Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 January 1871 — Properly Feeding Farm Stock. [ARTICLE]

Properly Feeding Farm Stock.

A correspondent writes us, alluding to one of John Jonston’s hints on the keeping of farm stock, to which he says he owes much of the success he has since attained: “ When an animal does not gain in size or weight, you lose all the feed it consumes, or, at best, gain nothing. When cows are poorly kept, they barely pay their keeping, rendering no p'tpfit to the owner. Acting on this hint,” he adds, “ I have increased the yield of cheese pier cow from 300 pounds to 475 pounds, on an average, annually, which is 175 pounds, or more than' fifty. per cent. gain. This was done by feeding meal, rather freely, some of my neighbors think. In 1805 I fed 700 pounds of the best corn meal per cow, costing $14.23 while the average price of cheese as sold, was 15 cents—equal to a net gain of oyer sll per cow in those years. In 1804 we did very much better, as cheese sold very high. You will see by this that I think meal does not ‘hurt a cow,’ ;ind as to turning off old cows, let me say, keep the old cow farrow; feed her eight quarts of the best meal daily and milk her, and in the spring she will sell for enough to buy a young cow, and will have given milk enough to pay for the meal. And this meal feeding does ‘increase the manure heap, which is the farmer’s chief source of permanent prosperity; not the least of its advantages, though not included in the figures I have given.” Our correspondent shows that he lias not read, as so many do, without thought and without making any attempt to apply the principles inculcated to his own giractice. If he can get oil cake conveniently, he may find that he can do still more at feeding to advantage, and ultimately add as much to his income from other sources as he has already done to that derived from his sales of cheese. —Country Gentleman.