1192 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
November 1, 
FEEDING PROBLEMS. 
Under this heading we endeavor to 
give advice and suggestions about feed¬ 
ing mixtures of grains and fodders. No 
definite rules are given, but the advice 
is based upon experience and average 
analyses of foods. By “protein” is meant 
the elements in the food which go to 
make muscle or lean meat. “Carbohy¬ 
drates” comprise the starch, sugar, etc., 
which make fat and provide fuel for the 
body, while “fat” is the pure oil found in 
foods. “Dry matter” means the weight 
of actual food left in fodder or grain 
when all the water is driven off. A “nar¬ 
row ration” means one in which the pro¬ 
portion of protein to carbohydrates is 
close—a “wide” ration means one which 
shows a larger proportion of carbohy¬ 
drates. 
Feeding Fat Into Milk. 
As referee to decide the question of a 
diversity of opinions, will Tiie B. N.-Y. 
inform us whether or not, the percentage 
of butter fats of an individual cow, can 
be increased in her milk by proper feed¬ 
ing? With an increased quantity and 
an increased quality of food supplied to 
her along with an increased flow of milk, 
will not the percentage of her butter fats 
be raised, or is this percentage an inher¬ 
ent fixed unit of the individual cow’s 
milk, immutable by feeding? 
A BORDEN’S PATRON. 
This is one of the perpetual motion 
questions asked by someone every week. 
Many experiments have been tried, and 
each one thus far seems to tell the same 
story. The ability to put fat into milk 
is characteristic of the cow. Her milk 
will vary somewhat from time to time, 
but within narrow 7 limits, you cannot 
change the proportion of fat by feeding. 
The usual conclusive argument is to point 
to the Holstein cattle. These cow r s Are 
noted for giving large quantities of milk 
rather low in fat. Their milk is some¬ 
times so thin that it falls below the legal 
standard. If it were possible to “feed 
fat into milk” the Holstein breeders 
would long since have learned what kind 
of feed to use, and some of their cows 
would be giving a barrel, more or less, of 
five per cent milk. But they never have 
been able to do it, and the improvement 
of the breed for fat production is the slow 
old one of breeding from cow 7 s which nat¬ 
urally give the richest milk. 
Hogs on Alfalfa. 
I live in the Alfalfa belt of Central 
New York, and grow 7 Alfalfa. I have a 
steep w’estern slope hillside, and am 
thinking of seeding it to Alfalfa and di¬ 
viding it into three or four fields, and 
turning pigs on it. Would Alfalfa and 
water (plenty of shade) mature hogs 
in a season? Would Spring or Fall be 
the best time to seed? Neighbors here 
seed Alfalfa both Spring and Fall. 1 am 
afraid it might wash if seeded in the Fall. 
Jamesville, N. Y. E. H. H. 
In seeding we should follow the prac¬ 
tice of the best Alfalfa farmers in your 
section—which w 7 ill mean seeding in 
Spring. Experiments in the West show 
that hogs will make a good growth on 
clover or Alfalfa, but that for best fin¬ 
ished pork some more carbonaceous food 
should be added. Sugar beets have 
proven a good supplement to the Alfalfa- 
in feeding both hogs and sheep. While 
you can grow the hogs to good size on 
Alfalfa pasture it will pay to use some 
corn to “finish” as this makes the pork 
firmer and better flavored. 
ply the lime and harrow it in after 
plowing the peas under. This w r ould 
have sw 7 eetened the soil for the clover 
and the growth of the clover would 
probably have been improved. My usual 
practice has been to do just as you pro¬ 
pose, by applying the lime when turning 
under the clover in the Spring. But 
where the land is manifestly acid, as 
yours probably is from what you say of 
its previous treatment, I w 7 ould have ap¬ 
plied the lime after plowing the peas 
dow'n. Peas will grow in somewhat acid 
conditions in the soil, and clover usually 
fails to do much under such conditions. 
In fact, after all the talk about inocula¬ 
tion for clover, I am satisfied that the 
sweetening of the soil is fully or more 
important than inoculation, for no 
amount of inoculation will avail much if 
the soil is acid. w. F. massey. 
Silage for Young Stock. 
Will it be safe for me to winter young 
stock on silage alone—without any grain 
or hay? J. s. 
I should not consider it advisable to 
winter young stock on silage alone. The 
day is past when the farmer can afford 
(if he ever could) put his stock in sta¬ 
ble in Autumn in fair condition and have 
them come out in the Spring no larger 
and considerably lighter and poorer than 
when they were stabled in the Fall. I 
should expect the silage to be so deficient 
in protein that they could not possibly 
make the best growth. It surely pays to 
keep them growing from the day they 
are born. The silage would be an ex¬ 
cellent feed, but alone would doubtless 
be too laxative and I should add both 
hay and grain rich in protein. 
New York. d. w. southard. 
I would not advise feeding silage alone 
to any animal for any length of time. 
This young stock will do so much bet¬ 
ter with two pounds of ship on the silage 
night and morning for each animal and 
even the smallest quantity of hay, that 
it will pay well to buy them in addition 
to the silage. The future cow develops 
from the calf of to-day. 
New York. geo. e. howell. 
I cannot say whether your corres¬ 
pondent can keep his young cattle on 
silage alone all Winter or not. It depends 
on how tough they are. Cattle sometimes 
die apparently with but little cause, and 
again we wonder at the abuse that they 
will stand and still live. Corn silage 
alone is certainly not a balanced ration 
for cattle, young or old, and young cat¬ 
tle that are building up their bodies of 
bone and tissue need a balanced ration 
even more than milch cows do. 
At the Geneva Experiment Station an 
acre of corn in the “milk” stage, which 
is about as ripe as most corn for the silo 
ever gets, yielded 32,000 pounds of which 
29,957 pounds were water, 4,643 pounds 
dry matter. This dry matter was com- t 
posed of 1,202 pounds of indigestible 
fibre, 2,441 nitrogen free extract, 228 
ether extract and 232 pounds of ash. 
Also 478 pounds albuminoids, which is the 
lean meat, or muscle forming product. 
I think that if the inquirer w 7 ill take these 
figures and start with the number of 
pounds of silage that one of his young 
animals will eat in a day and figure 
out the number of pounds, or fractions 
of a pound, of the different kinds of nour¬ 
ishment that the animal will get, that he 
will no longer think of wintering his 
cattle on silage alone. Silage has been 
lauded so much that many have got the 
idea it is worth a great deal more than 
it really is. It certainly is good stuff, 
but a great deal of its goodness consists 
of its succulence or palatability, which 
helps the animal when fed in connection 
with other feeds. J. GRANT MORSE. 
New York. 
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2-4-e-8 ROLL SIZES 
Virginia Dairy Ration. 
1. What grain ration would you sug¬ 
gest to keep cows in fair milking condi¬ 
tion in addition to silage composed of 
half corn (fairly eared) and Soy beans 
(pods formed but not filled) in lower 
part of silo, and corn same and cow pea 
(podded, not filled) in upper portion with 
Alfalfa hay for roughage? 2. Land sandy 
loam, sand predominating iu places in¬ 
tended for corn next year has had a good 
crop of cow peas turned under and seed¬ 
ed to Crimson clover to be plowed in, on 
this I propose to apply say 500 pounds 
basic slag and 50 pounds muriate of pot¬ 
ash mixed, per acre as a top-dressing for 
clover and to benefit corn. I intend har¬ 
rowing in ground limestone after sod is 
turned. What is your opinion? 
Virginia C. H. 
1. The difficulty in calculating a ration 
with your materials is that the food value 
of the mixed silage is unknown. Treat¬ 
ing it as corn silage narrows the ration 
somewhat, but I do not know that that 
will cause any difficulty. Your hay is all 
of a highly nitrogenous nature. I would 
suggest the following as near as I can 
calculate: Silage 20 pounds; pea, bean 
and Alfalfa hay mixed and cut together, 
seven pounds; cornmea! five pounds. 
This will make I believe a very fair milk 
ration. 2. You are making a very gopd 
preparation for the corn crop, but I 
think you would have done better to ap- 
Value of Roots. 
What is the value of cow beets, accord¬ 
ing to the price of feed? I have to pay 
these prices 100 pounds: Cracked corn 
$1.89; middlings $1.66; cotton-seed 
meal, $1.5)5; bran $1.46. As I am sell¬ 
ing cream I would like to know whether 
cow beets, carrots and turnips would be 
good, and if they would give a bitter 
taste, as I sell sweet and sour cream? 
Tom’s River, N. J. p. L. 
It would be difficult to make an exact 
comparison of the value of cow beets, 
or mangels, with that of the grains or¬ 
dinarily fed. Roots have a greater feed¬ 
ing value than their analysis would indi¬ 
cate, due, doubtless, to their palatability 
and succulence. Wing and Savage, 
quoted by Henry in “Feeds and Feeding” 
have concluded, from careful investiga¬ 
tions, that mangels and corn silage are 
nearly equal in value, and that one pound 
of dry matter in mangels is equal to one 
pound of dry matter in grain, aud 
further, that mangels may replace one- 
half the grain ordinarily fed in a I’ation 
composed of grain, mixed hay, and silage. 
The same studies led to the couclusion 
that when grain costs $30 per ton, man¬ 
gels are an economical feed at $4 per 
ton. This is probably as practical a 
comparison as could he made. The roots 
that you mention are all 'valuable foods 
for dairy cows, particularly the mangels 
and carrots. Turnips may taint the milk 
and should be sparingly fed. and then 
only directly after milking. Where corn 
silage is n<>t to be had, mangels furnish 
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