1902 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER. 
3i 
STALK SILAGE IS “NO GOOD." 
I built a new barn the past season, 
72x34 feet, and of course bad to have 
a silo, so put up a tub 18x24 feet. Hav¬ 
ing a very wet May and June, and the 
press of extra work of building, I did 
not get in shape to plant enough silo 
corn to fill the tub but 17 feet up, so 
having an extra good piece of field corn 
I husked it early. I finished October 8, 
and it was a fine lot of fodder, too. 1 
got a Blizzard cutter No. 14, rigged up 
a tub so I could run in a half-inch 
stream of water as the fodder was going 
through, and we blew it into the silo in 
great shape. I hardly thought it was 
wet enough, so hauled pails of water, 
and sloshed on till we were certain 
that we had used 80 pails of water, cov¬ 
ered it up in nice shape, and were cer¬ 
tain that we had something to surely 
make cute feed. Not getting the basement 
to barn finished the cows did not go 
there till December 7. Before the stock 
was in the old barn, colder if anything 
than out doors, so we thought when we 
hau them in their new quarters, and 
the silo was opened, we would get some 
milk. It wasn’t to be. When we opened 
the silo we took off a foot, till we came 
to, as we supposed, good feed. It looked 
all right, no mold, smelt like silage; 
quite a little warmth to it. After it had 
been to the air it would dry and seem 
merely like cut dry cornstalks, only I 
believe the dry cut cornstalk would be 
100 per cent better. I have fed the stuff 
just two weeks now, and the cows have 
shrunk every day in milk. I have fed it 
in every shape that I know. The cows 
will eat it, what you can crowd into a 
bushel basket to a feed. If more than 
that they will leave it. I feed the stuff 
twice daily, morning and evening, with 
three quarts of grain on each feed. The 
grain ration is 400 pounds cornmeal, 400 
bran, 300 oats, 200 gluten feed, 100 hom¬ 
iny, mixed. In addition to this is a 
good feed of bright hay at noon. It is 
my honest opinion that oat straw is bet¬ 
ter for milk than that cut dry corn fod¬ 
der cut into silo and wet down, and 
hardly anyone has a great liking for 
oat straw as a milk producer. I have 
the stuff and will have to get rid of it 
in some shape. I hate to draw it out 
and spread it, but think I should be 
anead if I did. I’m of the opinion that 
there is some first-rate corn silage in 
that tub when I get to it, but dry corn- 
fodder silage isn’t any good. 
Otsego Co., N. Y. albert b. phelps. 
STOCK NOTES FROM CANADA. 
I am engaged in dairying and hog 
raising, and feel convinced that in work¬ 
ing those two allied specialties side by 
side I am on the right track. (My cows 
are not purebred cattle. They are sim¬ 
ply natives. I have not found it so in¬ 
cumbent upon me to handle the im¬ 
proved breeds of dairy cattle, as in the 
case of the hogs. Probably ii I kept 
dual-purpose cows, as our friend Shaw 
recommends, it would be incumbent up¬ 
on me to have purebred animals, al¬ 
though I have yet to see a detailed re¬ 
cipe for producing this two-sided cow. 
Anyway, I take no stock in ine dual- 
purpose cow. I train my heifers to give 
milk from the first Winter until they 
drop their first calves by intelligent 
manipulation of the udder, abdomen and 
milk veins, and have come to the con¬ 
clusion that training is of more import¬ 
ance than breed or strain. As I do not 
have the cow for the sake of her car¬ 
cass, it is clear that a fine ham and rib 
is not of such importance in the dairy 
cow as in the hog. Shape is of all im¬ 
portance In the modern market hog, and 
I have therefore chosen the breed of 
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January 1, 1903. Get up a club at once. 
hogs that conforms most closely to mod¬ 
ern market demands, and find this to 
be the Tamworth. Bred in right lines, 
this is by no means a hard feeder, has 
the depth of side required by the packer 
for the finest side of bacon, and the ham 
is found to conform most nicely to the 
demand of discriminating markets. 
Then again, the Tamworth is a great 
rustler and forager; a producer of large, 
strong litters, and able to nurse them 
abundantly. This breed of hogs makes 
the best use of the dairy by-products, 
and, like a Hereford steer, puts the meat 
in the right place. It is certainly an 
anomaly that dairy-fed hogs have to 
compete in the same markets with the 
corn-fed article, and bring but the same 
price. I am sure we would willingly, 
give a cent a pound more for a nice 
fleshy, dairy-fed porker of about 180 
pounds, than for a big corn-fed animal, 
much heavier and three times as fat. 
The fact is few of those who are able to 
pay the best prices for meats eat the 
big corn-fed porker at all. The West 
may, and probably does, find more profit 
in producing the big, fat Poland and 
Duroc, but it is passing strange how the 
East does. What the dairymen need to 
do is build cooperative bacon-curing fac¬ 
tories in connection with the creameries 
of a district, as they have done in Den¬ 
mark. That the chief of the dairy divi¬ 
sion does not help to bring this about 
is to say the least a little surprising. 
Were it not for Government effort this 
happy state of affairs would have never 
been brought about in Canada. In near¬ 
ly every hog market in Canada the 
dairy-fed bacon hog brings about one- 
half to three-fourths cent per pound 
more than the thick, fat, corn-fed hog. 
J. R. MACDONALD. 
Prince Edward Island, Canada. 
Roughage From a Small Farm. 
Some weeks ago we printed a note from 
a woman farmer who told of raising a large 
amount of fodder on a small area. There 
have been so many requests for further 
particulars that we have secured the fol¬ 
lowing statement from her: 
Perhaps I have been misleading. I 
pasture my cattle either by the week (50 
cents per head) or hire a piece of pasture 
for the season, when I am fortunate 
enough .to get it, so you see I do not 
raise enough without outside help to feed 
33 head 365 days In the year. I have 15 
cows (just disposed of two), seven heif¬ 
ers coming two years of age, and six 
coming one year, and three horses, mak¬ 
ing 31 animals at present. I have aboul: 
three acres of gra/ss seeded after the 
Clark method, that feeds my three horses 
365 days in the year, and would have 
some left, only I pasture that grass in 
the Fall when I am so short of milk. I 
know it Is not good farming, but lack of 
capital forces me to do a good many 
things I do not approve of. Our garden 
takes about one-half acre; the rest I put 
into feed for the cows. I try to sow 
about 1 y 2 or two acres of oats to cut for 
hay and about the same of rye to turn 
under as humus or cut for hay as the 
season and the need seems best. All 
the rest Is Virginia Horse-tooth silage 
corn. In 1900 the stalks ran 16 feet 
high, with a good many 19 feet. In 1901, 
a very poor year, they ran only 14 feet 
and the taller ones 17 feet, so you see 
that will make a good deal less feed. 
My silo holds nearly 100 tons. After .that 
is full I drive two posts into the ground 
about 12 feet apart and eight or 10 feet 
high. I nail a board (regular roof 
boards) across and stack the stalks that 
are left against them; then lay a pole 
across on both sides and tie the ends of 
.the poles together, making quite a long 
tent. They never fall down. You see 
there is nothing helpful or interesting in 
it all—but there might be If 1 could do 
as I wish. I feed my cattle from the 
latter part of August until about the 
middle of May. I use wheat bran, cot¬ 
ton-seed meal, gluten, hominy chop, 
middlings, rye, feed, cornmeal and lin¬ 
seed and oats for the horses. 
Rye Bran eor Horses. —I have fed 
and worked farm horses all my life, and 
from such experience and from experi¬ 
menting, I consider that rye bran is the 
cheapest and strongest feed for hard 
work, wheat bran never, and oats the 
safest. The bran should, however, be 
always thoroughly mixed through cut 
hay or straw that has been well wet, 
so that the bran will stick to it in mix¬ 
ing. I have never known of a horse 
dying from eating bran if so treated. 
Borne horses are greedy, and grab a 
mouthful of their feed and swallow 
without proper masticating, which is 
very likely to cause colic. This bad 
habit can be guarded against by spread¬ 
ing the feed in the manger quite thin, 
so compelling the animal to pick it up 
slowly. The cheapest way to get rye 
bran is to buy the rye and have it 
ground, then sell the flour. Do not let 
the miller dip the toll, but pay in cash 
for grinding, say seven cents per bushel, 
which brings the feed to a compara¬ 
tively small cost. Never feed whole rye 
nor the bran and flour, as the latter has 
a feeding value of but $1.18 per 100 
pounds, while it sells for $1.80. 
Ulster Co., N. Y. j. v. henry nott. 
Dry Stalk Silage.— I have noticed an 
inquiry as to the practicability of putting 
cured corn fodder in the silo. As answers 
have not been plenty, I will tell what little 
I know. At least two or three times, after 
putting in the corn directly from the field, 
I have added dry stalks, sometimes those 
that had dried before cutting, sometimes 
some that had cured in shocks. Sometimes 
it was sprinkled, at other times not. All 
stalks have been put in whole, with the 
exception of one year. As to results, of 
course the dry stalks are not as good as 
those put in directly after cutting, but I 
thought them so much better in the silo 
than the hay mow, that as the silage set¬ 
tled, I moved them from the mow to the 
silo. But they were put on the top of 
moist silage; I never filled a silo entirely 
with cured fodder. b. 
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