58 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Mar. jl 



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Both molasses and sprouted barley have been stic- 

 cessfully used in England in fattenincr bullocks and 

 feeding piilch kinc. Many say that, to malt barley 

 sufficiently to develop its saccharine propertie.-i, in- 

 creases its fattening powers, perliaps by rendering 

 nil its starch, gluten, and oilier protein compounds 

 more easily digested. 



Who has ever spent a dollar to learn what part of 

 the nutritive matter that enters the stomachs of his 

 horses, cattle, and hogs, passes through their systems 

 undigested ? Who can say how much is wasted in 

 generating extra heat, by reason of the fad that ani- 

 mals are exposed to severe cold and storms in winter ? 

 All experience confirms the statement tiiat, in a de- 

 gree, external warmth is equivalent to food. The 

 living locomotive must have a given degree of inter- 

 nal heat, or all the machinery stops forever. The 

 heart ceases tu beat, and the lungs to inhale a single 

 breath, if the fire within or the solar warmth without 

 be too feeble for the purposes of life. A comfortable 

 degree of external heat united with proper ventilation, 

 for the benefit of all bipeds and quadrupeds, is a matter 

 of universal interest. Warm houses, barns, stables, 

 end pig-pens, with an abundance of good f(X)d, and 

 that skilfully prepared and economically consumed, 

 are points often overlooked even by intelligent per- 

 sons. The keep of animals governs their gradual 

 improvement or certain deterioration. Attentive and 

 proper feeding, with the judicious selection of m-iles 

 and females in propagating any race, constitute the 

 cardinal points in stock-raising. One should be 

 careful to provide a plenty of pasture, and that fresh 

 and sweet, for consumption in spring, simimer. an 1 

 autumn, and a plenty of well cured forage f)r winter. 

 Pastures and meadows have been sadly neglect'd, 

 and their failing productiveness has attracted onr 

 attention in all the States we have visited, whifh 

 are not a few. They greatly need a liberal covering 

 of stable manure, rc-sccding, and a good scarifyiug 

 with a sharp liarrow. Many need driiining, and still 

 more irrigation, which adds wonderfully to the growth 

 of grass and the improvement of grazing and meadow 

 lands. Water in spiings, brook-, and creek~, abounds 

 in the mineral and organic food of plants ; and in 

 thousands of ravines, dams and ditches may be 

 cheaply constructed, to turn it over extensive fiel Is. 

 The roiling of cattle is gaining in public favor 

 every year w-here it is tested by experience. By 

 feeding stock in small enclosures, a large share of 

 • the fence now required in this country, may be dis- 

 pensed with — an object of no inconsiderable imp-ir- 

 tance. All good farmers recognise the necessity of 

 either making or purchasing an annual stock of ma- 

 nure ; and with this thoy can cut grass, clover, corn, 

 or other forage enough from an acre to keep one and 

 perhaps two cows the year round. The dro|)pings 

 of horses and cattle on pastures, while feeding, are 

 found to be of little value ; too much manure is ap- 

 plied at one place, and none at all over many square 

 yards. Sheep distribute the raw material of crops 

 more evenly, but not so well as it call be done by the 

 husbandman. Stock-growing, manure-saving, and 

 the economical production of grain and grass, must 

 be blended into one system of tillage and liusban Irv. 

 Much of the manure now manufactured is poor stutr, 

 and really not worth over half of what it costs. A'nt 

 a little trash is hauled ten miles out of the city of 

 Washington, to fertilize poor soils, wljich is of as 

 little value for manure as a load of pine chi;)s. — 

 Good manure is worth its weight in timothy hay, and 



often its weight in corn. The science of producing 

 manure is quite as important as that of transforming 

 grass, grain, and roots, into meat, milk, wool, and 

 the ilesh of horses and mules. The best manure 

 sold in Washington brings f lur dollars a barrel, and 

 it is worth that to make into wheat at a dollar a 

 bushel. This fertilizer comes from the Pacific, on 

 the coast of Peru, and from small islands covered 

 thirty feet deep with guano, which is tliero estimated 

 at thirty millions of tons. Miinure of equal value 

 per cwt. can be made at homi^, provided farmers will 

 give instructions to their legislators to fester agri- 

 cultural science. 



As a general rule, it is safe to say that one-third, 

 if not one-half, of the fertilizers voided in stables 

 and barn-yards, are never carried out upon the fields 

 whence the crops that fed the animals were taken. 

 To waste manure anil impoverish land, is not the 

 way to produce cheap beef, pork, butter, cheese, and 

 wool, firr any considerable number of years. The 

 manin'e of a fattening pig is v.-orth nearly half as 

 much as his food, provided one knows how to use it 

 to the best advantage. Meat sells at about the same 

 price in Belgium that it does in the State of New 

 York, and of course grass is worth about the same. 

 The manure of a cow in B'dgium is often sold at 

 from $12 to ^15 a year. How can this raw mate- 

 rial of crops and beef be more valuable there than 

 here, provided onr crops and beef fetch as much per 

 100 lbs. as theirs do ? They send vast quantities of 

 meat to L/Jndon, and so do we, more or less. The 

 truth is, we have yet to learn the money vaule of 

 good mnniire, tiie art of saving it (ill, and the econo- 

 my of 9 lling fat heifers and steers when two years 

 (d I, and fit pigs when from nine to twelve months 

 old. A ctill'can extract more meal from 100 lbs. of 

 cat, corn, or barley-meil, well cooked, by 40 per cent., 

 than a six year cdd cow or ox can. Pea and bean 

 porridge tor pigs and calves, will make them grow 

 rapi lly, and are much used for that purpose on the 

 continent. O.ie that has a plenty of rich manure 

 can make cheap oats and corn for feeding all domes- 

 tic animals ; and if these are the best, ihey will pay 

 a round profit. 



Too little attention is paid to the savin? and liberal 

 use of grass seed by dairy-men, wool-growers, and 

 such as make a bu-incss of rearing horses, mules, 

 hogs, and neat cattle. After all that has been said 

 about making two blades of grass grow where only 

 one grew before — a proverb older than tire time of- 

 .lacob, in all probability — the neglect of grazing 

 lands is a prominent defect in modern husbandry. 

 G) where you will, and you shall find mean cattle, 

 hogs, sheep, and horses, where pastures and meadows 

 yiel I little fool for domestic animals. To pay high 

 prices for improved breeds, and then run them down 

 in size, form, and value, by injudicious keep, is the 

 heiirhlof folly. Henc?, instead of commeniiug Short 

 Horns, Herefords, Devons, Ayrshires, or any other 

 race, we content ourselves with urging the necessity 

 of provi ling an abund'mceof food, a lapted to the con- 

 stitution an I habits of the animal, wImcIi may be reg- 

 u'arly cotisnm 'd every day in the year. Sheep that 

 have a f-ast three or six months and are then half 

 starved unequal length of tim"-", U'lver clip even wool. 

 The staple is materially atlected by all changes of 

 this kind ; and every dairyman knows that to give 

 cows only half allowance ten days in June, will di- 

 minish the yield of milk, butter, and cheese, for six 

 weeks thereafter. Many interesting experiments on 



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