5OO FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



possible to more than double the amount of the fertilizing 

 ingredients made and saved in the absence of these. 



Preparing and using litter. The proper preparation 

 for use will, of course, vary with its nature, and the source 

 from which it is obtained. Prominent among the processes 

 to be followed are : ( I ) The proper housing or stacking 

 of straw; (2) the chaffing of straw and the shredding of 

 the stalks of corn and sorghum, and (3) the storing of 

 .earth, the gathering of moss and the drying and storing of 

 peat. 



Wet litter is worse than none, as it is prejudicial to the 

 well-doing of all kinds of domestic animals. Straw may 

 most easily be kept dry by housing it, but frequently this 

 may not be practicable. When it is not, it should be stacked 

 with care and conveniently to where it will be used. The 

 "blowers" used so extensively in threshing, as generally 

 used make careful stacking almost impossible, with the 

 result that a large proportion of the straw is made useless 

 for bedding through the rain which penetrates it. 



Straw of the small cereal grains is more commonly 

 used without being chaffed, but where this can be done 

 in conjunction with the threshing of the grain, the benefit 

 which results from the less quantity called for, and the 

 superior condition of the manure for immediate application, 

 more than pay for the added cost. When thus chaffed, the 

 length of the pieces are from, say 2 to 4 inches. Corn and 

 sorghum stalks are greatly improved as litter by shredding, 

 a process which tears them up into strips and makes them 

 in a sense like straw. The shredding is primarily done to 

 prepare them for food, and only the rejected portions are 

 ordinarily used for litter. In moist climates it is not easy 

 to preserve fodder shredded thus, but it is quite practicable 

 in the more dry regions of the West. Earth must be drawn 

 and stored when dry to be properly serviceable, light loams 

 and humus soils are to be preferred and clays should be 

 rejected. Moss must, of course, be gathered and stored 

 when the condition of the marshes which supply it makes 



