1901 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
743 
HOPE FARM NOTES 
Do Tfe understand you to say that 
shredded corn fodder is equal to Tim¬ 
othy hay for horses? 
That has been our experience for Win¬ 
ter feeding. The fodder must be bright 
and sweet. For Summer feeding it 
would not be so good. 
How do you prove your statements? 
For two Winters we have not fed any 
hay, and the horses kept in good weight 
and spirits. 
Has anyone given it a really scientific 
trial? 
Yes, the New Hampshire Experiment 
Station (Durham) in Bulletin No. 82, 
gives a record of one of the most prac¬ 
tical feeding experiments I have ever 
noticed. There were five big horses 
working on the farm. Their average 
weight was 1,220 pounds. For two years 
an accurate account was kept of all that 
these horses ate and drank and five dif¬ 
ferent rations were fed them. 
What was the object of the experi¬ 
ment? 
They wanted to know what it cost to 
feed a horse for one year; also whether 
wheat bran would take the place of oats 
for a working horse, and whether corn 
fodder worth $5 per ton will substitute 
for hay worth $16. 
What did they find out? 
Here are their figures for two years’ 
feeding of five horses: 
10,044 lbs. oats at 36 cts. per bu.., $113.00 
35,570 lbs. corn at $16 per ton.. \ 204.56 
1,530 lbs. gluten at $18 per ton. 13.77 
1,440 lbs. linseed oil meal at $28 
per ton . 20.16 
225 lbs. cotton-seed meal at $26 
per ton . 2.93 
10,711 lbs. bran at $17 per ton. 91.04 
36,540 lbs. Timothy hay at $16 
per ton . 292.32 
2,190 lbs. corn stover at $5 per ton. 5.48 
Total for two years. $743.26 
Average cost for each horse 
per year . 74.32 
Do you mean to say that it costs 
nearly $75 to feed a horse one year? 
It would cost me more than that if I 
fed hay all the year around, and fed 
oats. That is, I could sell the hay and 
grain required to keep Dan and h’ranic 
one year for more than $150! I cut this 
amount down by feeding more bran and 
ear corn and shredded fodder. 
Where are your figures? 
Take the statement as given above. 
Suppose that for at least five months in 
each year they had fed fodder instead of 
hay. This would mean 60 pounds of 
fodder per day for 302 days, or 18,120 
pounds instead of the same weight of 
hay. At their own figures this would 
substitute $46.05 worth of fodder for 
$147.36 worth of hay—a saving of 
$101.31. 
That surely brings it down! 
Yes, and if they had fed 8,000 pounds 
more bran instead of oats they would 
have saved $21.60 more, and brought the 
cost of feeding one horse for a year 
down to $62.03, allowing full prices for 
all food. That is a saving of over 16 
per cent. 
How did they test the corn fodder? 
They fed two horses 12 pounds of hay 
per day for 75 days, and two others 12 
pounds of the fodder. One horse of each 
lot had oats and corn, and the others 
bran and corn. One horse fed on fod¬ 
der held his weight and the other gain¬ 
ed. They did just as well as the horses 
that had hay. 
Was this fodder shredded? 
No, it was run through an ordinary 
cutter, and was not so good for feeding 
as the shredded stalks. 
Well, what about it? 
I think these figures prove what I 
have been saying about shredded fod¬ 
der. Where hay is cheap it will not 
mean so much, but in sections like ours 
where good loose hay is salable at $20 
per ton or more this means a good deal. 
Take a poor man in the city with a big 
hungry family and a small and shrink¬ 
ing job. Potatoes cost him $4 a barrel, 
but he suddenly finds that his people 
are just as well satisfied with yellow 
turnips at $1.25. That’s the way a farm¬ 
er oughc to feel when he finds that the 
horses will make no audible complaint 
(at least none that he can understand) 
when he substitutes $5 stalks for $16 
hay! Don’t you forget, however, that 
all this means taking better care of our 
stalks and getting them under cover 
early. 
They also fed linseed and cotton-seed 
meals! Why? 
Chiefly because they wanted to com¬ 
pare them with oats. The cotton-seed 
meal was not very satisfactory. The 
linseed was very useful. I always feed 
a little of it when the horses are eating 
stalks. 
What are stalks worth in your coun¬ 
try? 
They have no regular value. Last 
Winter a neighbor, an old man, sold a 
horse which was thrown back on his 
hands. He had no feed and I let him 
have long stalks which, at what he 
said was “the going price,’’ were worth 
$6. They kept the horse alive for nearly 
four months! She had a very small 
amount of ear corn in addition. She 
kept alive on this cheap ration, but that 
was all. It never pays to let a horse 
run down in the Winter. He won’t get 
his full strength back until too late for 
the Spring plowing. 
Farm Notes. —On October 25 the 
Cannas were still blooming and the 
sweet corn at the top of the hill un¬ 
touched by frost. The killing frost came 
last year on October 18. . . .We are 
still sowing rye, and shall continue to 
do so up to November 10 at any rate. 
This late-sown rye makes but a poor 
start in the Fall, but it jumps lively in 
the Spring and gives a good crop of fod¬ 
der or green manure. The Orchard 
grass in the old orchard is now a beau¬ 
tiful sight. How the stuff does grow! 
I shall turn the stock in for a few hours 
each day to nibble down this thick Fall 
growth. I would not do it, with any 
other grass! . . . The Cow-horn tur¬ 
nips have made a good stand. On Oc¬ 
tober 19 a fair specimen plant mea¬ 
sured two feet nine inches from tip of 
root to top of leaf. The root itself was 
13 inches long—11 inches being below 
ground. Right along side, a patch of 
rape seeded on the same day showed 
plenty of plants three feet from tip to 
tip, with roots two inches longer than 
the Cow-horn! The roots of the rape 
are much smaller, however. 
Is not the rape a better manurial 
plant then? 
No, I do not think so. It requires a 
much richer soil than the Cow-horn. 
The latter seems able to grow and thrive 
under conditions which would give the 
rape the hollow horn. In rich open soil 
the rape goes down deep, but it will balk 
and turn at a hard subsoil, while the 
Cow-horn will dig right through it. It 
has always seemed to me a mistake to 
use for manurial purposes a crop that 
needs to be fed, or which sulks if the 
soil is not rich. That is why I like the 
cow pea. Where soil will produce a fair 
crop of corn I would not grow a crop 
to be plowed under; at least I would not 
give the whole season to it. For green 
manuring I want a crop that will im¬ 
prove poor land—not one that requires 
good land to make it grow. I like the 
combination of Cow-horn turnips and 
Crimson clover very much for Fall 
growing. 
Manure Matters. —You have been 
writing lately about “chemicals and 
clover’’ for fields at a distance from the 
barn. 
Yes, I fully believe in that system. It 
is quite possible. 
But good farmers say that all hay and 
straw should be used on the farm, and 
not sent away. 
I know they do, and equally good 
farmers say and know that they can 
often sell their hay and grain for 
enough to buy twice the fertility they 
sent away. It is sometimes, not always, 
good policy to do this. 
Name a case. ^ 
I have a quantity of rye straw which 
I expect to sell at $20 per ton. Accord¬ 
ing to the chemists I sell 11 pounds of 
nitrogen, 22 pounds of potash and six 
pounds of phosphoric acid. I can buy 
this amount of fertility in the form of 
high-grade fertilizer for less than $4. I 
can go into the woods and rake up leaves 
for bedding which are worth more for 
fertilizing than the rye straw. Under 
these circumstances would it not be fool¬ 
ish for me to use the straw for bedding 
my horses? 
But this would not be fair of a crop 
like hay that could be fed. 
Why not? Take Timothy hay. A ton 
contains 27 pounds of nitrogen, 40 of 
potash and 14 of phosphoric acid. True, 
For the land’s sake, use Bowker’s Fer¬ 
tilizers. They enrich the earth.— Ad/o. 
I send away more than when I sell the 
straw, but I can buy the fertility for less 
than $8 and feed my stock on corn fod¬ 
der, which is not salable in our mar¬ 
ket. Thus it may be belter policy for 
Hope Farm to feed a horse in the city 
than it would to feed a cow at home! I 
would not for a moment belittle the plan 
of feeding all that we profitably can at 
home. There Is no cast-iron rule about 
it, however, and sometimes it will pay 
to sell rather than to feed. It requires 
wise judgment to tell when this is true. 
Then you believe in stable manure? 
Yes, indeed. While other forms of 
plant food may be just as available there 
is no form of humus or vegetable mat¬ 
ter quite equal to manure. 
Would not a crop of clover plowed di¬ 
rectly into the ground be equal to the 
manure made by feeding the same clover 
to stock? 
The manure would have one advan¬ 
tage. 
What is it? 
The chief advantage that I will admit 
is that the manure contains more of the 
bacteria that do so much work in the 
soil toward breaking up and setting 
plant food free. Personally, I do not 
consider this advantage great enough to 
warrant hauling manure for any very 
long distance. It is my own practice, 
therefore, to crowd all my manure on 
the 20 acres nearest to the barn and use 
chemicals and manurial crops on the 
rest of the farm. If the farm were level 
I should scatter the manure over a 
larger area, but as it is I could not do so 
without hauling up a very steep hill. 
Home Comfort. —The nights are long 
and the air chills after the sun goes 
down. We realized that the other night 
as we started on a long ride home from 
town. We had a late start, as there had 
been various delays, but when Charlie 
finally shook out the lines Dan and 
Major started off to cover the 12 miles 
of hilly road that lay before Hope Farm. 
Aunt Emma and Grandmother pulled 
their cloaks around them. The Madame 
was to come later on the train. 
“That’s the green corn!’’ said Charlie 
as old Major began to sweat even in the 
chilly air. The sun went down and the 
shadows grew darker, and still the 
horses trotted on mile after mile. We 
stopped talking, as many do when twi¬ 
light comes on with its load of old-time 
thoughts. At last we left the main road 
and climbed the hill that looks down on 
our valley. There it was—far across on 
the other side—the light of Hope Farm. 
There is little sentiment about Dan or 
Major, but they know the remedy for 
an empty stomach when they see it in 
the distance, and they picked up their 
feet for a final sprint. With a whirl we 
turned the corner into our own road. 
There was Shep, watching for us in front 
of the house. The Cutting was bustling 
about inside getting supper ready, and 
four little faces were glued against the 
window. The Graft brought a chair to 
help Grandmother step out of the sur¬ 
rey. The Bud’s little face fell because 
Mother did not come, but that did not 
last. Philip and Hugh had the chores 
done, and they led the tired horses off 
to the barn. All the barn folks were 
made snug and then we went in to sam¬ 
ple what the Cutting had ready for us. 
With bread and butter, codfish and 
cream, a slice of meat, baked apples and 
a big bread pudding piping hot from the 
oven, we soon filled out the kinks that 
had been jolted into us on the long ride. 
Surely the farm home is a good place to 
get into on a cold night. We see the 
best side of it after driving in the dark 
past other homes. H. w. c. 
Th^ BC^'ST Cattle 
FaMtenliue 
SM IT H 8 8®if- 
adjantlnx Swine 
Btanohlon The Oniy 
Practical awtng staa- 
ohton Inrented. Thon- 
Bands In nse. niust’d 
Circular tree. 
GLENOKA MIG. CO., 
Glenora, Yates County, 
N. Y. IntrineemeaU 
THE CHAIN-HANGING 
Cattle Stanchion 
The most practical and humar.e Fastener ever In- 
eated. Gives perfectfreedom of the bead. I llustrat^d 
’iroularand Price freeon application. Manufactured 
ly O. H. KOBKRTisON. Forewtvl'le. Conn. 
I t 
GET A DANDY” 
the fastest cutting: bone cutter tnatlo, 
and double your eg:g yield. Sold direct 
on 30 days trial. t5 up. Catalogue free. 
Stratton Mfg. Co., Box 13, Erie, Pa. 
ICTOR 
ViNCUBATORSP 
The simplest, most durable, cheap- p 
est Qrst-ulass hatcher. Mouey back ^ 
If not as represented. Circular | 
fre<»; cataloftue 6o. We par th** | 
frciKht. CKO. KRTKT.ro. Qalner. III. » 
--- 
200-Egg Incubator 
for 
In construction and 
Hatches every fertile 
for catalogne to-day. 
H. STAHL, Quincy. III. ' 
LIFE PRODUCERS 
SUCCESSFUL INCUBATORS. 
LIFE PRESERVERS 
SUCCESSFUL BROODERS. 
All about them in our 158 page cata* 
lognie. Mailed for 4 cents tn stamps. 
90,DesMolnes,la. orBx 80, Buffalo,N.Y 
MAKE POULTRY PAY 
by feeding green cut bone. 'Ihe Humphrey 
tiretLs Bone nnd Vegetable ('utter U guaran¬ 
teed to cut more bone in lesi time with leas labor 
than any other cutter made. Send for free book 
containing blanks for one year’s egg record. 
Humphrey & Sons, Box 39. Joliet, HI. 
A FULL EGG BASKET 
results If hens are fed raw out bone—the 
greatest ol egg producers. 
Mann’s Bone Cutter Moda 
'utsall bones, including meat and gristle 
»asier and faster than any other or don’t 
ieep It. Open hopper. Self-governing 
Ceed.-Wastes nothing. TEN DAYS TRIAL. 
No money In advance. Cat’lg. free. 
(Newton’s Tatoui,.; 
Every 
Dehorner 
Guaranteed 
THOUSANDS IN USE. 
Ask your hardware dealer for them or write 
H. 11. BKOWN MFG. CO.. • • DECAXTJK, ILL. 
M. T. PHILLIPS. Pomeroy, Pa., (Successor to A. C. BROSIUS) 
^ Thirty Thousand Pennies for Your Thoughts! 
S 30000 IN CASH PRIZES 
will be given to farmers and their wives, .sons and daughters for writing 
* acceptable AclvertiHenicnts for DIETZ LiANTEltNS, as follows : 
Ist Prize, for best advertisement In prose.S 60 00 
2d “ “ next best advertisement in prose. 40.00 
3d ” “ best advertisement in poetry. 25 00 
4d ” “ third best advertisement In yxrose. 20 00 
Next 4 Prizes, prose or poetry, SSIO each. 40 OO 
ii lo “ *• “ “ 5 “ 50.00 
“ 20 “ “ “ “ “ 40.00 
“ 25 “ •“ “ “ 1 “ 5J6.00 
Total 63 Cash Prizes.8300.00 
CONDITIONS : 
Ail advertisements entered In this contest must oe original with the sender. The writer 
or some member of the writer's family must be an actual user of a Dietz lantern. Tils is 
. necessary In order to know the i.ietz points of superiority overother makes The writer may 
' illustrate or suggest the idea for an illustration for the advertisement, or may omit '1 us 
tratlons altogether, at his option. There is no restriction as to the number of advetiisements 
each may enter for the prizes, but each one should have attached the writer's name and 
address plainly written. All advertisements suomltted are to become our property The e 
4 Is no ch rge of any kind for entering this eontes . This contest closes December 15. 
1901. The editors of three prominent farm papers will act as judges to decide the mer.ts of 
4 advertisements submitted Announcement of the prize winners will appear in this paper as 
soon as possible after the awards are made. 
^ YOUR THOUGHT MAY BE VALUABLE. 
You stand the same chance as anyone else to win a prize -If you trv “Fair field and no 
^ favor” Is the motto of this ompetitlon. 'Samples of previous advertisements, illustrated 
catalogue of Dietz lanterns and any further pa tloulars desired will be sent all who w ite 
that they intend to complete foi the prizes. Mention this paper and address all communica- 
,lo«s and eatrics Advertlaemeut Contest Itept., 
’ R. E. DIETZ COMPANY, 87 Lalght St., New York City. 
4 TAis announcArmni will not appear again. Put this aside for safe keeping and reference- 
