Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 October 1874 — Danger of Feeding Green Fodder. [ARTICLE]

Danger of Feeding Green Fodder.

J. J. Mechi, of London, England, states that a person who was accustomed to supply his teams with green feed lost two cart horses worth £l5O. One was found dead and distended in the morning, the other died in the course of the day, and another person lost two cows. Young green tares, especially when cut immediately after rain, are most dangerous, with the ordinary mode of placing them before animals in unlimited quantity as cut by the scythe. The losses caused by this system iu their annual total most be enormous. .. For thirty years we have avoided such losses by invariably passing all green food, tares, grass, Italian rye grass, clover and green beans through the chaff-cutter. According to the condition of its growth we mix more or less of fine-cut straw or hay chaff with it. This absorbs its superfluous moisture and prevents flatulence, distension and death. The same principle is applied to pulped roots—pulped cabbage, kohlrabi, mangel —the latter being most dangerous early in the season unless so admixed. The cost of doing all this is a trifle as compared with the serious losses occasioned by its omission. The value of a single animal would pay the extra cost for several years. In fact, I have long since arrived at the conclusion that the turning out, roaming at large and whole food system will be given up by those who prefer profit to loss. Overripe foods, either tares or clover, which are rough and indigestible, require comminution. Of course, in such a case, being deficient rather than overfull 6f moisture, tfiey do not require straw chaff , or, at all events, very little of it. If horses are to have water, it should be before eating green tares in a wet state, not after. Bean meal should be intermixed with or attached to the out food in the manger, so that the animals cannot take it unmixed. Our horses coming in from work are not allowed to drink cold water until after having eaten a little manger food. — N. T. Herald.