316 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
shorts and a little corn meal are preferable, but for teams, fat¬ 
tening cattle and stock generally, it is best to use that kind 
which has the greatest amount of nutriment for the price. 
Most animals like a variety, and therefore as a rule it will 
not be advisable to feed straw alone, but to alternate it with 
cut hay, corn-stalks, etc. ; or what will be better yet, when cut¬ 
ting the straw, mix in the hay or stalks and cut them up to¬ 
gether. For a number of years I have raised Yankee corn 
expressly for this purpose, cutting it up early, and binding it 
in shocks until perfectly cured, then cutting up and feeding 
ears and stalks together. 
After the fodder is cut, take such a quantity of it as may be 
required for use, or what can be handled conveniently, and 
put it into a box or bin adapted to the purpose, sprinkle in the 
desired amount of ground feed. After it has been well mixed, 
put on sufficient water to stick the meal to the cut feed. Any 
kind of roots that are to be given out can be cut up with a 
root sheer or spade and stirred in. Add a little salt. In a 
short time the flavor of the meal, hay or roots will be imparted 
to the straw, and the whole will be eaten with a relish. This 
mixture can be given bountifully to all fattening animals, 
teams, cows, etc., and what they leave can be thrown out to 
the other stock. 
By preparing the straw in this manner, it can be readily 
seen that, as it will all be eaten, a much larger amount of stock 
can be kept than when fed in the ordinary way. Oats in the 
sheaf can be stored in the mow or stack and used in this way 
without meal. Running through the straw cutter will be full 
as cheap, I think, as threshing out the grain. This makes a 
good ordinary feed, and by the addition of meal will serve a 
good purpose in fitting the teams for the spring’s work. 
By fermenting corn meal and mixing it with cut straw, you 
will get a diet as well adapted to the wants of the milch cow 
as a good clover pasture in June. I have taken to market 
winter butter made from cows fed in this way that had all the 
appearance in color, etc., of June or September make, and it 
was taken by the dealers to be such. 
