58 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



WINTER MANAGEMENT OF NEAT STOCK. 



By Columbus Hayford, Maysville. 



When God created the universe, He gave man dominion 

 over all the cattle which He had made. In His infinite wis- 

 dom He so constructed the soil of the earth that with the aid 

 of the husbandman it might bring forth food for the support 

 of man and beast. In our northern climate, where the win- 

 ters are so long and so severe, we are obliged to furnish 

 shelter and much food for the support of our stock, at least 

 six months of the year. It has been fully proved that ani- 

 mals fed upon one kind of food alone for any length of time, 

 will not do well. To have healthy and well-developed ani- 

 mals it is necessary to have a variety of food. The seed time 

 is the time to prepare the winter food for our stock. The 

 root crop should be made a specialty. At least one acre of 

 laud to every ten head of cattle should be devoted to this 

 purpose. No farmer can afford to raise young stock or keep 

 milch cows without a good supply of roots. My experience 

 is that turnip and potato crops are the most profitable. Then 

 follows the grass crop, which should be secured while it is 

 grass and not hay seed. 



I am satisfied that a ton of hay secured on the first days of 

 July, fed to dairy cows, has a higher value by several dollars 

 than an equal amount secured three weeks later. Large 

 quantities of grain are fed with hay. If the entire hay crop 

 of the State could be secured at the best possible time, its 

 value when fed would exceed the worth of hay now obtained, 

 together with the grain raised in the State and fed in connec- 

 tion with hay. Stock should not be kept to kill brier bushes 

 and thistles in summer, and convert straw and ripe hay into 

 manure in winter, but kept for profit. And this comes only 



