272 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



lock weighing ten or twelve hundred pounds live 

 weight, should not be fed more than three to five 

 quarts, or six to ten pounds, of corn-meal daily, and 

 the balance of his food should be made up with hay, 

 or other green fodder. A larger proportion of corn 

 or corn-meal than this, will not be fully digested or 

 assimilated; for when a larger quantity of corn-meal 

 is fed, a portion of it may be detected in the drop- 

 pings of the animals. 



By an experiment made on two lots of steers, 

 each fed thirteen months wholly on hay, Boussin- 

 GAULT found the one lot averaging 955 ft)S. at first 

 at the end of thirteen months weighed 2,090 lbs. In- 

 crease, 1,135 lbs. They consumed, per head, 15,972 

 lbs. of hay; and one ton of hay produced 143 lbs. of 

 increase of animals, or 14 ibs. of hay increased the 

 • weight of the animal one pound. The second lot, 

 at the commencement of the experiment, averaged 

 896 ibs. each; at the end of thirteen months, the ag- 

 gregate increase was 994 lbs. They consumed, per 

 head, 14,553 ibs. of hay; and one ton of hay pro- 

 duced 137 ibs. of increase weight of animals. The 

 second lot of steers were not allowed salt, which the 

 first lot got. Thus the steers receiving salt increased 

 G ibs. more on a ton of hay than those which were 

 not allowed salt, and the coat and hair on the steers 

 having salt were much smoother and more shining 

 than the coat of those not having had salt. 



It will be found from these data that the steers con- 

 sumed about 37 ibs. of hay per day, and gained daily 

 about 2 1 ibs. If, however, instead of being confined 

 wholly to hay, they had been allowed a suitable por- 

 tion of hay, or corn fodder, with corn-meal — say 8 ibs. 

 corn-meal and 21 ibs. hay daily — it is probable that 

 their gain would have shown a larger per cent. 

 From the above data, as per first lot, we have to 

 conclude that 14 ibs. hay, or 7 ibs. corn-meal, will 

 produce one pound of beef. Therefore, if we assume 

 the price of corn fifty-six cents per bushel, or one 

 cent per pound, and hay ten dollars per ton, or one- 

 half cent per pound, the cost for feed in the produc- 

 tion of beef would be seven and four-tenths cents 

 per pound. Thus, 



Feed for one day, 8 Its. corn-meal, at one cent per pound, 8 cts. 

 do , do 21 lbs. hay, at one-half cent " lO^e " 



1S>^ cts. 



Cost of feed for one day, eighteen and one-half 

 cents, and this producing 2^ Bjs., would make the 

 feed, per pound of meat, cost seven and four-tenths 

 cents. Are there not, among your many readers, 

 some practical farmers who have useful data or re- 

 marks to ofler on this subject ? S. 6. 



Lebanon, Pa. 



KEFLECTIOKS ON POOS EOADS.~NO. L 



Messrs. EorroRS : — As my business calls me to 

 travel much (making and selling grain cradles and 

 barley forks,) as I travel along " soHtary and alone," 

 I see a great many roads — get a great many jostles, 

 and have time to reflect, being stirred up to the sub- 

 ject more or less every minute. We are a progres- 

 sive people, but we progress faster in almost any 

 other thing than we do in traveling or improving 

 our highways — or rough ways more properly speak- 

 ing. There are sad defects in our road laws — new 

 path master (" cow path" it should be called) every 

 year — what one does this year the next one undoes 

 — (^ mafitera and nobody tg obey. Now tbia ig all 



wrong and should be reformed. Among the many 

 wrong things are these — 1st. Too much ploughing 

 auu heaping up. 2nd. Too little care in constructing 

 water courses across the road. 3rd. Not precision 

 or mechanism enough in the general features of them, 

 etc., &c. There should be a law to appoint, say three 

 permanent residents— men of strong, practical ingenu- 

 ity and taste (not whiskey taste) in each town in the 

 State for the term of, say, 5 years — to superintend the 

 roads — they should go on and make and mind the 

 roads on a scientific, permanent plan, perhaps like 

 this. Draw a line precisely in the middle of the 

 road, regardless of old structures — then plow at a 

 proper distance, say 12 teet from the center line and 

 scrape up, raising the road one foot higher in th€ 

 center than the bottom of the ditches with a nice 

 convex from ditch to ditch 24 feet. Next for water 

 courses. — Dig away 1 foot lower than the ditches 

 from one to the other across the road — bed down 

 large fiat stones, or bed down timbers and lay a 

 plank floor across the road 20 feet long and wide, 

 enough for the sluice and walls to rest on, raise the 

 walls high enough to give the water a free passage 

 (though the whole should be dropped below the 

 ditches to prevent the action of the frost in winter,) 

 cover the sluice with thick flat stones and round up 

 with earth to a level with the road. This reform in 

 roads would take up considerable of the taxes for 

 a year or two, but after that time not more than one 

 half or one third of the tax would be required tx> 

 keep the roads in even better condition than tbey 

 now are. Well, says one. What shall be done with 

 the surplus labor ? I will tell you— draw gravel — > 

 draw gravel and put 6 to 12 inches in the centre 

 with a gentle slope to the ditches. A certain num- 

 ber of inches, or some definite distance should be 

 taxed or extracted every year from every day's as- 

 sessment on every road beat in the Slate for making 

 a grand road on the part of said beat that is used 

 the most till the whole country has grand roads. — > 

 Plank roads — turnpikes — pavements or any thing 

 discovered yet are all thrown in the shade by graveled 

 roads. AVho that has ever gone over the Eidge 

 Road from the Genesee to the Niagara will dispute 

 this doctrine of gravel roads. Most of the districts 

 have^more or less gravel within them, and those that 

 have not are in a deplorable condition and need the 

 assistance and the sympathies of those around them, 

 as much as those that are doomed to the poor house. 

 There should be a new ordinance to read thus : — 

 " Woe to those that withhold gravel ft'om those that 

 live on the clay, for their lots are hard and their 

 road full of mud holes." 



Much more might be said on the subject, bat 

 short yarns are preferable, and short routes too, espe- 

 cially if you have to travel on clay roads. 



Adams' Basin, JV. Y. Joel Houghton. 



UME AS A MANUBE. 



Messes. Editors: — After reading Mr. Palmer's 

 letter requesting information in regard to the use of 

 lime, I have concluded to give you our experience. 

 In 1843 we bought the farm where we have since re- 

 sided, for a trifle over $3,000; since that time we 

 have used, I should judge, about six thousand bush- 

 els of lime, and of late have used considerable guano 

 and phosphates, but consider that the lime has paid 

 ug the be«t. If I should say now that we could get 



