44 
THE RURAL 
January 21 
Foods and Feeding 
FEEDING THE DAIRY COW. 
NOTES ON WESTERN PEACTICE. 
Not Enough Protein. —In Bulletin No. 
81 of the Kansas Experiment Station, 
Prof. H. M. Cottrell gives some excellent 
advice on the care and feed of the dairy 
cow. He says that one of the best^rain 
mixtures for cows before calving is, by 
weight, two-thirds bran, one-third lin¬ 
seed meal. The best yield of milk is ob¬ 
tained in the early part of June, espec¬ 
ially in Kansas. On June pasture, every 
fresh cow, no matter how bred, or pre¬ 
viously fed, gives a good yield. The true 
dairy cow then makes her highest record. 
As a standard, then, we must feed for 
June conditions. These conditions are 
appetizing, succulent food, rich in milk- 
malting materials, great variety of 
flavors, mild temperature, pure air and 
water and general comfort. Prof. Cot¬ 
trell gives a number of rations which he 
found being fed in Kansas. At one in¬ 
stitute, a dairyman said that he was feed¬ 
ing all the good prairie hay, corn fodder 
and corn the cow would eat. The more 
she ate, the faster she seemed to dry up. 
Figuring that the cow ate the following 
quantities, Prof. Cottrell thinks it is no 
wonder that she was drying up and fat¬ 
tening. She needed 2% pounds per day 
of protein, but received less than two 
pounds: 
Protein. 
Lbs. 
Carbohyd. 
Lbs. 
Fat. 
Lbs. 
15 pounds prairie hay. 
.. .53 
6.27 
.21 
10 pounds corn fodder. 
.. .20 
3.3! 
.06 
15 pounds corn. 
10.00 
.65 
Total. 
.. 1.90 
19.59 
.92 
Needed. 
.. 2.50 
12.50 
.40 
A much better ration could be made in 
this way : 
Protein. Carbohyd. Fat 
Lbs. Lbs. Lbs. 
28 pounds prairie bay. 
.. .70 
8 36 
.28 
10 pounds corn fodder. 
.. .20 
3.3! 
06 
10 pounds bran. 
3.71 
.26 
Total. 
15.39 
.60 
Needed. 
12.50 
.40 
give better returns than two. Ground 
oats are much relished by cows. They 
usually cost too much, yet it is fre¬ 
quently profitable to add a handful of 
ground oats to the ration of each meal. 
Those who feed cows for high records 
understand this, and feed a great variety 
usually including some ground oats. A 
cow at pasture eating mixed grasses 
obtains a great variety in almost every 
mouthful. 
Effect on Butter. —When cows are 
eating corn fodder, Timothy hay, straw 
or corn, the butter is usually too hard. 
It will not spread well, but gathers in 
lumps or chunks on the bread. This 
hardness is caused by-the feed. On fresh 
grass, the butter is likely to be soft, but 
as the grass grows, it becomes firmer. 
Linseed or gluten meals make butter 
soft in any kind of weather; corn and 
cotton-seed meal harden it; bran slightly 
softens the butter, and oats make it 
hard. As a rule, the grain has a stronger 
influence on the quality than the rough 
feed. The spreading quality of butter 
greatly influences its consumption. When 
hard butter gathers in chunks or lumps 
upon the bread, it is not eaten so readily, 
and less will be used. Prof. Cottrell 
gives the instance of a dairyman in 
the North who tried to get a contract 
for supplying a large quantity of butter 
in the South. He was feeding bran and 
linseed meal, and when his butter reached 
the South, it was almost like oil, and of 
course, he lost the contract. If he had 
used corn and cotton-seed meal, instead 
of bran and linseed, his butter would 
have shipped perfectly, and he would 
have secured the contract. Much of the 
trouble with early grass butter can be 
avoided by feeding corn or cotton-seed 
meal in place of bran and oats; in fact, 
cotton-seed meal is one of the best grains 
to feed dairy co vs while at pasture. 
SUGGESTIONS. 
By adding a pound of linseed meal, this 
ration would be improved, though there 
is too much fat in it. 
One-Sided Rations —At another in¬ 
stitute, a man said that his cows were 
drying up faster than they should ; as 
he was feeding sorghum hay, he thought 
that that might ba the cause. The co ws 
had all the sorghum hay, corn fodder 
and prairie hay that they would eat, 
and also some corn. Of course, they 
were drying up, but it was not the fault 
of the sorghum hay alone, it was be¬ 
cause all the feeds mentioned were de¬ 
ficient in protein, without which the 
cow could not make a large mess of 
milk. Protein, or muscle-making food, 
must be used in making milk or blood 
or anything else containing nitrogen, 
and nothing else can take its place. A 
cow can have too much protein, but 
very few dairymen ever make that mis¬ 
take in feeding. Bran and linseed or 
cotton-seed meal are the best feeds, with 
Timothy hay or corn fodder. Prof. Cot¬ 
trell says that some farmers that changed 
from corn fodder to clover or Alfalfa 
hay, used the same grain rations as they 
did before. This, of course, gives too 
much protein, and injures the cow. 
Need of Succulent Food —Prof. Cot¬ 
trell lays great stress upon succulent 
foods. They are useful in Winter be¬ 
cause they come closest to the conditions 
in a June pasture. When a cow is con¬ 
stipated, there is a feverish condition of 
the body. A smaller per cent of the food 
is digested and converted into milk. The 
feeds chiefly found in Kansas are divided 
by Prof. Cottrell into these two classes. 
I.008KNING FEEDS. 
Alfalfa. 
Sorghum hay. 
Ensilage. 
Roots. 
Bran. 
Soy bean meal. 
Linseed meal. 
Gluten meal. 
CONSTIPATING FEEDS. 
Corn fodder. 
Corn stalks. 
Kaffir corn fodder. 
Prairie hay. 
Timothy hay. 
Kaffir corn grain. 
Corn (in light feeds). 
Cotton-seed meal. 
Frauds and Factories. — Hoard’s 
Dairyman tells of three Ohio farmers 
who recently gave notes for $300 for a 
buttermaking process that turned out to 
be a cheat. Of course, those men did 
not take an agricultural paper. The 
Dairyman also says that, when a cream¬ 
ery or cheese factory fails, it generally 
does so for the want of milk Humans 
generally die for the want of breath, 
and milk is as necessary to the creamery 
as breath is to the human body. One 
great trouble with the creamery shark 
is that he locates a creamery in a neigh¬ 
borhood where it is impossible to obtain 
a standard amount of milk. When the 
milk supply begins to drop off, of course 
that creamery cannot pay a good divi¬ 
dend; then, jnstead of hangingtogether 
and buying more cows, some of the 
farmers get out at once, and down goes 
the creamery. 
When to Feed. — The question of 
whether to feed cows while milking or 
not, causes the wise men a good deal of 
discussion. Ex-Gov. Hoard says that he 
has known cows with the bad habit of 
holding up their milk. The only way to 
make them give it down was to put some 
food before them. The act of feeding 
seemed to take the mind of that cow out 
of the stubborn mood. Prof. Cottrell 
says that the cow should never be fed 
before or while milking. He says that 
a cow properly trained will give more 
milk when she devotes her whole atten¬ 
tion to that business. When she is eat¬ 
ing at the same time, she will be moving 
backward and forward trying to snatch 
her feed, and being scolded by the milk¬ 
er for not standing still. We wonder 
what Prof. Cottrell would do with one 
of those stubborn cows that Gov. Hoard 
tells about. He would, probably, breed 
that stubborn mood out of her before 
she ever gave milk ! 
Cows, like human beings, crave variety 
in their food. A mixture of two grains 
will produce a higher yield than the 
same amount of food given in one grain, 
and four or five grains mixed together 
Alfalfa and Bran. —Prof. Cottrell 
says that, in Kansas, Alfalfa hay is 
essential to the cheap production of milk 
and butter. Good Alfalfa hay contains 
over 86 per cent as much protein as bran. 
NEW-YORKER. 
He says that the amount of -protein in 
Alfalfa varies from 9.9 per cent when 
poorly cured and roughly handled, to 
16.2 per cent where the best of care is 
taken. Average bran contains less than 
13 per cent of digestible protein. With 
good handling, therefore, Alfalfa hay 
can be made which is worth more than 
its weight of bran. In Colorado, tests 
show that the leaves of Alfalfa bay con¬ 
tain over 14 per cent digestible protein, 
so that a ton of them has the feeding 
value of 2,400 pounds of wheat bran. 
Alfalfa, like clover hay, when roughly 
handled, loses many of the h aves, and 
consists almost entirely of stems. The 
best feeding value is in the leaves, and 
this shows tae necessity of great care in 
handling both Alfalfa and clover. 
Tiiose wonderful German chemists seem to be 
able to find almost anything they set out to dis¬ 
cover. One of them is now reported as saying 
that alcohol can be obtained straight from the 
cow. He found a herd which was fed on waste 
from a distillery, with pure alcohol secreted in 
the milk. 
The Sucking Cow.—T ake Cayenne pepper, the 
best, and use a pepper box. When doDe milk¬ 
ing, having the teats perfectly dry, sprinkle the 
pepper on them, also throw in the soft hair on 
the udder and on the leg, especially on the s'de 
she sucks herself. Could you catch her, stand 
over her and shake the pepper down on her 
tongue. Keep it up as long as you think she 
sucks. I kept it up for over three months. 
California. G. N. M. m. 
We hear sometimes of dairymen who mix their 
brains with their skim-milk, and thus make it 
good food for calves. The beauty of it is that the 
more the calf eats of such brains, the more the 
man has who supplies them. The man who 
heats skim-milk to the proper temperature and 
drops in a little linseed jelly or fresh egg, or a 
little oatmeal, mixes brains with the milk, and 
helps his own head and pocketbook by doing so. 
Doctors now agree that 
consumption is curable. 
Three things, if taken to¬ 
gether, will cure nearly every 
case in the first stages; the 
majority of cases more ad¬ 
vanced; and a few of those 
far advanced. 
The first is, fresh air; the se¬ 
cond, proper food; the third, 
Scott’s Emulsion of cod-liver 
oil with hypophosphites. 
To be cured, you must not 
lose in weight, and, if thin, 
you must gain. Nothing 
equals Scott’s Emulsion to 
keep you in good flesh. 
50 c. and $t.oo, all druggists. 
SCOTT & BOWNE, Chemists, New York. 
HENS DON’T 
voluntarily. The food 
may go to make meat and 
bone or it may go to eggs, 
and the secret of getting eggs 
when wanted is to turn the 
food into the proper channel. 
Lee’s Tonic Powder acts on 
the digestive organs. When 
fed to cows it increases the flow 
of milk and when fed to hens it 
nils the egg basket. Not a stim¬ 
ulant—nothing else like It on the 
market. We send a 25c. box of 
the Tonic and a 30c. can of Lee’s 
Lice Killer as samples, for 30 cts- 
The Lice Killer kills all body lice, 
mites, etc., on poultry by simply 
painting it on roosts. Our 68 -page 
book on “Insects” and diseases of 
poultry, free. Address nearest office. 
GEO. H. LEE CO., 1110 Farnam St., OMAHA, NEB. 
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Thousands of these in successful Oper¬ 
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Large valuable catalogue, 6 c. 
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Buy no Incubator mud pay for it 
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Many people have lost faith Id incubators be¬ 
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