LECTURES AND ESSAYS. 461i 



grape rot, which my grapes thus far have been free from. But I always 

 burn all the trimmings both from grapes and other small fruits. 



LIVE STOCK ON THE FARM. 



RICHARD DOUGHERTY, COLON. 



Read at the Centreville Institute, February 18, 188P. 



In breeding, like begets like. " Like father, like son." " No great man 

 but that had a great mother." These are old sayings, and as true of animals 

 as of humanity. 



All improvements in stock are made by mating, care and feed. Without 

 good care, food and water, deterioration must follow. Stock should have good 

 care first, last and all the time. Instead of trying to find on how little feed 

 we can keep our stock, we should try how much we can get them to eat. 



They may be considered as machines to manufacture butter, beef, wool, 

 mutton and pork, from hay, straw, corn fodder, grass, and coarse grains. 

 The sooner stock can be brought to maturity the more profit. Young ani- 

 mals get more nutriment out of a given amount of feed than older, hence 

 are more profitable to the feeder. For calves and sheep, whole grain is a 

 better ration than ground feed. Corn and cob meal is as good, or better, 

 than whole corn meal, unless it is mixed with bran, chaff or cut straw. Warm 

 yards and stables save feed, as they help retain animal heat, which otherwise 

 must be supplied by food. Good air, good food and water insure good 

 health, without which no animal can prosper. Cold weather requires more 

 feed than warmer. All animals should be kept dry, warm and clean. Some 

 succulent food, as roots or ensilage, should be given daily, in winter, to all 

 live stock. 



Every farmer should raise some crop — as oats, rye or corn — to cut green to 

 bridge over any failure of pastures from drought, or have a filled silo from 

 which to draw feed in such times. Mill-feed, slops and clover pasture are 

 better for hogs than corn in summer. 



Animals should be kept growing every day till mature, and never allowed 

 to stand still or go backward. A calf or young animal losing what may be 

 called its veal fat or flesh never recovers it in its full b3auty and excellence. 

 Should a growing animal become a starveling it can never, by the most 

 careful feeding, be brought up to its maximum, but will always show it in 

 some way. When full maturity arrives in an animal designed for food it 

 should be disposed of as soon as possible, as it is difficult to keep it up to its 

 full form and excellence, and all feed spent solely in keeping may be 

 counted loss. Weight by increase of fat alone cannot be put on profitably. 



Calves fed from the pail are more docile than those that follow their 

 dams, and are generally better rustlers and make better cows. Milk your 

 cows, take twelve hours' cream from the milk, then feed the milk to the 

 calves, enriched by Blatchford's calf meal. Stock going into winter quar- 

 ters in good condition may be considered as well on in the winter, compared 

 with those in poor condition. Therefore, as food fails in the fields, let 

 it be supplied from the barn or silo. 



Never let stock be out in cold rains or snows, as it pays to keep them, 

 comfortable at all times. If an animal be overfed, or cloyed, the best medi- 



