Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 11, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 November 1891 — THE HOG SUPPLY. [ARTICLE]

THE HOG SUPPLY.

The government report of Sept. 1 estimates that in the twelve States having a surplus of hogs above what is needed for home consumption the average number is 90.6 per cent, as compared with 100 per cent, a year ago and the average of the entire country is 93.6. FIELD AND STOCK NOTES. Colonel J. B. Power, of Helendale Stock Farm, TST. D,, estimates that-it costshim 125 to raise a 3-year-old colt, which at that age is worth from SIOO to $ 125. Colonel Power is noted for the thorough system with which all of his farm operations are conducted. Is it not a great deal easier to destroy the weeds in stubble fields and vacated garden beds before they ripen seeds, than to fight them in the growing crops? There is a world of meaning and useful suggestion in this question. When we see the merits of somebody’s “bitters” blazoned all over a barn, we conclude that the barn belongs to a farm that will not bring its value in the market. So writes the editor of a leading agricultural journal. Why? Because, in our view, that sign does not indicate neatness, enterprise and thrift—and we know that there are thousands who feel the same way.—New York Voice. Why should rye sown among corn at the last cultivation be called a “robber” crop? asks a writer tn the New York Tribune. Its growth in the shade of corn of average growth will be too weak until the com is cut and cool, damp weather becomes the rule, for it to be able to injure the corn; and, as to the soil, it gathers and saves for it, instead of robbing it. In the mild, moist fall weather nitrification goes on most rapidly; and, unless there are growing plants stretching their roots all through; there is danger of great and final loss of much of the soils contents of nitrogen. The rye saves this, besides affording so much and so convenient an addition of choice pasturage and leaving 1 the ground much better qualified for nourishing and favoring by its texture the next year’s crop, especially if the ground is clayey and stiff. <t An “Indiana Farmer” correspondent of the New York Tribune thinks the millers make too much* money on each bushel of wheat they bpy of the farmers, and he puts the matter in the following rather vivid light: “Twenty years ago the farmer went to the mill, got his grain ground, and from good wheat received 40 to 42 lbs. of flour for each bushel, with a good proportion of bran and shorts. If he should exchange now he would get 25 to 35 lbs. of second grade flour, and IQ tbs

of bran dust. Now, if thg wheat fe not so good as formerly, as somd millers Claim, and it takes 62 or 63 lbs. for a bushel, why is it that they* do not give more of the bran,as they give less of the flour?” daisy questions. " . At the butter school held at Aurelius, N. Y., in 1890, the following questions were asked and answered by that veteran dairyman, the late Colonel F. D. Curtis: 1 ‘What causes the inequality in the* price of butter and cheese, when it takes nearly three tims as much milk to produce a pound of butter as a pound of cheese?" The supply and demand. It should not taka more than two and a half times as much milk to make a pound of butter as one of cheese. The value of the skim-milk must also be taken into the account, and the greatly diminished loss of nitrogen from the farm. In a ton of butter, 26 cents will cover the loss of fertility; while in a ton of cheese the amount of nitrogen, phosphoric acid, and potash is equal to about s2l. With so many poor; cows, it may take three times as' much milk for butter as for cheese,but this should not be. It is this! large amount of milk required to produce dairy products that loadsi down the business. We must baser the dairying of the future on more economic conditions. Another thing, which affects the butter market": In proportion, there is more poor butter than cheese, and this poor butter drags the market down. It is the poor butter that makes the market price. Buyers say: “We can get butter at such a price,” way down,, and the good butter is pulled down,' not the poor butter pulled down. “Why does rough treatment cause a cow to give less milk?” Because it produces nervous excitement, and the processes of nature crave their action and another set of animai forees are engaged, just as fright will cause us to stop breathing, or, we may lose the power of speech or other physical action, “Will excessive wet Weather cause a cow to give less milk?” Yes; as the grass growing rapidly will have an excess of water and be lacking in nutrition as to its bulk, and the cow fills up her stomach without a full food supply, just as green sowed and washy fodfcr corn has less than ten pounds of nutriment to the hundred, Last summer less butter waS made from grass alone than the year before. Under such circumstances some grain should be fed. It will always pay to feed grain when thd grass is over succulent. “Why do cows need more shelter than they did years ago?” Because of improved and refined blood, or because they are better bred, and being housed part of the time they feel the changes more. Besides our climatic changes are greater as we have less natural protection. In old times, as it is with the Indians, the weaklings -died young and only the stalwart survived. -r-t

* ‘ls there any difference in the richness of a cow’s milk as she grows older?” Up to the time of perfection probably not. After that it would not be as much nor as rich. The period of perfectionor maturity win vary with cows. When the turning point comes and a cow begins to fail, it is not profitable to keep her for the dairy. She may, however, be kept for a breeder. A cow will not fail with age simply, but her ability to eat ana masticate will be lessened. and also her ability to con vert food into the solids of milk. Old cows, as well as old people, should have very nutritious foods if they are expected to keep up their physical force. “What is the best summer food for cows?” Good grass, and, as a rule, penty of this, Is enough. In hot weather and in autumn it should be supplemented with bran and linseed meal, corn, oats or cottonseed meal. ‘’’Will stable cows make harder butter than cows at grass?” It depends upon the food they get. Dry and carbonaceous foods will make the hardest butter. “What causes a cow to lose her cud?” Sickness. The naturalprocesses are arrested for a time. When the normal conditions return 'dr the cow is relieved of her sickness she will resume eating and raise her cud, which she does at will, the rumen containing food. “In a herd of cows will they all produce the same results on the same food?” No; every cow has her indi« viduality. At the close of the school the visitors passed a series of resolutions of thunks, read by J. H. Baker, who aided his brother in making the school a success. One of the students, Miss Addie J. Ingram, rose and gave expression to the grateful appreciation of the school in a few well chosen and appropriate words.