THE GENESEE FARMER. 



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of nutritious elements, and in about the same bulk, while the cost of wintering him in 

 this way would be considerably reduced. 



By carefully studying the price of substances used as food, and their relative value, 

 most farmers may save considerable expense in keeping their animals, not by stinting 

 them, (no farmer can afford that,) but by using that food which contains the most nutri- 

 ment for a given cost. 



FATTENING CATTLE AND SHEEP IN WINTER. 



The necessity of manuring the soil by natural or artificial means, before the maximum 

 produce can be obtained, is now all but universally admitted ; and whatever difference 

 of opinion exists as to the best means of obtaining and applying manure, all agi-ee that 

 it must be obtained and applied in some way or other, or the soil will gradually become 

 impoverished and incapable of profitable cultivation. In some localities it may be good 

 economy to increase and preserve the fertility of a soil by purchasing artificial manures, 

 depending principally on them, and selling off the farm nearly all the produce, and so 

 making no manure by stock. For this purpose, good Peruvian guano, at two and a 

 half cents per pound, is decidedly the cheapest and best artificial manure at present 

 offered for sale. But the great body of farmers can not purchase artificial manure-s ; 

 neither would it pay them if they could ; their chief reliance must be on the manure 

 made during the winter months, by cattle, sheep, and other stock, consuming produce 

 grown on the farm. A consideration, therefore, of the effects produced by feeding a 

 given amount of produce on a farm, can not fiiil to be useful and interesting to every 

 farmer. There are many scientific matters connected with such an inquiry, which it 

 would be interesting to us and to some of our readers to discuss ; but at this time we 

 must confine our remarks to the vital question — Will it pay ? 



In the July number, page 205, we gave the results of some valuable experiments 

 instituted by the Worcester Agricultural Society, Massachusetts, in regard to the econ- 

 omy of cutting food for stock. From the same experiments we have arranged the fol- 

 lowing table, which shows the amount of hay consumed weekly by each 100 lbs. live 

 weight of animal, the weekly increase of fat, &c., upon each 100 lbs. live weight, and 

 the amount of increase which one ton of hay will produce. The bottom line shows the 

 mean live weii^ht of the animals with which the trials were made : 



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Tliero is remarkable uniformity in the results obtained by the four New England 

 experimenters, both in regard to the quantity of food consimied percent, of liv*? \vc-io;il 





