124 CROP GROWING AND CROP FEEDING 



lowing the peas and with rye plowed under, will need only acid phosphate 

 and potash, with perhaps a small percentage of nitrate of soda, to give it 

 an early start. Then, if the peas and corn and corn stover are utilized in the 

 feeding of stock, there should, in a few years, be manure enough raised to 

 cover the entire corn tend. 



In this connection, though not directly in regard to wheat growing, yet 

 in this same line of soil development through the feeding of the abundant 

 forage that every Southern farm will produce, I would call attention to the 

 results obtained at the Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station, connected 

 with the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. The Tennessee Station has 

 made a series of experiments in the feeding of cattle, primarily to determine 

 whether the native stock of the country could be fed at a profit for beef, and 

 in the second place to determine whether a home grown ration could not be 

 made to profitably replace feed that they would have to buy. They used, 

 in the experiment, two groups of four steers each. The experiment began 

 on the first day of January, 1900, and continued uninterruptedly for 98 days. 

 The first group were fed all the shredded corn stover they would eat and also 

 6 pounds of cow pea hay and 3 pounds of corn meal. The second group were 

 also fed corn stover ad libitum, and for part of the time had 6 to 16 pounds 

 of cotton seed bran and 4 to 7 pounds of cotton seed meal, and then were 

 changed to 6 pounds of the cotton seed bran, 3 pounds of cotton seed meal 

 and 4 pounds of corn meal. The cotton seed bran is the finely ground cotton 

 seed hulls, which is being largely advertised in the South for cattle roughage. 

 But the experiment showed that it has little food value, is heavy and indi- 

 gestible, and does not answer for roughage as well as the crude hulls them- 

 selves ; and these, in our opinion, are little better than pine shavings. These 

 rations were gradually increased, until, at the close, the first group received 

 10 pounds of cow pea hay and 11 pounds of corn meal, and the second group 

 had 7 pounds corn meal and 5 pounds of cotton seed meal. Without enter- 

 ing here into the details of the experiment we give the conclusions arrived at : 



1. Tennessee is admirably adapted to the production of stockers, which 

 can be successfully fed on the products of the rich valley farms. 2. Stock 

 husbandry has valuable effect on soil fertility, as 90 per cent., and over, of the 

 fertilizing ingredients in the foods consumed, are available for the restoration 

 of soil fertility . 3. Cotton seed bran is too expensive for roughage and has an 

 unfavorable effect on digestion, producing impaction of the rumen. Tennessee 

 farmers cannot afford to use it in this form, and all the roughage needed in 

 cattle feeding can be produced more cheaply on the farm than anywhere else. 

 4. Cow pea vine hay made an admirable substitute for cotton seed meal. As 

 it is not so rich in protein, however, it should be fed at the rate of two to 



