Jasper County Democrat, Volume 12, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 April 1909 — HINTS FOR FARMERS [ARTICLE]

HINTS FOR FARMERS

Riga on Pasture. The spring litters should be provided with a good clover pasture and In addition be given a moderate grain ration, enough to maintain a steady, rapid growth, writes an Ohio farmer in the National Stockman. Clover alone is Just about a maintenance ration, and little if any growth can be secured on a grass ration alone. The grass ration is all right as far as it goes, but the pig-cannot consume and digest enough/ to make any considerable growth owing to his smyll stomach, which In the pig is the smallest of any domestic animal of like weight A given amount of grain will make double the pork with clover that it will in winter or dry lot feeding, and as the price of grain has been high for some time and 1# likely to continue so the successful grower of hogs in the future is the one who summer feeds on a clover pasture. Dairy Feeding Experiment. The Wisconsin experiment station Is trying out the plan of feeding dairy cows as many pounds of grain daily per cow* as she produces pounds of butter fat during the week, or seven times as much grain as the amount of fat produced daily. The cows receive as much hay and silage as they w-ill eat up clean, usually requiring twentyfive to forty-three pounds of silage and three or four pounds of hay daily. The results of the experiment will prove interesting. It is generally conceded that It is impossible to determine upon any hard and fast rule in feeding cows, or, for that matter, any other animal. -The successful feeder Is he who can vary’ his feed according to the animals’ requirement and ability to return a profit on the feed consumed. Fertilizer For Potatoes. The old tradition that potatoes are peculiarly hungry for potash cannot be stamped out. But It Isn’t true. This Is a fact many times demonstrated. Much potato land Is deficient most of all In phosphoric acid. That is the first need. In the fertilizer phosphoric acid should run high. Some land, well manured or clovered, needs only phosphorus. Where a complete fertilizer pays, try one high in this one element Do not use too much nitrogen. It makes big vines, but does not put the big tubers in the hill. If manure has been used, try 400 or 500 pounds of acid phosphate or steamed bone per aero and eighty pounds sulphate of potash. At any rate, try some carrier of phosphoric acid. Use It freely.—National Stockman.