THE GENESEE FARMEK. 



27 



STACKING AlfD FEEDING OUT STRAW. 



Straw should be stacked in a tight pen, for if 

 you suffer your cattle to eat out of an open pen, the 

 master cattle will guard the stock continually, and 

 the others will have to stay away. This is not all ; 

 your cattle will have chaff in their eyes half of the 

 time. The best way is to keep your cattle away 

 from the straw until you feed them, then give all a 

 chance alike. If you make a pen high enough, and 

 tight, they can not reach. Then cover the stack 

 with some kind of roof, if possible. One of our 

 old fashioned barracks is worth the time and 

 tro'able of building, and I am sorry to see them 

 going out of fashion. Build one or two, reader, 

 on the portable plan, and see if your money is not 

 well invested. Put in your straw as soon as 

 threshed. When it is time to begin to fodder, 

 drive your wagon or sled alongside and load up, 

 then drive out as far as yon please and begin to 

 throw off; let the team keep traveling, and you 

 will scatter the straw sufficiently to let every one 

 have an equal chance. 



I find from experience and observation, that 

 bunks or racks are poor things to feed straw in ; 

 for cattle want to pick out the best, or cull over, 

 and if the straw is in a bunk they will throw it all 

 out under foot, and then tread it down. If it is 

 scattered as I have directed, and not put in racks, 

 there is no danger of chaff in the eyes. 



"When you feed straw, feed nothing more ; for if 

 you feed hay once a day and straw the rest of the 

 time, you will miss calculations certain, if your 

 straw is not as good or superior to your hay. If 

 one kind of fodder is the best, they know it full as 

 well as you, and wiU wait for the best and tread 

 the poorest under foot. A. L. S. — Nichols^ N. Y. 



Tnis is a subject in which every farmer is inter- 

 ested, who raises large crops of wheat or other 

 small grains, and wishes to keep his straw good 

 and free from moulding. Procure large rails, ten 

 feet long, and build four pens in a square, ten feet 

 apart, and high enough for stock to walk under; 

 then take rails long enough to reach from one pen 

 to the other, covering the space between the pens 

 and the two pens next to the threshing machine, — 

 leaving two rails off the pens next the machine, 

 for the purpose of throwing in all the chaft'; when 

 filled, rej)lace the rails. The straw is now thrown 

 on top of the pens and in those opposite the ma- 

 chine, and in those the straw should be well trod- 

 den down, so that the stack may not settle side- 

 wise. For a large crop there can be more pens 

 built opposite the machine, leaving ten feet be- 

 tween and covering the space between with rails, 

 and then stack the straw on the entire lot of pens. 

 This makes a good shelter for stock all winter, as 

 it leaves a space of ten feet each way under the 

 stack, and gives cattle a chance to get away from 

 any that are cross. 



The advantages of this over stacking on the 

 gi-ound, are^ that the straw keeps better and forms 

 a good shelter for stock ; stock will not pull down 

 more than they will eat ; and it keeps all the chaff 

 dry. The pens must be made of large rails, so tliat 

 the stock can pull the chaff and straw through the 

 spaces ; and when the chaff is all eaten as far as 

 the stock can get it, take a hook, run it into the 

 straw, and with a good jerk you can bring the 



straw close to the side of the pen ; and in time the 

 straw will begin to fall in from the top, and it is 

 then not much trouble, as it keeps falling as fast as 

 the stock want it. If farmers will try this plan 

 once, and see the benefit of good shelter for their 

 stock, they will always try the straw shelter, — at 

 least those that have no other. Henet Satkb. — 

 Harrisburg^ Ind. 



If one has but little straw, it is well enough to 

 save and feed it out in the coldest weather ; but if 

 a person has an abundance of it, ^jwf it into a rick, 

 keep the middle a little the highest, let it be well 

 rounded on the top and twelve feet high after it is 

 settled. Swing across the top of it an abundance 

 of long and heavy brush. Sprinkle a little brine, 

 occasionally, around and near the bottom of it — 

 enough for the good of the stock. They will lick 

 up the straw down to the ground where it is brined, 

 — the stack will be too high for the cattle to climb 

 over, — the little waste straw will afford bedding 

 for them, — the stack will be a fine shelter for 

 them in storms, and save the necessity of building 

 one of wood. There is no better way of turning 

 straw to the best possible account. Cattle thus 

 provided for, with a little hay, fodder, and corn, 

 may be presented in as good condition, the first of 

 May, as they were the preceding November. Every 

 farmer should have stock enough about, thus to 

 consume his straw. B. C. W. — Metamora, III, 



KEEPING CATTLE IN SHEDS AND STABLES THE 

 WHOLE YEAR. 



Editoes Gejtesee Farmer: — In the July num- 

 ber of your valuable paper is an article from the 

 pen of "P. B.," wherein he says, it is more profit- 

 able to keep stock stabled or yarded, the whole 

 year (on old improved farms), than to let them run 

 in pasture. I did not expect to find arguments 

 running in this direction on this subject ; in fact, 

 "P. B.'s^' declaration is decidedly in opposition to 

 many facts gathered from observation and experi- 

 ence in this matter. This is a question of vast im- 

 portance to farmers; and as one side has been dis- 

 cussed at some length, perhaps a little said on the 

 other side might be of some benefit to your numer- 

 ous readers. 



"I think it is known by "P. B.," and all other 

 rational farmers, that stock, when closely confined, 

 are much more liable to disease than when they 

 roam leisurely about the fields; in fact, confine- 

 ment and filth are the germs of many diseases, for 

 it is difficult to keep stock clean and healthy when 

 stabled or yarded closely all the time. The effluvia 

 that arises all the time from the droppings of stock, 

 destroys their appetite by spells, and causes much 

 of their food to be left unconsumed. Stock, like 

 people, love liberty ; and when you deprive them 

 of that liberty, they are generally uneasy and dis- 

 satisfied. Exercise promotes good health as well 

 in stock as in people, and justice demands that they 

 should have it for their own health and their own- 

 er's p] ofit. 



I think "P. B." has not kept a close account of 

 tlie time spent in feeding a large stock, which 

 ought to be three times a day all the time, rain or 

 shine. Through December, January, February, 

 and March, it is as convenient for the farmer to 

 feed his stock as any other time. . In the remaining 



