial depression, in fact any one of a hundred things may occupy the publicjmind and fill the press with scare "heads, but underlying all of these ib the undeniable fact that men and women and children must have food. The greatest disaster that could possibly overtake any country would be the scarcity of food. There is nothing that affects a man's disposition much more intimately than the condition of his stomanh. Naturally then there is no line of work that offers a greater possibility of success than supplying this food. The attractiveness of all professions from that of the physician to that of the chauffeur has been extensively ad vertised. These professions have been used as bait to lure the young men and the young girls from the country to the city. This is simply taking them from conditions of independence to conditions of dependei.ee. They are going from a field whose possibilities are measured only by the originality and capacity of the workers to fields where the struggle for a mere foothold will be heartlesß and discouraging. One who has been in the railroad stations of the larger cities and has seen the suburban trains unload their ■ cargo of human freight about eight o'clock every morning, one who has seon these people rush from the car platform, crowd through the station doorways and hurry out to their various counters and desks where perchance they are earning from £2 5s to £3 per week as a compensation for struggling with what is oftentimes an unpleasant environment, cannot fail to be impressed with the heartlessness of the city. These thousands of young men and women, and in many cases there are men whose hair is turning grey, are selling their vitality and enthusiasm for a mere pittance with which to provide clothing, food and fuel, At the end of the year they are no better off financially than they were at the beginning and they have drawn upon their reserve of energy and vigour. It is true that many of theße men and women might not be a success in any position of life, but it is also true that hundreds of them, had they remained on the farm, would have found much more profitable employ ment. They would have been in better condition morally, physically and financially.

Statistics show that a large per cent, of the men who study law or medicine or any of the other professions never follow the lineß of work for which they have fitted themselves. It is no uncommon thing to find a prospective corporation attorney acting as a shipping clerk in a grocery house. Many a young man who came to the city with the fond dream of fitting himself to be a surgeon of national reputation iB now doing up dry goods in some obscure store. All of these professions are bo crowded that it is almost impossible to find standing room, yet dairy farming offers a great field where success i i measured by your own effort The farms of this country are gradudally being broken up, jo that the tract that supported one family twenty years ago may be supporting six or eight to-day. This process is going to continue so long as the land values keep on rising. Intensive farming is the only method that will make it possible to declare dividends on these figures or to provide food for the constantly increasing population.

The high cost of living is a subject that has been in the. puolic eye much durinc the last few days. The cause, at least one of the causes, is the discrepancy which between production and consumption. The non-producers have been growing more rapidly in numbers than the producers. This will continue just as long aa people ignore the possibilities of the farm. There is just as much room for a successful business career on the farm as there is in the city, and the young men and women who realise this are going to be the first to gather rich harvest.

It is not to be understood that all the failures in life are found off the farm. There are thousands of people who have gone bankrupt in business and still have an idea that they may be a great success on the farm. There are thousands of small business men who think that they can carry on farming at long distance and make handsome dividends. There are many others who have made a little money and are just ready to gratify a long cherished desire to own a farm. Thousands of these will struggle along for a few years, always, hoping that the next season will be better but the outcome in a large number of cases is foreseen at the very start. To the really successful young men and young women who stay on the farm these failures should not be discouraging. On the other hand they are just an added possibility in your favour. Independence on the farm is more to be desired than dependence and hardship in professional life. Kimball's Dairy Farmer. SILOS AND ENSILAGE. THEIR COMMERCIAL ASPECT. Silage is fast changing the methods of feeding all daises of live stock. One of the chief advantages of silage feeding is the cheapening of the

j ration of the dairy cow. The succui Jent silage is much more desirable than the dry, wooddy, butts of the fodder, or even hay with iB large amount of crude fibre. Three dairy farmers, whose testimony is here quoted as representative of a number of others, say:—"l am satisfied that the increase of production of milk and cream has paid for my silo this year. My cows have milked the past winter just as if they were on grass." "Silage saves one-half in the feed bills and over one-half in the amount of hay eaten." "I find silage excellent for dairy cowb. Our cows milk as well in winter as they do in summer; in fact, they usually gain when we commence to feed." Besides the cost of the ration being reduced, there is al*o a reduction in the cost of producing a given amount of butter fat. Thiß is the invariable experience in America, and is illustrated by two herds whose records were obtained from one of the cooperative cow-test associations. Theße two herds were chosen for comparison, because the average butter fat production was more nearly equal than of any other herds in the association, and because one herd was fed silage and the other was not. The cost of hay and grain, and the cost to produce lib of butter fat were all lower in the case of the Bilage-fed than in the case of those not fed silage There was 2Jd difference in the cost of producing lib ouf butter fat between the silagefed herd and the herd not fed silage, and this is an important item, especially when the herd contains ten to fifteen cows or more. In another test, j where 248 cows, representing 18 herdß, were fed silage, while 125 cows, representing seven herds, were not fed silage, regardless of breed, age, or period of lactation, the Bilage-fed cows produced on an average 5.9 per cent, more milk and 7.8 per cent, more fat. At one of the Agricultural High School demonstration farms, 24,8581b of green fodder maize was converted into silage and fed with a uniform daily allowance of hay and grain, and produced 11 per cent, more milk than when the same amount of green fodder maize was dried and fed with the same daily ration of hay and grain; also 24,4401b of silage were obtained from 29,8001b of green fodder, while 73301b of field-cured fodder maize were obtained from 2°,8001b of green fodder, and was fed with 15671b of hay and 27431b of grain. The silage ration yielded 5 per cent, more milk and 6 per cent, more butter fat.

Silage left over from the winter may be used to advantage in summer during the uaual shortage of pasture. Silage in summer is also a great help, as it is awlays ready to feed, no matter how busy the season or the work. It is also relished by the cowb, no matter how much other feed is on hand. Silage also has an advantage in that less space is riecessary to furnish a given amount of feed, and there is not the work connected with its use that there is with the ordinary crops. Silage spoils more in summer than in winter, but where the silo is limited in diameter so that about two inches of the surface mass may be removed daily, there will be but a very slight amount of waste.

Only 50 cubic feet are required for ton of silage, while for hay it requires about ten timeß as much Bpace, At the same time it costs less to put up silage than it does hay. The advantages of silage feeding might be summed up in that Bilage feeding keeps young stock thrifty and growing all winter. It enables the cow to produce milk and butter fat more economically. It increases the proportion of milk and butter fat. Silage is more easily handled than dry fodder. The Bilage makes use of the maize stalkß, which would otherwise not be eaten, and preserves them in a palatable form. More stock can be kept on a given number of acres. It is the most economial method of supplying feed for the stock during the hot, dry periodß of summer when the pastures are short. The field is in good condition for autumn cultivation after the maize has been removed. Silage does not deteriorate in palatability as does maize late in spring. Less loss results in unfavourable seasons where the crop does not mature completely, as the maize may be used for silage to good advantage even if it is not thorounghly matured. _^