86 
FES. § 
THE BUBAL W E W-Y 0 BICEB. 
German farmers have proved the correctness 
of these figures by years of practical experi¬ 
ence. Of course, if a cow gives au unusual 
amount of milk, an unusual quantity of food 
will be necessary, if los& of live-weight is to be 
avoided In such cases the quantity of digest¬ 
ible matter cud be increased to 2f pounds of 
protein, £ pound of fat, and 18 210 pounds 
starchy matter. It will rarely be found profit¬ 
able, however, to feed more than thiB amount. 
The farm should supply an abuudauce of 
digestible starchy matter in the form of fodder- 
corn, straw, chaff, turnips, &c. The digestible 
protein aud fat can probably, in most cases, 
be bought at a lower price than the market 
value of that raised in New Jersey. 
The following table will give an idea of the 
wide range of prices between farm products 
and such commercial articles as cotton-seed 
meal, oil-cake, brewers’ grains, etc. 
lufl lbs. of Cost. 
Timothy bay.$t.uo 
Clover hay...75 
Corn meal.. 1.18 
Brewers' grains... .25 
Ootton-aeed meal. 130 
One hundred pounds 
Contain of digestible 
Protein. bat. Starch. 
3.03 1.37 48.58 
7.68 1.48 33.71 
6.23 2.89 68.90 
4.73 1.50 14.29 
33.00 10.89 12.62 
of digestible protein, 
fat and starch, cost in 
Timothy hay. 
Clover hay. 
Corn meal... 
Brewer s' grains . 
Got o j-seed meal. 
Protein. 
Fat. 
Starch 
. $6.79 
$6 70 
$1.40 
.. 4 30 
4.30 
.90 
..4 90 
4.90 
l.tt) 
.. 2 80 
2.80 
.60 
.. 2.80 
2.80 
.60 
The second table shows that digestible pro¬ 
tein in brewers’ grains and cotton seed meal 
can be bought for about $2 75 per hundred 
pounds, while in corn meal it costs nearly $5 
per hundred pounds, and in timothy hav $6 70 
per hundred pouuds. A farmer who can sell 
his Indian meal at SI 13 per hundred, will see 
that be is receiving five cents per pouud for 
his protein, and can buy for bis own use the 
6ame material for 2J cents per pound. 
—the milk of each cow being carefully weigh¬ 
ed. and a sample of the mixed milk, together 
with the record of the yield, sent each day to 
the Station by Mr. Theodore West, Farm Su¬ 
perintendent. 
The following table gives a description of 
each cow and her total yield of milk• 
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The point now to be explained is how to use 
cotton-seed meal in place of corn meal. By 
looking at the first, table it will be seen that 
100 pounds of cotton-seed meal contain S3 
pounds of digestible protein ; that, we know, is 
enough to last a cow over thirteen daysit 
contains, too, fat enough to last twenty-one 
days, while the digestible starch in one 
hundred pounds is just enough for one 
day. To express the 6ame idea in another 
way, we would need only eight pounds of the 
cotton-seed meal to furnish the cow with the 
2-J pounds of protein, while the eight pounds 
would give twice as much fat aud only about 
1-12 as much starch as is necessary. We see 
then that the cotton-seed meal must be mixed 
with something which contains a large quan¬ 
tity of digestible starch, and a very small 
quantity of protein and fat. 
Wheat straw which contains in one hundred 
pounds only 8-10 pounds of digestible protein 
and 3 10 pounds of digestible f&t, while it 
yields 371 pounds of digestible starchy matters 
would seem to answer our purpose exactly. It 
would do exactly, if a cow were simply a milk 
machine, but a living creature is much more 
complicated than any machine can possibly 
be. One objection would be a difficulty to in¬ 
duce the auimal to eat such a large amount of 
coarse fodder. Another would be a fact not 
yet mentioned, vie : the digestible food should 
be contained ju a ration which, when perfectly 
free from all traces of moisture, should not 
weigh more than from 24 to 28 pounds. If the 
food be mixed with a larger amount of indi¬ 
gestible matter, it is scarcely to be expected 
that it can be digested and assimilated. Now 
our ration of eight pounds of cotton seed meal 
and thirty-three pounds of wheat straw would 
contain nearly thirty-five pounds of dry mat¬ 
ter, nearly ten pounds more than is allowable. 
The ration fed to a herd of 6ix mixed grade 
cows, at the College Farm, has given perfect 
satisfaction; it was made up as follows, the 
calculation being for 1,000 pounds live-weight 
per day:— 
OontaininF pounds of digestible 
Protein. Bat. btarch. 
6 tbs. clover hay... 0 47 .09 2.27 
13 lbs. w heat, straw.. 0 11 ,04 4 88 
20 lbs. brewers'giatns. 0.99 .83 2.86 
20lbs. turnips....... 026 ... 2.06 
2 lbs. cotton-seed roeal.0.6b .22 0.24 
Total.2.49 358 1131 
The total dry matter was..25,5 fta. 
The total weight of the six cows, taken with 
all usual precautions, was 5,770 pounds. To 
find the amount of fodder and feed needed for 
the herd, we have therefore to multiply the 
weights, which, as above stated, are for 1,000 
pounds, by 5.77. For example :— 
6 lbs. clover hay. x 5.77 — 84pounds. 
13 lbs. wheat straw.. x 5.77 — 76 
20 lbs. brewers’grains.- x 6.77 =115 '* 
20 IbB turnips.1 5.77 = 116 " 
2 lbs. cottou-Meed meal.x 5.77 = ity^ •* 
The daily cost of the ration for six cows can 
now be easily computed :— 
35 lbs. clover bay. at $15 per ton. - 2Sr, 
75 Iba. wheat straw at $7 per ton. — 260. 
115 lbs. brew era' * rain, at *5 per ton. — 29o 
115 lbs. turnips, at lue per bushel.= 19o. 
UK lbs, cotton seed meat, at $26 per ton.=■ loo. 
, $1.16 
Daily cost for each cow.19o 
The straw was passed through a cutter and 
thoroughly mixed with brewers' grain, cotton¬ 
seed meal and turnips. The mixture was fed 
in eqnal portions morning and evening. The 
hay was fed at mid-day. 
The cows were mixed grades taken from a 
herd of 24 head. They were milked twice daily 
The total yield for the entire herd is 4,042 
pounds and 12 ounces. 
The weight of a quart of milk for practical 
purposes may be taken as two pounds. The 
total yield, then, for 30 days is 2,021 quarts, or 
67 3 quarts daily, an average yield for each 
cow of over 11 quarts. 
1. From the experiments it appears, then, 
that the cows have gained a little in flesh by 
being fed on this ration, and that their flow of 
milk has not diminished. 
2. It is fairly proved that the ration saved 
directly 30 per cent, on the cost of a full ration 
of clover hay, and still more than this on one 
of clover and Indian meal. 
S. The ration also saved indirectly by turning 
to profitable account the straw and coarse pro¬ 
ducts *hieh are ordinarily only used for ma¬ 
nure. 
4. The whole experiment shows that the live 
stock on a farm can be kept in good condition, 
and a much larger amount of ita high-priced 
products sold than it is now the practice to 
sell, or that a greatly increased amount of live 
6tock can be profitably kept while consuming 
all the food products. 
The above is but a single example of the use 
of a computed ration. It was made for a spe¬ 
cial purpose; and there might have been 
others calculated which would have been quite 
as economical. The Station has analyzed a 
number of the commercial articles used as 
cattle food, such as Indian meal, Egyptian 
corn, cotton-seed meal, oil-cake meal, brewers' 
grains, stareh waste, timothy bay, clover hav, 
Hungarian grass, wheat straw, wheat chaff, 
etc. These will be published, together with 
rations computed from them, in the next bulle¬ 
tin. George II. Cook. 
Director Ex. St’n, New Brunswick, N. J. 
Illistfllaiuous. 
Crates.— F. H. D., page 34, is quite light 
concerning the convenience of crates for car¬ 
rying apples, etc., into the cellar; out I do not 
agree with him that they are the best thing to 
store them away in, because they "admit of a 
free circulation of air." I think apples will 
keep better without a free circulation of air. 
I never had apples keep better than those I 
had la6t Winter (a bad Winter for keeping 
fruit) in bins in a cellar, holding 30 to 70 bush¬ 
els. Careful picking is the beBt thing to make 
apples keep well. I have been astonished to no¬ 
tice how much cold weather it takes to freeze 
an apple, and after freezing how much freezing 
it takes to injure one. I think apples will not 
freeze with the thermometer indicating 28 deg. 
But about the crates. They are particularly 
valuable for carrying in potatoes. I am quits 
sure I 6&ved some of mine by having two sets 
of crates and two wagons to draw them in one 
cold night last Fall. They are also valuable 
for carrying apples and potatoes to market. 
They should be made large enough to hold a 
bushel when a little less than even full. Thus 
one crate can be set upon another and a good- 
sized load can be easily inspected aud carried. 
It is well in building them to have them made 
of the right size, so that two, side by side, will 
fit the wagon-box. o. s. w. 
Whiskey tor Diptheria. —The Rural, has 
given what are reported to be valuable pre¬ 
ventives in cases where diptheria waB to be 
Jeared. But it is now said that whiskey is one 
of the best of these, to be administered freely 
as soon as the soreness in the throat makes its 
appearance. At least, this is tbetreatmentnow 
adopted in the towns and cities aloog the river 
and canal, south of Chicago, where the sewer¬ 
age of that city has so contaminated the water 
of the river, as to give rise to epidemic and In 
many cases fatal diptheria. It is now thought 
that the poison which produces the disease is a 
septic one, which leaves the vitality like the 
venom of poisonous snakes and insects, and 
that the best remedy is a stimulant in the first 
stages, and that w hiskey is the best form in 
which this stimulant can be found. J. 
(gOtrpjjtu. 
RURAL SPECIAL REP0RT8. 
N. Y., Waterville, Oneida Co., Jan., 20—The 
weather since Jan.. 1, has beeu about all that 
farmers could desire. The sleighing is splen¬ 
did, and although there is quite a heavy body 
of snow on the ground, it is Bpread 60 evenly 
that there is little trouble in getting anywhere 
with a team. w. 
Oiito, Ripleyville, Huron Co., Jan. 6.—We 
are having the nicest Winter that we have had 
for many years. We have had good sleighing 
most of the time since Thanksgiving. Wheat 
was looking fine when the snow came. I see 
no reason why we should not have as good a 
crop as last year. Wheat is worth 95c.; corn, 
45c.; oats, 30c.; hay, $18; butter, 18c.; Clover 
seed $4 50. b- k - 
Champaign, Champaign Co.. Ill., Jan., 20.— 
There Has been no break to the uniformity of 
the Wiuter since it set in early in November. 
But it looks to day as it a thaw was coming 
up from the South aud coming up to stay. 
Heretofore south winds during the Winter have 
only blown for a few' hours before they were 
driven back by other stronger ones from the 
north and northwest. There is still some 
snow on the ground over the entire State, and 
it is a mercy there is, for snow is the only re¬ 
source the stock have for water over great 
portions of this and States adjoining. In fact, 
the water famine has developed mto a serious 
business, if not into alarming proportions, and 
if the snow leaves slowly, without filling the 
streams, and they continue frozen solid as at 
present, in some sections stock water will be 
so scarce that stock must suffer severely and 
the dry murrain and kindred diseases do im¬ 
mense damage to flocks and herds. Just how 
to meet this sudden apparition is now the 
problem before us; and all the more difficult 
it is, because in many sections the earth 
beneath for several feet is as dry as a 
green bone. Concerning the outcome of the 
corn crop there is a great difference of opin¬ 
ion ; but no one elaims the crop of 1880 nearly 
equal to that of 1879. Aud as to future prices 
there are still greater differences. Some say 
we are ou the eve of a period of high prices 
for corn, or something more, and remind us 
there are now six distinct markets for corn, 
where there were only three, a few years ago. 
Ten years ago the home market, the Eastern 
market and the Southern market took the sur¬ 
plus ; the foreign taking only ten million bushels 
in 1870, agaiuet 100 millions in 1880. The six 
markets of the present are: 1. Home market, 
2, the Eastern market, 3, the Foreign market, 
4, the Southern market, 5, the Western mar¬ 
ket made bv the rapidly developing mining 
regioDseast of the Rocky Mountain Range; 
and, 6, the Northern market for corn to sup¬ 
ply the .bonanza farm region north of the 
limit of successful corn cultivation. Up to 
this time we have heard nothing of the Winter 
wheat crop, that is not favorable. There has 
been practically no thaw since the first freeze 
up, early in November, and the snow covering 
theground almost uninterruptedly, a condition 
very similar exists to that of 1879. If a dry, 
cold Winter is one of the best assurances of 
abounding crops the succeeding Summer, 
there is a fine prospect before the farmers of 
Illinois, and the entire West also. b. f. j. 
III., Bailey ville, Ogle Co., January 31.—The 
weather had been extremely cold here at times 
this Winter—from 32 deg. to 32 deg. below zero, 
on certain days, and for several days in 
succession not rising above zero. I find 
from various reports that thermometers 
differ several degrees at only short dis¬ 
tances apart, observations being taken at 
or about the same time. This variation may 
be owing to the different situations of the ther¬ 
mometers, or to some difference in the instru¬ 
ments; so it is diflS._u.lt to ascertain the true 
temperature of a place, except through the 
careful observations of the Government Signal- 
Service Bureau, ou uniform thermometers, at 
stated hours each day ; and even these are not 
alw ays as correct and reliable as they should 
be. Though the weather has been cold, there 
had been bat little snow in this locality until a 
week ago. On Thursday, 13th inst., about six 
inches of snow fell. The next day, Friday, 
was clear and cold, onr thermometer register¬ 
ed 26 deg. that morning at sunrise. This was 
followed on Saturday and Sunday by another 
snow-fall of some six inches, making the snow 
over a foot deep and fine sleighing, as it has 
not drifted, and the roads are smooth and 
solid. The Winter grain will be greatly bene¬ 
fited by its preeent covering of snow and may 
yet do well, though fears were entertaiued that 
it was injured by the previous dry, bard freez¬ 
ing and bare condition of the ground. Cloudy 
this morning, and 26 deg. above zero. All who 
can do so are enjoying tbetime sleighing, etc., 
and business seems brisk, but there is not 
much grain selling, as prices continue low 
here and unsatisfactory to the farmers. 
Wheat, 60@S5c; corn, 80c per 60 pounds shell¬ 
ed ; oats, 28c; barley, 30@40c; rye, 80c, but 
little here. Butter (dairy), 18c ; eggs, 28@30c 
per doz Beef (live), $2 50@$3 50, aud pork 
(live), $4 @$4 50 per cental. Dressed beef 
sells at 4@6c per pound by the quarter. Hay 
is scarce at $10 to $15 per ton. w. b d. 
III., Franklin Grove, Lee Co., Jan. 10.—We 
are having an old-fashioned Winter out here; 
but we have had very little snow. Winter 
wheat was badly frozen, but I don't think it is 
entirely killed yet. Stock is wintering through 
nicely. Hay and coarse feed are rather scarce, 
but com is plentiful, worth now 33c. and 40c. 
for May delivery. s. w. r. 
Iowa, Dakota, Humboldt Co., Jan. 13.— 
Last year the crops herealouts were good, 
wheat yielding, on an average, from 20 to 25 
bushels per acre, and corn, from 40 to 60. Oats 
were an immense crop. j. s. h. 
Mo., Bucklin, Linn Co., Jan. 20.—We have 
had but a few inches of snow at a time, though 
the weather has beeu cold, especially during 
"holiday week.” I have seldom seen a more 
beautiful sight than presented itself to our 
view just as the sun was rising one morning. 
Two sun-dogs appeared, each as radiant as 
the sun. Either alone would have made day¬ 
light. Of course, w r hen they rose from the 
horizon they were not so bright, but they kept 
in the Bky all day long, and were with the 6un 
at his setting. Our weather for the past week 
has been playing "6nap and catch ’em”—warm 
one day aud cold the next. j. 
Mo., Pleasant Mount, MillerCo., Jan. 12 —So 
far we have had an extremely cold Winter, 
Between Christmas and New Year’s the weather 
wasextremely cold, the-thermometer getting as 
low as 23 deg. below zero, lower than it has 
ever beeu in this section, so far as I can learn. 
Happily for wheat, the ground is covered with 
a good depth of snow, else Fail sown grain 
must have suffered. Farmers are doing noth¬ 
ing but trying to keep warm. Nearly all fat 
Btock has been marketed, and the remaining 
corn is being saved for feeding through the 
Winter what stock is being kept over. 
n. j. s. 
N, C.. Asheville, Buncombe Co.. Jam 18.— 
We have had a rather severe Winter—ther¬ 
mometer as low as 8°, and four snow storms. 
The snows were light—two to three inches at 
a time—when, strange to say, there was fou 
or five times as much in the warmer parts of 
the State. It is now warmer (50“) and rain¬ 
ing. i>. e. s. 
Kansas, Manhattan, Riley Co., Jan. 19.— 
The weather has been so unusually cold that 
we have reason to anticipate the ruin of onr 
peach crop. This morning the thermometer 
registers 8° below zero, and it has been 
down to 21 0 below. e. g. 
Texas, San Antonio, Bexar Co., January 10. 
—We have very cold weather. Wheat and 
oats are killed. We had a regular snow 
storm yesterday. Farmers are busy plowing 
aud sowing small grains. This is a curious 
climate—there is not a month all the year 
round in which some kind of a crop is not 
planted or harvested. Some are gathering 
corn; others picking cotton whenever the 
weatherpermits. Prices are very good; corn, 
70@S0c; hay, $12@14 per ton; cotton, 10c. 
per pound; eggs25@35c. a dozen, butter 25c. 
G. w. 
®lif Querist. 
ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. 
Preparation of IJonex, etc. 
n. N. L., ad/iress mislaid, arks a cheap way 
of converting old, dry cattle bones into ma¬ 
nure ; and their value in comparison with that 
of barn manure. 
ANSWER BT PROFESSOR E. W. STEWART. 
The method of reducing bones depends upon 
their condition. Green, tough bones are very 
difficult to grind, and the appropriate mills 
are too expensive for individual use. But 
"old, dry cattle bones ’’ which have lost nearly 
all their animal matter from loug exposure to 
the air, will ue found more brittle and can 
often be ground, after having been broken 
with a hammer, in a bark mill, or in a strong 
