28 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



Mr. Martin read the following paper on 



The Feeding of Farm Stock. 



However much time and talent may be devoted to this topic, definite results 

 and exact conclusions may not be expected ; yet it is one of much importance 

 to all the interests of Maine. The census returns of 1860, give the hay crop of 

 the JState at 975,890 tons : to this add the rough fodder, roots and grain usually 

 fed to stock, and we have an aggregate exceeding 1,000,000 tons of first class 

 hay, cash value $10,000,000 at least. The annual expenditure of this sum calls 

 for careful investigation and constant search for the most economical mode of 

 converting so large an amount of the produce of the farms into bone, muscle, 

 fat and fertilizers. We think it not extravagant to assume that if careful 

 experiments were instituted and results truly noted, and the community made 

 acquainted therewith, a saving to the State of least ten per cent, or $1,000,000 

 annually would be the result — a sum which the State can ill afford to lose at 

 any time, and especially now when war is in our face, and exorbitant tax- 

 ation (the inevitable result of war) is close upon us. 



A good sized one-year-old in usual flesh at commencement of winter, will 

 ■weigh about 600 pounds — a four or five-year-old ox 1,500 pounds. It is not 

 60 uncommon as it ought to be, for them to fall oif during the winter from 

 one-fourth to one-third in weight, for want of proper food and shelter. The 

 result is, the owner has lost on the year-old, 200 pounds, and on the ox 500 

 pounds of beef during the winter, which is worth in the one case $8, and in the 

 other $20. The animals have really consumed one-third of themselves to carry 

 them through the winter. Often our neat cattle are fed in the winter on beef 

 and tallow, sheej) on mutton, hogs on pork and lard, horses on horse-flesh — 

 all expensive articles of food comjjarcd with hay, grain and the various root 

 crops. 



Animals are but machines to convert the food consumed into substances of 

 more ready and greater value ; now if the food supplied fail to support the 

 wear of the machine, the animal will decline in weight ; under this system of 

 feeding the loss is three-fold, viz : depreciation in weight, the time spent in 

 feeding, and the food consumed. Again, if the supply be sufficient only to 

 maintain the animal in like condition at the end as the beginning of the time 

 of feeding, the loss is two-fold, viz : time in feeding, and food consumed ; that 

 manner of feeding only is successful, which, for every pound of food consumed 

 gives a satisfactory return, either in sustenance, increase of weight, butter, 

 cheese, wool, labor, in something frofUablc and necessary, and whoever fails 

 to come up to this standard will be likely to say, " farming does not pay." 



Regularity in time and quantity is indispensalile to successful results in 

 feeding. All animals should be fed at regular hours, and no more given at 

 one time than they will eat with a keen appetite. Extremes should be avoided 

 both in food and drink ; change from green to dry food, and from dry to green 

 should be gradual. Either of these changes should extend through a period 

 of a week or ten days at least. They should be supplied with such foi)d as 

 will make them improve during the first month they are fed from the barn. 

 The young and feeble, if allowed to decline during this period, require much 

 care and nutritive food to arrest a downward tendency till the weather mod- 

 erates in spring. Very little if any less importance attaches to drink than 

 food. If possible, animals should be supplied with clear, pure water, free 

 from ice, and tiiat under a shed or lee where they can drink at tlieir leisure ; 

 if required to go a long distance, and drink in a cold place, tliey will not go 

 till they are in a suffering condition from thirst, and will then drink more 

 than is for their health. 



Corn f;dder, coarse hay and straw should be fed during the warm days or 

 thaws in winter, and the finer and more nutritive iood given in coldest 

 weather. The strictest regard to cleanliness should be had in the barn floor 

 or feed-way and crib. No one thing the feeder would object to tasting him- 



