No. 4.] CATTLE FOODS. 25 



whether we may grow part of the more carbonaceous compo- 

 nents of our grain ration. Land yielding two tons of hay, 

 twenty tons of fodder corn, or two hundred and fifty to three 

 hundred bushels of potatoes to the acre, may be counted on 

 for a paying crop of oats or oat fodder, the aim under all 

 circumstances being to produce the largest food yield at the 

 least cost. If the land is available it is quite possible to 

 produce shelled oats at twelve to fifteen dollars per ton, and 

 sell the straw at a good price. 



The success of any system of farming in which live stock 

 forms the central feature is based upon the manure pile. The 

 character of it, its amount, and the cost of getting it to the 

 fields, decide the kind and quality of farming that may be 

 practised. Our labor rates are relatively high, but not 

 higher than those paid in the West, while it is vastly more 

 efiicient. If the grain bill is but a dollar a day, it must be 

 obvious that any economy would be welcome. On farms 

 buying one thousand dollars' worth a year of grain, a saving 

 of only ten per cent is a respectable sum. The purchase of 

 the higher forms of nitroo:enous cattle foods, and their conver- 

 sion into animal products and plant food for the sustenance 

 of new crops to be fed to more live stock, illustrate the 

 cycle of equivalence on which all economical agriculture is 

 based. 



The Lessons of Harmony. 



It was Rumford who said, "The number of people who 

 may be supported on a given area of land depends as much 

 upon the art of cookery as upon the art of agriculture." The 

 modern practice of blending feeding substances in almost 

 endless variety for the attainment of the same results sought 

 by the economical housekeeper may very properly be 

 regarded as an equivalent of cooking for cattle. The object 

 in either case is economy of raw material attained by increas- 

 ing the enjoyment and digestibility of food material. If the 

 endless preachings of economical farming do not sufiice to 

 awaken the latent powers of the husljandman, how shall we 

 hope for better things by appeals to art ? If the changing 

 foliage has a language, the singing birds a message, the 

 bursting buds and opening blooms a voice whose tones and 

 meaning admit of no misunderstanding, it must strike some 



