1430 
RURAL NEW-YORKER 
Live Stock Feeding Problems 
Ration for Milch Cows 
My cow is 2% years old ; had first calf 
al)oiit two months ago. She has been giv¬ 
ing about eight quarts a day, but has 
dropped to six. I’asture is poor. I feed 
her three lbs. dairy feed per day, which 
contains cottonseed, brewers’ grains, etc. 
I give her cornstalks (with ears on), all 
she wants at night. I have started to 
give her baled hay, Timothy. Is this ra¬ 
tion all right? Would you tell mo how 
to improve it? I can get cottonseed mid¬ 
dlings, cliops and cornmeal. Is there any 
place in Connecticut where I can get my 
milk tested, also my cow for tuberculosis? 
Connecticut. E. E. B. 
Of course, Timothy hay is poor rough- 
age for milk profluction. It would be 
much better if you could get some clover 
hay. I doubt if you can do much better 
than to feed the dairy feed you are using. 
Give her a pound or two more a day. 
Yon can get your milk tested by send¬ 
ing a sample to Creamery Department, 
Connecticut Agricultural College, Storrs, 
Conn. To get a sample, milk all the milk 
from the cow in the morning, pour into 
■another pail and sample with little dipper. 
Itepeat this at night and mix the two 
samples together. Send about four ounces 
to be tested, and see that bottle is filled 
full to cork to prevent churning in tran¬ 
sit. Write to the cattle commissioner, 
Capitol, Hartford, Conn., relative to hav¬ 
ing your cow tested for tuberculosis. 
II. F. J. 
Dairy Ration; Curing Pork 
1. We have grown considerable feed 
f(^r our cows on the farm this year, but 
I am not quite s re how to feed for the 
most economical results. Our cow.s are 
.Terseys. We have Alfalfa bay, oat hay, 
cornstalks, carrots, mangels, sugar beets, 
corn, oats, barley. We can have grains 
ground. Wc can purchase locally cotton¬ 
seed meal, oil meal, middlings, etc. Could 
you suggest a feed for my cows from the 
above, whereby I could use most of ray 
own stuff? 2. I would also like to have 
complete directions for curing a 200-11). 
pig for home consumption. A. n. 
1. You are very well fixed for dairy 
feed this Winter. I should feed at least 
two good feedings of hay a day; all cows 
will clean up. The proportion of Alfalfa 
and oat hay to be fed at each feed should 
depend, of course, on amount of each you 
have on hand. I should feed the hay night 
and morning, and give a feed of corn¬ 
stalks during day. If you have roots 
enough so you can feed 10 to 15 pounds 
per head night and morning do this; if 
not.' feed them once a day, making them 
go as far as they will. The main part 
of the root feed would better be chopped 
mangels or sugar beets, mixing the carrots 
in in smaller proportions. Have corn, 
oats and barley ground and mix together. 
For every ‘500 pounds of the mixture add 
150 pounds of cottonseed meal and you 
will have an excellent ration. Grain 
should l)e fed at rate of a pound to about 
3% pounds milk produced. Add one per 
cent salt to grain mixture when making 
it up. As you doubtless know, grains can 
be mixed nicely on barn floor with shovel, 
shovelling them back and forth in a pile 
two to three times. 
2. As to curing pig for home consump¬ 
tion. we might start with the head, which 
makes the so-called “hog’s-head cheese” 
(for some of the rules given below the 
writer is drawing upon a recent extension 
bulletin from North Dakota on the “Pres¬ 
ervation of Meat”). 
Head Gheese.—Cut a hog’s head into 
four pieces. liemove the brain, ears, skin, 
snout and eyes. Cut off the fattest parts 
for lard. Put the lean and bony parts to 
soak ovenight in cold water in order to 
extract the blood and dirt. When the 
head is cleaned put it over the fire to boil, 
using water enough to cover it. Boil until 
the meat separates readily from the bone. 
Then remove it from the fire and pick out 
all of the bones. Drain off the liquor, 
saving a part of it for future use. Chop 
the meat up finely with a chopping knife. 
Return it to the kettle and pour on 
enough of the liquor to cover the meat. 
T.et it boil slowly for 15 minutes to a half 
hour. Season to taste with salt and jiep- 
per just before removing it from fire. 
Turn it into a shallow pan or dish. Cover 
with a piece of cheese-cloth and put on a 
board with a weight to make it solid. 
When cold it should be sliced thinly and 
served wuthout further cooking. 
The Shoulders and hocks should be 
placed in a jar or barrel of brine made 
by dissolving for each 100 lbs. meat eight 
lbs. salt, tw'o lbs, brown sugar and two 
ounces saltpeter in four gallons of water. 
They should remain in this brine six to 
eight weeks before using. At this time 
they may be smoked or boiled or fixed 
without smoking. The hams are treated 
the same wmy. An old-fashioned brick 
oven in the house makes a fine place to 
smoke the hams. The hams are removed 
from the brine and washed and then 
placed on a rack about 10 inches from the 
bottom of the oven. A mound of corncobs 
or maple wood is placed underneath and 
lighted. It is then smothered with some 
green maple or hickory sawdust. Keep 
the smudge going for about 30 hours. The 
smoked meat may be then stored by hang¬ 
ing in the attic. 
The so-called pork proper, back and 
sides, should be cut up into pieces about 
six inches square and packed on edge in 
a clean barrel or large stone crock. A 
clean molasses barrel makes a good pork 
barrel. When the pork is packed in the 
barrel rub it with salt and allow to stand 
over night. Next day weigh out 10 lbs. 
of salt and two ounces of saltpeter for 
each 100 lbs. meat and dissolve in four 
gallons of boiling water. When cool pour 
over the pork. Have enough brine to 
cover the pork and weight the pork down 
so it will remain submerged. The ribs 
and chine make an excellent fresh roast, 
i'he odds and ends, including lean meat 
.qlong the belly, may be made into sausage 
by chopping in meat chopper and season¬ 
ing with .salt, pepper and sage. It is then 
packed in cloth bags. The feet may be 
pickled or boiled and a delicious jelly 
obtained. 
I’ickled Pig’s Feet.—Soak the pig’s feet 
for 12 hours in cold wmter. Scrape them 
clean and remove the toes. Boil until 
soft; four to five hours will usually be 
rcciuired. Salt them when i)artially done. 
I’ack them in a stone jar and cover them 
with hot, spiced vinegar. They are served 
cold, or split, and fried in a batter made 
of <'ggs, flour, milk and butter, n. F. j. 
THE HENYARD 
Casting Out the Hen Drones 
During the past few years, or since 
Tom Barron’s visit and expo.sition at the 
Connecticut egg-laying contest, the art of 
culling out the drones from a poultry flock 
has been well developed. Tvong study has 
enabled the experts to figure very closely 
on the appearance and shape of the hen. 
Standards have been arranged so that a 
man who knows his business can tell very 
clo.sely whether the hen is a drone or a 
worker. This art is being taught at the 
poultry schools, and what is better, the 
experts go out into the country and hold 
public demonstrations. The plan is to go 
into a flock, examine the hens one by one. 
and throw out those which give little 
promise of laying. The object is to get 
rid of these drones and sell then, before 
they become paupers or boarders. When 
this w'ork was started, there were many 
poultrymen who rather .offed at the idea, 
thinking it impossible to get anything like 
close results. The fact is, however, that 
the work is being done with great satis¬ 
faction, and the figures prove it. In Ber¬ 
gen county, N. J., recently, four flocks 
were examined and culled in this way. 
They were all White Leghorns, and care¬ 
ful egg records were kept for seven days 
before and seven day.s after culling, in 
order to see how much the egg yield would 
be reduced by throwing out the so-called 
drones. These tests were made in late 
August, at a time when hens are not lay¬ 
ing at their best. The following figures 
show the result of this testing: 
Av Prod. 
Av. Prod, 
Tot.nl No. 
No. 
Before 
After 
in Flock. 
Selected. 
Culling. 
Culling. 
201 
105 
107 
94 
168 
86 
72 
,54 
.348 
179 
168 
146 
116 
60 
24 
23 
It is easy to see the result of this. In 
flock No. 2, for instance, nearly one-half 
of the birds were thrown out; that is, 82 
birds were rejected, while the falling off 
in egg product was only 18 eggs. In flock 
No. .3 the advantage was even greater. 
In this case 169 birds were thrown out, 
with a drop in the egg record of only 22. 
In flock No. 4, 56 birds were thrown out, 
with a loss of only one egg. We must 
also remember that the handling of these 
Leghorns, as was done during this exami¬ 
nation, would have some effect in shorten¬ 
ing the egg yield, for a disturbance of this 
sort will nearly always cause a Leghorn 
to stop laying for a day or two at least. 
Anyone can see the advantage in getting 
rid of 56 birds, when it is shown that 
from this number only one egg was ob¬ 
tained. In these days of high cost of 
feed, a drone has no place on the farm, 
and these demonstrations certainly show 
that an expert is able to select the profit¬ 
able hens, so that the boarders may be 
discharged and no longer loaf at their 
owner's expense. 
Leg Weakness 
I have some White I’lymoiith Rock 
chickens hatched the middle of .Tune, and 
the two largest cockerels, weighing four 
or five pounds, have difficulty in standing 
on their feet. They tumble over, head 
first and on their sides, wdth their wings 
.spread out, and most of the time they sit 
Decemher 13, 1017 
down. The tail of one is spread open like 
a fan, and the tail of the other is crooked. 
They look healthy, have very red combs 
and wattles, very yellow legs and excel¬ 
lent appetites. I have kept them apart 
from the rest of the flock for a month, 
but they don’t improve. They seem to 
be_ to^heavy. I feed them meat scraps, 
middlings, cracked corn, table scraps, but¬ 
termilk, grit, charcoal and green stuff. 
Their yard has been rather damp this 
Pall, owing to the heavy rains and the 
number of leaves. Would they be all 
right to eat if we should kill them now? 
Maine. mrs. ii. F. n. 
“Leg weakness” in heavily-fed, rapidly- 
growing cockerels is a common affliction, 
and its cause does not seem to be well 
understood. If I wished to treat these 
birds, I should give them a physic, like 
castor oil or Epsom salts, and then mate¬ 
rially reduce their rations while giving 
them their liberty. I do not know of any 
reason why the meat of these birds should 
not be wholesome, if they are healtliy 
otherwise. m. b. n. 
Soft Corn for Poultry 
I have about 10 acres of late corn 
which reached only the milk stage before 
the plants were killed by frost. I intend 
to use that corn for our poultry. What 
would be the best way of keeping it to 
avoid spoilage? What would be the nu¬ 
tritive value of that com? s. F. 
New York. 
I kow of no other way of keeping your 
soft corn for the poultry than by husking 
and cribbing in the usual manner, but 
w'ith special attention to the ventilation 
of the corn in the crib. Cribs should, of 
course, be off the ground and so placed 
that there can be a /rcc circulation of air 
all about them. Ventilating chutes may 
be placed both horizontally and vertically 
through the corn as it is cribbed to in¬ 
crease the circulation of air through the 
corn. A stack of crates from floor to roof 
would make a good vertical ventilator and 
a number of these ventilating shafts could 
be used. Soft oorn should be cleanly 
husked in order that the hu.sks may not 
retain moisture about the corn, but, aside 
from that, the keeping problem is chiefly 
one of ventilation in the crib. On a basis 
of dry matter, there is, I believe, no mate¬ 
rial difference in the nutritive value of 
soft and hard corn, hut the actual nutri¬ 
tive value of any particular lot of soft 
corn will depend upon the stage of matur¬ 
ity which it has reached, and, consequent¬ 
ly, upon the amount of water it contains. 
M. B. I). 
aiiii 
Jolie Topsie De Kol, H. F. 14972.3 
Age 6-11-12 (City of Cleveland. Owner) 
Semi-Official Year Test 
29221.6 lbs.. Milk 3.629b 1032.37 lbs. Fat 
Royal ton De Kol Violet, H. F. 86460 
Age 10 Years (H. A. McQuillan. Owner) 
Semi-Official Year Test 
29959.6 lbs. Milk 3.469b 1036.45 lbs. Fat 
Year tests that Count 
These wonderful semi-official records 
are only a few of a large number of genuine 
high production tests made under normal 
conditions with UNICORN DAIRY RATION used 
as the entire or largest part of the grain ration. They 
are in no sense forced or freak records as shown by 
the normal fat percent and the perfect health of these 
cows and all herds fed on Unicorn Dairy Ration. 
Every breeder knows Ajax Flakes 
(made exclusively by us for years.) Conditions 
forced us to withdraw it from the market except as 
one of the ingredients of Unicorn. You will find 
Unicorn equally efficient as your ration or ration base. 
If you have good cows that you want 
to make even better 
Unicorn Dairy Ration 
offers you the chance, without exta cost, 
in fact most likely at a considerable saving. 
With an average cow we guarantee 
a reduction in the feed cost of you milk. 
Give them a chance - if fed right with Unicorn Dairy 
Ration they will surprise you. 
Unicom can be obtained by any 
dairyman or breeder east of the Missouri 
river no matter where located. Every bag 
is equally uniform and good no matter where you 
get it. 
Write for information and FREE copy of 
Cow Testers’ Manual. 
Chapin & Co., ’’r Chicago 
Abbie of Riverside. 
Champion Guernsey of Michigan 
Fred Gleason, Owner 
14201 lbs. Milk 6.72‘ib 813 lbs. Fat 
Follyland Nancy A. R. No. 6266 
Best 2 year old in New York 
Follyland Farm Guernseys 
12270 lbs. Milk 6.81^ 712.6 lbs. Fat 
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