FARMERS' INSTITUTES. Ill 



it may be. has much excitement not shared by him on the farm but saving 

 far less in the end. 



There is from 15^ to 25;?' of waste in the handling of shock corn accord- 

 ing to the authorities but Henry, in his book "Feeds and Feeding" which 

 every one of you should not only read but own and should keep on the 

 same shelf with your Bible and dictionary, puts it practically the same. 

 It is undeniably a fact that nothing is found more palatable to stock 

 than these original bundle parcels of Nature's own balanced ration, the 

 stalk with its own grain, and the ears cannot be taken without the fodder 

 being consumed with it and they are sweet and untainted by vermin 

 and handling. 



Again, while it is a fact that whole kernels of corn do pass undigested 

 from the animal, Henry again says that there is no more undigested 

 nutritious matter lost in this way from ear corn than from cornmeal. 

 And there is no other way of feeding in which you can grow and fatten a 

 crojj of hogs along with your feeding so well as this. It gives them a 

 chance to save and utilize the waste which is in this case whole kernels 

 of corn which, mixed with the ground fodder, etc., is of necessity a nearly 

 perfect ration. In feeding other rations the waste is not usually' available 

 for other purposes than for fertilizers. We know that valuable, undi- 

 gested nutritious matter does pass off however though unnoticed by us. 



I am sorry on your account that my subject does not bring out any 

 interesting new scientific theory or practice. Nothing exciting or out 

 of the ordinary. It has simply been my privilege to speak to you of 

 common, practical things, simply and quickly and economically done. 



DISCUSSION. 



Q. Mr. Welch, what do you figure your net profit on sheep? 



Mr. Welch: This varies, of course, with price, but I figure that it costs $1.50 a 

 head for feed and labor and that I can on the average net about $1.62 a head. By the 

 way, I want to hear from Mr. Bale of our county. He has had some experience in 

 that line. 



Mr. Bale: Last winter we fed two car loads of lambs which Mr. Welch bought for 

 us. We were not in shape to handle them in the barns when they came and they 

 shrank in weight a little on account of the storms. We began to feed them light, feed- 

 ing roots, bean pods and shredded fodder. During the last six or eight weeks of the 

 feeding, and as a test, we took out 50 lambs for quick fattening. We fed them the 

 following ration: 16 pounds cob meal, 20 pound bran, 14 pounds beans, 120 pounds 

 ensilage and -30 pounds hay. Figuring the silage at $2.50 a ton and the hay at $5.00 

 a ton. this ration cost us 69 cents a day. They gained one-third of a pound a day and 

 a little better. Assuming that this record had been carried out for 90 days' feeding, 

 this bunch of lambs made us more money than any other stock we have ever fed. 



Q. How do you prepare silage? 



Mr. Welch: Put only mature corn into the silage, especially if you are going to 

 feed for fattening. I want to say, too, that we used to feed shocked corn and handle 

 it just as Mr. Watkins does, but we believe we have improved on that plan. More- 

 over, nobody husks corn. We grind corn and cob. Before, we used to feed the corn 

 and stalks indoors. We held that to feed out of doors meant that we had to keep up 

 more animal heat and we did not think we could afford to warm the canopy of heaven. 



Q. Why feed corn and cob meal to lambs? 



Mr. Welch: It lightens the ration. I understand the cob is as good as timothy. 



Q. At what age do you turn off the lambs? 



Mr. Welch: I usually ship in May. This would make them about a year old. 



Mr. Watkins: I do not believe that there is really any friction between the shocked 

 corn feeders and the silage feeders. I will admit that there are grand results from 



