Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 January 1892 — LIVE STOCK. [ARTICLE]

LIVE STOCK.

Corn Meal for Feeding:. A correspondent asks for the comparative value of corn and cob meal feeding, that is the corn ground in the ear. We have before published the experiments made with feeding meal of this kind in New York and Connecticut, and have published the experiments made in feeding it was found that corn and cob meal proved at the Kansas Experiment Station. In these instances of feeding,it is equal to pure corn meal. The reason generally understood for this is that pure corn meal fed alone, lies too compact in the stomach to be well utilized by the fluids, and that loss comes in this way, while mixed with spongy cob meal, it is more nearly utilized, digested, and assimilated. There is general agreement wit®: the meal should be ground very'fjue—both that of the corn and cob- The finer the hard woody fiber is brokeh' down, the more easily and more, nearly it is digested. While experiments with feeding cob meal above have shown but a moderate per cent of nutrition in it, yet mixed by grinding with corn, it has been found as stated, and for the reasons given. Experiments have shown that the fevered and unhealthy conditions of the stomach when feeding corn meal justifies this conclusion. For this reason it is advised to mix wheat bran and cut hay with pure corn meal. This reaches about ; the same end that cob meal does when mixed with it. But it has been deemed that the 2£ to 3 j«r cent, of nutrition in the cob meal

is justification for grinding it with the corn, and especially so when hay and bran bring good prices. • Bor.es Shedding Their Coats. The time when a horse is exchanging the covering of hair he has worn a year for a new one is critical. While no apparent evil result may be seen, it necessarily follows that the animal must appropriate a considerable share of the food it eats for supplying the draft that nature makes at this time. Horses will shed their coats much more quickiy if well fed, and with somewhat laxative food, in order to prevent the horse from becoming constipated, as it is apt to do on hay or other dry feed. It used to be common for farmers to have the moulting season to continue all the spring, and finally finish their new coat after grass comes, so that they can be given some-green feed. A much better method is to feed liberally, and if only dry feed is given add a little oil meal to the ration. This makes a glossy coat, and the oil meal gives more strength to horses at work than feeding corn, which will make a glossy coat, but one that will not stand hard work. Feeding corn is indeed the reason for the common prejudice against getting the old coat off too quickly. A liberal supply of oats must be given horses . which are working while shedding their coat.

About Dehorning. Farmer HaafT says: “No man consults his pocket or the welfare of the cattle, who uses shears lor dehorning. Just as well use shears on cord-wood and expect no splinters as on a cow's horn. No man living ever did or will shear off a horn three or more years old without crushing the bones, and if sore heads do not .follow 1 crushed hones then I am not an authority on dehorning.”