4887 
THE RURAL tIEW-VORKEft. 
dural (topics. 
FEEDING SUBSTANCES AND FEEDING 
RATIONS.—NO. IV. 
HENRY STEWART. 
Points for consideration; fertilizers from 
feed; a valuable table; sellers and buyers; 
ill effects of too much nitrogenous food ; 
well-balanced ration; one cause of hog 
cholera. 
Feeding for fat is a very important busi¬ 
ness of the farmer, who is forced to dispose of 
a portion of bis crops in this manner as well 
as of a certain number of his live stock. How 
to fatten these auimuls in the most economi¬ 
cal manner, and how to use his feeding sub¬ 
stances to the best advantage are obviously 
important considerations; for from what 
has been previously said in this regard, feed¬ 
ing for fat is, to some extent, detrimental to 
the health of the animals unless such food is 
chosen as will fatten healthfully, and is well- 
balanced in respect to its complete nutritive 
elements, and is easily digestible. Moreover, 
profit is to be considered, aud the money value 
of the foods is a large element in the profit ex¬ 
pected from their use, for if any fattening 
substance costs more than the fat. it produces 
comes to there is a loss instead of a profit; so 
that there are to be considered, 1st, the fatten¬ 
ing quality of the food; '3d, its healthfulness, 
and, 3d, its money value in the market; and 
the food chosen must contaiu a large quantity 
of fattening material, which is digestible and 
properly mixed with other nutriment, so as to 
supply all vital functions and be cheap; too 
cheap to be sold, or cheap enough to be pur¬ 
chased and used for feeding. 
One other Important matter closely con¬ 
nected with this present consideration is that 
farmers are always desirous—and reasonably 
so—of procuring or using such feeding sub¬ 
stances as will make cheap fat and yet con¬ 
tain a large quantity of other mutters which 
are not needed by the fattening animal, aud 
which are excreted in the manure, adding 
considerably to its value and aiding very 
much in improving the soil; this point is one 
that has attracted the notice aud attention of 
many of the most careful and skillful agricul¬ 
tural students, and cannot be lost sight of by 
the farmer. It, however, opens up such an 
intricate subject for consideration that it can 
only la* mentioned here aud will be fully con¬ 
sidered hereafter. 
There is a very large choice of fattening 
substances at the disposal of the farmer. The 
following list contains the most available of 
them, as regards their contents of fat and 
their money values. Money value and feed¬ 
ing value often vary considerably, and some 
most useful foods can l»e purchased more 
cheaply than others cun bo grown, and profit 
is thus made by selling the more valuable 
farm products aud buying waste- materials or 
the by-products of various manufactures for 
the purpose of feeding. Hence the feeding 
aud money values should be carefully studied 
and compared. 
COMPOSITION OK FATTENING SUBSTANCES. 
Air-Drlcd. 
Fat. 
Carbo¬ 
hydrates. 
a 
1| 
Jo o 
< 
f*i 
fjSi 
Timothy i before head appears), 
Do do ripe. 
4.9) 
50 Oft 
11.55 
0.80 
8.20 
*7.00 
11 38 
0.70 
Swci t Vernal Grass. 
-i.ro 
ill 1*6 
12.4! 
U,H5 
Italian llye Grass. . 
4*56 
311.10 
20.12 
0.85 
Reil ('lover itiefnre head). 
7.08 
46.1*. 
24.50 
0.1*1 
Do (after bloomi. 
4.20 
45.04 
16.58 
0.70 
K’y Blue Grass (pasture). 
4, SI 
57.08 
0.43 
0.68 
GRAINS 
Oats. 
ti.U 
55.7 
12.0 
0.08 
Corn. 
6.5 
62.1 
III 0 
1.10 
Peas. 
•2.0 
52.5 
22.4 
1.44 
Kpurry seeds. 
11.0 
53.7 
18.0 
1.01 
Sunflower seeds. 
28 6 
23 0 
13.0 
1.59 
Acorns, fresh. 
2.2 
34.0 
27 
0.43 
Ohestnuls. fresh. 
l.S 
41.3 
1 3 
0.52 
Beechnuts “ . 
17.0 
80 8 
3 9 
0.66 
MANUFACTURED PRODUCTS. 
Wheat bran, coarse. 
3.5 
59.1 
12.11 
1.01 
Huekwheat bruit.. 
1.4 
46.4 
72.20 
17 1 
10.18 
1.15 
1.2(1 
Hominy waste. 
7.6 
Corn brim,.. . . 
4 0 
61.2 
8.0 
0 02 
Kiev meal,.. . 
n -t 
47 « 
2K.3 
10.9 
18.2 
1.16 
l.OS 
Beechnut cake (pressed). 
H 8 
Balm nut Cuke l>o . 
14.S 
*1 0 
13.0 
161 
Do extracted. 
:] :* 
13.5 
18,5 
1.4-1 
Linseed oil meal (pressedI. 
11.6 
31 5 
32 1 
1.80 
Do (extracted). 
13 
Si.7 
83.2 
1,66 
Cotton seed meal. 
18.0 
24.1 
41.5 
2,30 
Do (Whole). 
6.1 
20.5 
23.6 
1.14 
Fish scrap. 
U.5 
40.6 
2.30 
These figures should bo well studied as a 
basis for considering the most economical uses 
of the substances mentioned. 
It is seen that of the various pasture plauts 
Red Clover, when growing, is worth for fat¬ 
tening purposes more thau any other, aud 
Sweet Verual Grass is worth more thun Tim¬ 
othy. Italian Rye Grass is also very valuable 
for this use, hence in choosing grasses for pas¬ 
turing these three varieties with Red Clover 
would be the most valuable; aud so in respect 
of all the rest of the substances mentioned, the 
choice would rest, first, upon the fattening 
quality, and, next, upon the market price as 
compared with the feeding value, and if the 
former should be found considerably lower 
than the latter it would become a question if 
the substance should not he preferred'before 
some richer but more costly one. Dealers in 
the manufactured products, however, study 
their business as closely as, indeed much more 
closely than farmers do as a rule, and are 
rarely found selling their goods for less than 
the full feeding value. The writer was the 
first, or one of the first, farmers to use cotton¬ 
seed meal for feeding anil bought the first ton 
of it he used for $18. Its value soon became 
known to the oil - mill men and the 
price rapidly rose to $40 per ton, at 
which price it was not so cheap a 
food ub corn at 50 cents a bushel or wheat bran 
at $12 per ton; hence cotton-seed meal was 
abandoned for other and cheaper substances. 
The desire of sellers of valuable products to 
get all they can for their goods leads them to 
fix their prices as high as possible, and gener¬ 
ally they are too high to give the farmers a 
profit on the use of foods. This is to lie looked 
after shrewdly by the purchasers. Of late 
years the oil from various seeds has been ex¬ 
tracted or dissolved by solution with benzine, 
aud some samples of the meal examined have 
been entirely free from fat. Their value then 
depends wholly upon the starch anil mucilage 
and the albuminoids, and as these do not 
make fat directly, aud have to go through a 
digestive process to be changed into fat, the 
value of these extracted meals is considerably 
less than that of the pressed ones. 
The change of albuminoids into fat in the 
process of assimilation in the animal has been 
al ready mentioned. Those snbstances undergo 
a total breaking up of their elements, the ni¬ 
trogen being discharged ns urea through the 
kidneys, and the carbon, hydrogen and oxy¬ 
gen forming new compounds. Vegetable al 
bumeu contains the following elements, viz: 
Carbon . . ,53.5 per cent. 
Hydrogen . . 7.2 “ “ 
Oxygen . . . 21.fi “ “ 
Sulphur ... 1.2 “ “ 
Nitrogen . . . lfi.5 “ “ 
100.00 
In feeding 10 pounds of cotton-seed meal, 
which is an ordinary allowance for a mature 
fattening steer, more than four pounds of al¬ 
buminoids containing more than 11 ounces of 
nitrogen are giveu. Very little of this nitrogen 
is used up in the animal because it is making 
fat aud not flesh. Consequently the larger port 
of the nitrogen must pass off through the kid¬ 
neys in the form of urea, and as this substance 
consists of 4li.7 per cent, of nitrogen a very 
large quantity of it must pass off through the 
kidueys, usually more than can bo disposed of 
healthfully, aud some of it remains in the 
blood as an impurity and a source of disease. 
It is this fact which explains the frequent in¬ 
jurious results which occur from using such 
highly albuminous food as cottou-seed meal iu 
large quantities to full-grown animals, or in 
excess of their needs to youug aud growing 
animals. It also explains why a young ani¬ 
mal forced to early maturity anil great 
weight by the richest feeiliug aud making 
flesh fast can healthfully dispose of a larger 
quantity of albuminous food thau fully grow n 
animals. 
A certain quantity of albuminous food is 
indispensable to the health of every animal, 
even when it is fattening. Fat is formed of 
the fats iu the food first; then of the starch, 
sugar and gum; and, finally, in the absence 
of these', of the albuminoids. Animals fed 
wholly upon fat or sugar and starch, become 
emaciated, and so perish iu three or four 
weeks, or the system becomes charged with an 
excess of carbon, and fever is produced by 
the combustion of it in the body. This fact 
will very soon be illustrated by the prevalence 
of various febrile diseases which occur at this 
season, when fattening animals die off so nu¬ 
merously for want of well apportioned foo^ 
and an excess of carbonaceous matters. Hence, 
feeders of swine and cattle should exercise 
caution in this respect aud provide some other 
food with the corn which does uot supply a 
sufficiency of the albuminoids. That this is 
necessary is shown when the following figures 
are compared: 
Albuminoids. Carbohydrates. 
Healthful ratio of 
nutriment...1 QU 
Nutritive ratio of coru.l 8> a ' 
“ “ acorns....I 18'4 
“ “ chestnuts. 1 11 
It is seen that corn contains an excess of over 
50 per cent, of carbohydrates ;ehest nuts of more 
than 100 per cent, and acorns of over 350 per 
cent. This excess of corn is not really injuri¬ 
ous to swine if they have been fed upon clover 
pasture previously to being put up for fatten¬ 
ing, aud are iu perfectly good health. Long- 
continued corn feeding, however, must cer¬ 
tainly result in disease. As regards the acorns 
aud chestnuts, the case is exceedingly plain. 
In the South it is a custom to feed hogs upon 
the mast which consists principally of acorns. 
Hog cholera is even more distinctive there 
than anywhere else, and has for a few years 
past prevailed so violently tbat to use an ex¬ 
pression commonly heard there, “not enough 
are left for seed.” The cause is clearly appar¬ 
ent; the enormous excess of carbonaceous 
food, much of it indigestible, eaten during an 
extended period produces a disease which be¬ 
comes epizootic because the conditions are 
widely prevalent. And yet this wild feeding 
in the forests has been declared by some per¬ 
sons, who have hastily overlooked the signifi¬ 
cance of the facts, to be the most healthful, 
and the prevalent disease therefore a matter 
for some other and entirely different explana¬ 
tion. 
CATALOGUES, ETC., RECEIVED. 
Benefits of Drainage and How to 
Diiain, —Pamphlet from Jackson Bros., Al¬ 
bany, N. Y., proprietors of the N. Y. State 
Dram Tile Works.—We have frequently called 
attention to this pamphlet. It is the most 
concise and forcible augumont in favor of tile 
drainage that we know of. As we have be¬ 
fore stated, it gives iu 14 pages more real rea¬ 
sons why farmers should use tiles than a 
book which is used as a text book in several 
agricultural colleges. It is needless for us to 
speak here of the advantages of tile drainage 
when this pamphlet can be so easily secured. 
There are also reasons why round tiles are 
superior to other forms. The round tiles are 
strongest, are less sprung iu drying and burn¬ 
ing, the only kiud well adapted to the use of 
collars on the joints; they present a better 
water-course and sediment is less liable to 
form in them. We have examined tiles made 
by Jackson Bros., and find them of the very 
best quality. The drainage tools are also first- 
class. Those who deal with this well-estab¬ 
lished house will obtain full satisfaction. 
Knabe Pianos. —Price list from Win, 
Kuabe & Co., Baltimore,Md., and New York. 
Wherever the Knabe pianos have been intro 
duced, their excellence has been fairly estab¬ 
lished. They are highly prized in the parlor 
or school-room. This is distinctly an Ameri¬ 
can piuno. Wm. Knabe & Co. began business 
50 years ago in Baltimore. Since then they 
have worked up an enormous business, all due 
to energy and enterprise in striving for the 
highest and best iu the art. 
Irrigation in the United States.— This 
pamphlet of 240 pages is sent out by the De¬ 
partment of Agriculture. It was prepared 
by Richard J. Hinton. It gives a general 
history of irrigation, its advantages aud pos¬ 
sibilities, laws regulating it and much other 
interesting matter. All who are interested 
in this subject, which promises to be of in¬ 
creased importance in the future, should read 
this pamphlet. 
Woman’s Work. 
CONDUCTED BY EMILY LOUISE TAPLIN. 
A SERENADE. 
Tuk stars are bright in heaven, my love, 
The flow’ra bloom o’er the lea; 
But sweets below, ami lights above 
Are dim, uro faint, to thee. 
For Lf the flowers forgot to bloom. 
And darkness veiled the skies, 
To ms your breath would be perfume— 
My light would be your eyes. 
DORA HARVEY 
- ■ <*»• 
CHAT BY THE WAY. 
A scientific friend tells us of his moth¬ 
proof wardrobe, with whichhe defiesall man¬ 
ner of insects injurious to clothing. The in¬ 
terior of the wardrobe was unpainted, and 
therefore absorbent. It was varnished over 
with a thin shellac varnish, containing a solu¬ 
tion of camphor. This impregnates the closet 
with camphor, effectually keeping insects 
away, without the trouble or inconvenience 
of using lumps of the gum. The same prepa¬ 
ration may be applied to the interior of 
trunks used for packing away clothiug, es¬ 
pecially in places where insects abound. The 
varnish is made by dissolving white gum shel¬ 
lac iu alcohol—about two ounces of the gum 
to lfi ouuees of spirit. To this add sufficient 
camphor dissolved iu alcohol to give a strong 
odor. 
* * * 
Nothing makes life so pleasant as the 
small change of courtesy; small attentions 
that cost little, hut may mean much. There 
are letters, for example. Some of us cannot 
afford any extensive correspondence; postage 
aud paper must be considered with a narrow 
iucome. But a few words of sympathy to 
one iu trouble; congratulations to a happy 
one—they give so much pleasure at a small 
cost. Or a stray letter of friendly’import toja 
lonely one among strangers—why, it is an 
event to be remembered. 
* * * 
Sydney Smith says that a good many 
people are willing to act the good Samaritan, 
minus the oil and twopence. But doubtless 
that unfortunate wayfarer who fell among 
thieves thought quite as much of the kindly 
sympathy displayed by the Samaritan as he 
did of the material benefits. And kindly 
speech comes under the head courtesy’s 
small change. It is no small thing to be 
known as the woman who always has a pleas¬ 
ant word for everybody. 
* * * 
All the writers about women’s employments 
agree on one point; one prevailing fault that 
we are very apt to be guilty of, and that is 
want of thoroughness. It is strange, too, for 
as a rale women give more care to details than 
men; but it is doubtless the legitimate out¬ 
come of the old idea that we are only to take 
up an avocation until we marry. However, 
this objection to our work is gradually pass¬ 
ing away; there is really no reason why our 
work should not be as valuable as that of 
men, without our becoming unfeminine. 
* * * 
Blakely Hall, in a much-quoted letter, speaks 
of the charm of a graceful and womanly man¬ 
ner. It is true he regards it in a thoroughly 
masculine manner, chiefly as an aid to secur¬ 
ing a husband, but his observations are very 
much to the point. How often we see a really 
pretty girl who looses much of her charm 
through a brusque manner or a harsh voice; 
through lack of tact or want of sympathy! 
On the other hand, graceful manner, pleasant 
speech and gay, good-nature will often turn a 
negatively plain girl into a positively pretty 
one. And she is very apt to improve with 
age, like good wine. We cau’t all be pretty, 
but these other charms are surely within our 
reach, always remembering that a sunny 
temper and a disposition to laugh at fate are 
chief among them. 
A FEW THOUGHTS ABOUT CULTURE. 
ALICE BROWN. 
The wild rose is beautiful and fleeting. The 
gardener has developed a cultivated rose more 
beautiful and giving its flowers throughout 
the year. 
A good heart is a source of blessing though 
uncultured. Culture takes the fresh natural 
beauty of a good heart and adds to it the 
power to share the riches and fragrance of 
a hundred other lives, and its beauty becomes 
perennial. Some one has said a cultured man 
is one who continually exercises a firmly no¬ 
ble choice between the larger truth and the 
lesser, between that which is perfectly just 
and that which falls a little short of justice. 
Such culture as this no one can be excluded 
from, for it comes from within the man, not 
from circumstances without. 
Learning in itself does not make a man cul¬ 
tured. We read of rude, uucouth Icelanders 
who read Latin and Greek with ease, and 
follow learning with a keen pleasure In their 
lonely Winters, but they do not even strive 
for the larger thing we know as culture. 
Culture, this firmly noble choice, to be 
reached must be applied to all the details of 
life. The members of a cultured family will 
choose the best language at their command to 
express their thoughts among themselves, as 
much as though in the presence of learned 
strangers. If kindness or displeasure, ap¬ 
probation or ceusure are expressed, it will be 
in well weighed words that carry the full 
measure of moauing intended, no more and 
no less. One word is not enough to express 
every degroe of approbation, neither “ lovely” 
nor any similar expression is compelled to 
stand for every shade of approval. “ Horrid” 
“Dreadful" and “Terrible,” are used when 
truth demands their use. But culture goes 
beyond words. The choice between larger 
truth and lesser, extends to the mind shutting 
out unjust, idle, and in jurious thoughts; there 
can be no real culture except such as comes 
from the mind and heart, and the thought of 
silent hours must be chosen nobly or the mo¬ 
ments of action cannot bo noble. 
There will be a selection made to secure the 
larger good iu lx>oks, in companions, in social 
forms, and even iu dress and the furnishing of 
the homo, constant choice of the fitting aud 
the harmonious, will show the culture of the 
family. 
There is in such a culture as this an ennob¬ 
ling power. Truth is its foundation and 
though it may be expressed in many trivial 
ways, even these, like a sweet, sound nut, con¬ 
tain the germ of greater things. 
- ♦« » 
THE DUTY OF HAPPINESS. 
SELMA GLARE. 
Sir John Lubbock has written an essay on 
this subject, which is a broad one, and if 
looked at in the right light, is quite as import- 
