Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 40, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 December 1907 — FARM AND GARDEN [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FARM AND GARDEN

Don’t feed the sheep on the ground —have good troughs. The fact that feeding Influences flavor and quality of meat applies especially to sheep. No difference how plentiful the sup—should hsvq all Of the pure, fresh water they will arinit dally. There Is little danger of washing out the flavor of butter ; you can wash out the buttermilk taste, but not the tru^ 1 butter flavor. A poor Individual with a pedigree Is better than a grade of equal quality for breeding purposes. But under present prices there Is little excuse for either. ' ; Keep salt before the stock all the time, and do not make a Sunday job of it when you should be taking the family to church. The stock need the salt more regular, and you need to pay the duty to your family. A fowl’s diet should include a variety of all the grains, corn, oats, wheat and barley especially; also green food, animal food In the form of meat or milk, and charcoal and grit. Their food must be clean, sweet and sound. Many farmers do not know the value of Kaffir corn as a feed for poultry. It has the same nutritive value as Indian corn, but It not so fattening and therefore, is a better egg-producing grain. The fowls like It It does not pay In any sense to perpetuate the qualities of poor sheep, and the culllngs should be made close enough to eradicate all poor nnimals and thus eliminate their blood forever from the flocks. (. .. (toe of the -heat and most extensive swine breeders In the corn belt uses a pall of lime water In every barrel of slop that he feeds to his hogs. He has ar metal tank that will hold eight or ten barrels of water and In this be dumps a barrel of lime. Nearly’all kinds of plants may be easily into saucers in which is kept sand that is kept very moist, so that water will stand upon the surface. They must be kept In a warm place and occasionally In full sunshine. When fully rooted, pdt In good soli In small pots. In European countries are grown fowls, hares and sheep to furnish fresh family meat. Herr von Sehelle, promot® of agriculture in Belgium, recently said. “In my country, where land Is limited, fowls and hares help to solve the fresh meat problem for company, and sheep for regular use on small farms.” The urine of sheep contains a considerable amount of nitrogen, and their manure, In addition to being very valuable, Is more beneficial to the soli than that of other live stock owing to the manner in which It Is distributed, being scattered equally over the ground In small quantities, and thus trampled Into the soil by the flock. Cane which has been sown broadcast can be handled best If It is cut with the mower and put up In small shocks. Some prefer to cut It with a harvester and bind It. If that Is done the cutting must be done ei—ly, for the stalks soon get too large for a binder to handle; and then the stuff Is difficult to dry out when It Is bound up In bundles.

The horse that Is of npeclnl Interest to the farmer Is the draft horse, because he Is the most easily raised and the most profitable animal the farmer can produce. Ho Is particularly a horse that the farmer In the corn belt should produce because he reaches his fullest development In this section; first, because of the nutritious grasses and grains produced, and second, because of the suitable conditions that prevail. .1 4nif Cal»es (>ood Care. , If allowed to run down la condition during the fall. Files and heat, in company with a short pasture, have laid the foundation for more than one runty yearling. Give the calves ample cover, a dry sheltered place to sleep when cold or stormy and ample fresh pasture or a little grnTn as shorter days come on. "When winter finally seta In see to It, whatever neglect the older stock have to take, that the calves are kept thrifty and loose skinned until well started Into pm winter, am! then keep them thriving. It costs very little to do this, nnd It costs n great deal to make presentable ye rllngs of them If neglected first winters. J 'Uf ri^rrr, Al*r 't not ho *• n high dry 1 !s 'lie 1 i *f!' for‘that; fiurpo-i il< Is Ih\• use It ms a short |lbn>'>H r.tol system It UrtVrs from

common red. clover in this respect. Both reel and. mammoth clovers have a tap root which penetrates deeply Into the ground, enabling these plants to gather moisture at a lower level than It Is possible for the roots of alslke ctover to do. It is on account of the long tap root of red clover that It cannot thrive in wet soils, whereas alslke with Its shallow-growing, fibrous root* revels In moist soils and falls to .do well on high dry areas. Those who sow alslke clover for hay like It espedally well on account of the fact that it matures a little later In the season than red clover, and consequently ripens at the same time as timothy does, thereby making a better crop to be grown with timothy than red clover. Milk Strained Through Sand. In several European cities milk hi filtered through sand. By this process all dirt Is removed, the number of bacteria Is reduced one-third, and the quantity of mucus and slimy matter Is greatly lessened, while the loss of fat In new milk Is only slight The filter consists of large cyllndrl.cal vessels, divided by horizontal pep forated diaphragms into five superposed compartments, of which the middle three are filled with fine, clean sand, sifted into three sizes, the coarsest being placed in the lowe3t arvl the finest in the topmost of the three compartments. The milk enters the lowest compartments through a pipe under gravitation pressure, and, after having traversed the layers of sand from below upward, Is carried by an overflow to a cooler fed with ice-water, whence It passes Into a cistern, from which It Is drawn direct Into locked cans for distribution.

Feeding Horiei. ; . Since the establishment of agricultural experiment stations the feeding of live stock has resulted in the compounding of balanced rations for all classes of animals, says the Drovers’ Journal. The dependence of the, prosperity of many of the great Industries is based on the use of horses, and the maintenance of these animjhls in good working condition has resulted in widely extended feeding operations. As will be discovered, different quan-_ titles of the same kind of grain and hay enter the balanced ration of the different experiment stations. The fact that one particular ration is not universally adopted as the standard feed for work horses at work, or In the pens undergoing the grand finishing preparation for market demonstrates a wide difference in the Individual temperament and assimilating ability of horses. There Is a personality in each horse that must be understood and catered to in the maintenance of high condition when at work or during the fattening process. Great corporations that employ a multitude of horses In conducting their business reduce their feeding operations to a system of so much grain and so many pounds of hay per hundredweight of the animal. But there Is no uniformity even among the large feeding stables. The Virginia Express Company feeds 4.67 pounds of corn, 5.44 pounds of oats, .8 pound of bran, 4.16 pounds of cornmeal and 15 pounds JlLiay per 1,000 pounds of weight per day. The Jersey City Express Company feeds its horses 21.25 pounds of alfalfa, 3.2 pounds of corn, 19 pounds of oats, 1.15 pounds of bran and 9.5 pounds of hay per 1,000 weight per day. The Boston Express Company feeds its horses 12 pounds of corn, 5.25 pounds of oats and 20 pounds of hay. The United States army feeds per 1,000 pounds of live weight its cavalry and nrtlllery horses 12 pounds of oats and 14 pounds of hay, and Its mules 9 pounds of oats and 14 pounds of hay. The Utah Experiment Station feeds Its farm horses 25 pounds of alfalfa and 10 pounds of bran or 22.8 pounds of timothy and 10 pounds of bran. The "Wyoming Experiment Station feeds 13.75 pounds of alfalfa and 2.25 pounds of straw per day. In Omaha, Neb., 15 pounds of oats and 12 pounds of hay Is the standard ration food a draft horse. At Chicago the large companies feed 7.5 pounds of oats and 20 pounds of hay for a draft horse ration. At the lown Experiment Station a balanced ration is compounded in tty* proportion of 1 pound of hay and 1 pound of grain per 10ft pounds of lire weight of the horses used in the experiment work.

The ration of maintenance In the above cases varies from the Wyoming combination of 13.75 pounds of alfalfa nnd 2.25 pounds of straw per day to the lowa Experiment Station ration of 15 pounds of grain and 15 pounds of hay for a 1.500-pound draft nnlmnl. If horses can be maintained In good condition at work on such a widely diffr* ration. It demonstrates n wide difference In the nntrTtlon necessary to maintain horses in different localities. The wide variation In the ration of maintenance practically compels every owner of horses to conduct his feeding operations according to the Individuality and assimilating ability of each horse In his stable. Some animals require more grain than others snd an actual test will soon determine s he proper amount of both grain and -oughage requisite for en/b nnlmnl to maintain It In good condition or to fat ten It far tba market. 9 , L