ECONOMICAL STOCK FEEDING. gg 



such as clover hay or good hay. It is a more economical method 

 to feed A'our turnips with good hay than with oat straw if the ob- 

 ject is to secure the benefit of all the nutritive material. Better A'et 

 would be a combination of 3'our turnips with clover hay or with cot- 

 ton seed meal or oat meal or wheat bran, all of which are rich in 

 albuminoid compounds. You would be surprised, if j-ou have not 

 had experience in the matter, to see how the stock will relish the 

 coarser and less palatable foods when fed in combination with these 

 concentrated foods rich in the albuminoid compounds. The ani- 

 mal's appetite is simph' a craving for what its nature demands, and 

 its nature calls for a well balanced ration. If 3'ou are feeding a 

 ration that is short of albuminoids you will find 3'our animals vora- 

 cious for something rich in albuminoids ; the}' will grasp at clover 

 ha}-, but j'ou undertake to feed clover haj- alone and after a few 

 days they begin to grow dainty. The philosopliy of it is that they 

 have got an excess of albuminoids and they want something that is 

 an oflf-set to go with it, consequently you feed them a ration of 

 straw and they will eat it with as voracious an appetite as the}- ate 

 the clover hay with at first. Nothing surprised me more, when I 

 first began to feed cows with the concentrated foods for winter but- 

 ter making, than to see the result that I could secure from these 

 cheaper kinds of fodder, such as corn fodder, hay ot a low grade, 

 and also with straw mixed with it. It seems, when you are feed- 

 ing these concentrated foods, that you can secure nearly as good 

 results from these cheaper fodders as from good hay. 



The practice has been to feed turnips with straw, and better re- 

 sults have been secured than from feeding straw alone. Now, why 

 is this ? It comes not fi'om your having corrected the defects of the 

 straw ; you have not, you have intensified the defects, but you have 

 made a more palatable food ; and the animal, through its greater 

 palatability, has been induced to eat more of it. 



QrESTiON. I have quite a lot of turnips, and considerable straw 

 and coarse fodder ; I have been feeding ray cows with them and 

 cotton seed meal, and oat and barley meal. I would like to know 

 about how to get the best results ? 



Sec. Gilbert. A ration made up of half of each of straw and 

 turnips would furnish digestible material in each hundred pounds 

 as follows : Albuminoids 2.6 lbs., carbbydrates 22.5 lbs., fat 1.5 

 lbs. The defect of this ration is readily seen, there being much 

 too large a proportion of the carbbydrates. If you feed largely on 



