Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 December 1874 — Stock Feeding. [ARTICLE]

Stock Feeding.

A correspondent from Summit County* this State, writes that he has but ( twenty tons of liay 6n hand, against thirty tons last year, with about the same amount of stock to feed. He nas the usual amount of straw stacked in the yard, to which he usually allows his cattle free access through the day. He has no more stock than the farm should maintain, and he desires to v know how lie can make his twenty tons of hay last through the winter. As many farmers who will read this may find themselves placed in similar circumstances, we will be excused for answering this query at some length. The importance of economy in feeding stock is underestimated. It is so hard to get out of the old routine of doing things. We become accustomed to a certain modus operandi, and we adhere to it, although convinced that there is a better way, until circumstances compel us to do otherwise. A few facts ought to convince us that this subject is important enough to dejnaud serious attention. A great part of the severe labors of the farmer through six months of the year are devoted garnering food to' maintain his stock through the remaining six months, and then nearly all hia labors during these' latter six months are devoted to taking care of them. It requires more food to keep the domestic animals of the United States than it does to maintain its whole population of human bipeds.- The value of the total hay crop of this country is, annually, about $400,000,000. This is all fed to the stock of the country, most of it through the few months of winte Now if, by a more economical method of feeding, one-fourth of this vast amount of hay could be saved, it would amount to $100,000,000, which, distributed among the farmers of the United States, would be no insignificant increment to their annual income. The profits of the farmer should arise from the stock he keeps, and these profits will be greater or less in proportion to his economy in feeding. When a farmer has plenty of feed he does not feel the necessity of economy, and a most wasteful method is the consequence. We know many good stock farms that produce abundantly, but are, notwithstanding, much less profitable to their owners than other farms far less productive, just from this cause alone. The usual method of most farmers is to feed nothing but dry hay or' fodder to. cattle; sheep tlie same, with, perhaps, the addition of a little grain. Horses are the only stock that get grain regularly. Now'dry feed is unnatural—one of the necessities, in this climate, of domestication. In the* natural state animals seek and obtain green, succulent food, and reason would therefore teach us that the nearer we can approach this the better every way. One of the essential differences in dry and green food lies in the difficulty of masticating the former. For much of the energies of the animal must be devoted to it, the process is more or less imperfect, and loss of substance must follow. This can be overcome by pulverizing the food by artificial means, cutting, grinding or pulping. The demand for machinery to do this work has created a supply, and cheap machines can now be obtained that will do the work well, either by hand or horse power. Out of the many experiments made to determine the relative value of different kinds of food, fed in various ways, we gather the following facts, an application of which will help our correspondent out of his dilemma: A bushel of cut straw, fed with two quarts of middlings, or steamed bran, is fully equal to the same weight of good timothy hay. One quart of corn meal, mixed with cut straw, is equivalent to the same. Certain elements of food produce flesh, other elements heat, fat, etc., and a certain portion of all dry food is woody fiber, of no value at all. Analysis of wheat straw shows that it contains 35 per cent, of heatproducing elements, and is notably deficient in flesh-forming principles alone. If this is supplied by bran or middlings, as before described,, the straw is converted, at small expense, into that much hay. In this market middlings are worth about the same as hay. "if our correspondent will sell five tons of his hay and buy five tons of middlings, and feed it with cut straw, he will bring his stock through the winder in better condition than he could with the hay alone, and at less expense, counting in the cost of a machine for cutting. His straw is turned into hay, instead of being tram, pled down into the manure pile, the food is more easily masticated and digested, and the manure made thus is of more value, if properly taken care of. Corn fodder can be treated same as strawwith better results, as it contains more flesli-forming substance, and hence requires less middlings to mix with it. Its value is greatly increased by pulping or crushing. The difference in the consumption of food when stock are housed in warm and comfortable quarters and when they are constantly exposed to the cold is immense. The average cow, for instance, requires about two and a half pounds of flesh-forming elements per day, and if warmly sheltered not more than fifteen pounds of the elements of respiration, or heat-producing elements, such as are supplied by the straw, corn fodder, efc7 But when exposed to cold she will require twenty or twenty-five pounds, or one-third more. Young, growing animals require more alouminoids or flesh-form-ing food than those that are matured, as both waste and growth must be supplied. Other circumstances materially affect the question of stock food, but a discussion of these must be deferred till another time.— Ohio Farmer A New Bedford clergyman amazed his congregation the other Sunday by suddenly leaving his pulpit, trotting down the aisle, and striding off toward home. The choir sang, and then there was an awkward, fidgety waiting. Soon the pastor shot into the church again, sopping perspiration from his forehead •with his handkerchief, and read his sermon without explanation. He had for gotten his manuscript—that was all. t——The Carlists are accused of having tried to introduce coal oil into Inin by means of snells. They excuse their inhumanity by declaring that the article Used was the non-esplosive kind.