84 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Prodtct of Good Cows. — I have kept two cows 

 the past year, of the common native breed — one ten 

 years old and the other three years ohJ last April. 

 The heifer dropped her calf about the first of April 

 last, and the old cow abont the 13th day of the same 

 month. The cows are of medium size. Their food 

 has been pasture in the sunnner oniy ; in the fall the 

 refuse of the garden, with some apples and pumpkins; 

 and this feed is given them once a day during winter, 

 while they are milked — while they go dry nothing 

 but hay or corn-stalks is given. About the time they 

 are coming in, carrots, from half a bushel to three 

 pecks a day, are added to their hay for each cow, 

 until they are turned to pasture. AVithout thinking 

 them very extraordinary cows, we have kept a correct 

 account of all the butter after it was salted and 

 worked, and I find by footing up the account it is 

 526 lbs. 10 oz. 



I made a trial of each cow the first seven days in 

 June: the old cow made 14 lbs., and the heifer 12 lbs. 

 5 oz. We have a constant family of six persons. 



I have raised two good calves ; and with the aid 

 of 15 bushels of corn have fattened two pigs, which 

 were killed at 9 months and 20 days old, weighing- 

 each 280 and 297 tjs. 



My advice to farmers is to feed their apples in 

 preference to making cider to sell or to drink — to 

 pigs or fat cattle all they will ejt, and to milch cows 

 half a bushel per day. — A. S. Moss, in the Country 

 Gentleman. 



PROFTTABLENESS OF CATTLE FEEDING 

 IN ENGLAND. 



Havixg given my attention to various statements 

 in your columns, and in other pnblications, on the 

 feeding of cattle and its profitableness, I draw the 

 conclusion that the data before the public are not al- 

 together satisfactory. There are considerations af- 

 fecting this subject which I have not yet seen properly 

 noticed; one of these is advantage derived from lo- 

 cality. Your correspondent " S.," at page 731, says, 

 "the experience of feeders, Mr. Meciii included, is 

 that lean stock cost as much, or more, per stone, than 

 when fattened." In the district in which I am situ- 

 ated it is certainly otherwise; being near the great 

 manufacturing towns we sell our fattened cattle chiefly 

 direct to the butcher ; we are also near a breeding 

 district, which sells oft' its stock to be bred elsewhere. 

 On comparing the price of my lean purchased cattle 

 with the top price of fat on the same day, I usually 

 find them lower in price by 8d. to Is. per stone; that 

 this advantage can not appertain to other localities is 

 clear, not only from what " S." says, but also from 

 what comes under my own observation. My competi- 

 tors for lean stock in the neighboring markets are 

 frequently dealers who carry their purchases a dis- 

 tance of 200 miles, to the great turnip districts of the 

 north; while from the same districts great numbers 

 of fattened stock are brought for sale to the towns 

 in my neighborhood. The cost of transport to and 

 from, with the dealer's commission on profit in buj-ing 

 and seUing, will probably account for the difference 

 in " S.'s" purchases as compared with my own, making 

 lean stock as dear per stone as fat; to my district, 



this advantage represents 30s. to 40s. per head, or Is. 

 6d. to 2s. each per week — no inconsiderable item in 

 a feeder's reckoning. There is likewise a great dis- 

 crepancy in the data on another important item in 

 cattle feeding — the quantity, quality and value of the 

 excrement or manure. !Sprexgei,, whose treatise is 

 puljlished in the Journal of the Royal Society, gnves 

 the yield of ammonia in the urine of a cow during 12 

 months, at about 200 lbs., representing a computed 

 value of £5 ; while Professor Jonxsox, in his Ele- 

 ments of Chemistry, states, according to the prac- 

 tice of Flanders, the value of a cow's urine at £2 

 a year. 



It requires but little acquaintance with the subject 

 of cattle feeding, to know that the value of the ex- 

 crement is, in a degree, dependent upon the Ibod sup- 

 plied; there is another consideration which I feel per- 

 suaded has im influence — the comparative stage of 

 fatness of the animal. I have for some time held the 

 opinion that the disposition of cattle, generally speak- 

 ing, is in the early stage more to increase of layer or 

 muscle (lean beef), W'hile in the later or riper stage 

 more to increase of fat, in support of which I may 

 state that cattle in a lean state consist of a greater 

 proportion of layer or muscle than when fat. I am 

 liy no means sure that in a very advanced or over-fat 

 state the increase is not wholly to fat; if this be at 

 all correct, the same quantity of nitrogenous food 

 continued through a long course of feeding would 

 give in the later stages an excrement richer in nitro- 

 gen than in the earlier, and if so the practice of giving 

 a greater cjuantit y of beans or other nitrogenous food 

 in the advanced stage is erroneous; the same remark 

 applies to linseed or rape-cake, as for as their nitrogen 

 is concerned, but does not apply to their oil which 

 administers to fat. 



With the view of informing myself, and for the 

 better understanding of my own practice, I have had 

 recouree to the following experiments : — the first was 

 tried in April and May, during six weeks, on eight 

 heifers ; these consumed per week 72 stones of oat 

 straw, shells of oats and a small proportion of bean 

 straw, 10 stones of bean meal, and 7 stones of rape- 

 cake, together with 89 stones of dry fodder; being 

 22 J tbs., 18 of straw, and 4 J bean meal and rape- 

 cake for each per day, with which they drank of war 

 ter, given separately or mixed with their mess, nearly 

 70 lbs. per day each. The yield in excrement from 

 this food was found to be for every 100 lbs. fodder 

 and water, 72 fts. solid and liquid together. A small 

 portion of this was sent to Professor AVay for analy- 

 sis, from which it appeared that the water supplied 

 diuiinished one-fifth, or 100 lbs. to 80 lbs.; while the 

 dry fodder had diminished one-half, or 100 lbs. to 50 

 lbs. I give the analysis: 



Moisture, ;-- 81.77 



Organic matter, with aramoniacal salts, sand and silica, 15.51 



Alkaline sulphates, muriates, &c., -- 1-12 



Phosphate of lime, 65 



Substances undetermined, -95 



100.00 

 Nitrogen .45, equal to ammonia .54 per cent. 



(Signed) .T. Thomas Wat. 



This yield of excrement is about 10 tons each ani- 

 mal per year ; the value in ammonia, 6s. 6d., and of 

 phosphate of lime. Is. per ton, or about Is. 6d. per 



