FARM EXPERIMENTS. 461 



feediug- o3 bushels of corn — a gain of 12 pounds lor oacli bushel of 

 corn. They were then led "vvith thick mush, made l>y bviugiug the 

 Avater to a boiling heat and then stirring in the meal ground line, with 

 the steam still on, allowing the meal to cook live to ten minutes and 

 adding salt: this was led to them warm three times a day, as much as 

 they would eat clean. zVt the end of twenty-eight days they were again 

 weighed, showing a gain of 070 jiounds made on 75 bushels of corn, 

 less toll, a gain of i>oundsfor each bushel of corn consumed. He then 

 put eleven of the pigs on raw corn again, coutiuuiug to feed the others 

 with cooked meal. J\Iay 25, after a trial of six weeks, those on raw 

 corn averaged a gaiuof 44 pounds each, and the others an average gain 

 of -37 pounds. 



FEEDING WHEAT STRAW. 



The following account is drawn from au address delivered by Mr. J. S. 

 Van Du/er, of Elmira, Xew York, before the Farmers' Club of that city, 

 in October, 1872, on the merits of wheat straw as a component in winter 

 feed for stock. Commencing the middle of December, 1871, his cows 

 being then in line condition, and drying off, he fed six (quarts of wheat 

 bran daily, with all the straw which the animals v\'ould eat, giving two 

 meals per day and continuing this treatment six vreeks. Afterward he 

 changed the bran-feed to corn-meal and bran, one measure of the former 

 to two of the latter giving four quarts of the mixture daily. This grain- 

 feed Avas gradually increased toward calving, and a small allowance of 

 hay was given in the morning after the straw and before the grain-feed. 

 Under this treatment the animals maintained a good appetite and Avere 

 kept in thriving condition. Mr. Van Duzer offers the experiment as an 

 illustration of the advantages Avhich Avould result from a judicious nse 

 of good bright Avheat straw in times of high prices of hay. Though 

 the experiment was confined to cows not in milk, he considers it as 

 pointing to the more limited availability of straw in winter feeding of 

 cows in milk and beef cattle. With these classes of stock the value of 

 the Avheat straw should be heightened by some such preparation as cut- 

 ting or ste;imiug, and more grain should be giA^en. And Avith any de- 

 scription of stock there should be proper discrimination in management — 

 feeding the straAv chiefly in early Avinter, and from time to time making' 

 some A'ariations in the composition of the feed. 



ASSIMILATION OF FLANT-FOOD. 



The results of experiments by M. Isadore Pierre show that at the 

 period of blooming, the Avheitt plant reaches a maximum in the appro- 

 })riatiou of nitrogen, iron, phosphoric acid, potassn, magnesia, and soda. 

 Lime appears to increase till Avithin fifteen days of maturity, and silica 

 increases during ripening. The plant ceases to appropriate mineral ele- 

 ments (excepting silica) during the last thirty days of its growth. 



