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LilNTKKlCU AT THU FOBTiOFFICB. IN ATLANTA. OKOUUIA, FOB THANHPUHTATION TIIKOUUH TUB UN1TKD HTATKM MaIUI AT H BOUND Cl.AHH KaTKN.)
PUBLISHED 1 -rrrvr T
TWICE A MONTH. J V UJLl. 1.
ATLANTA, GA., OCTOBER 1, 1882.
vr_ go i ONK DOLLAR
JNO. S4t5. t A YEAH.
ECONOMY IN FEEDING. Corn in comparison stands as follows, viz:
BY HON. T. J. MOORE, SPARTANBURG, B. C.
This is a subject little understood by the
8outliern farmer for the reason, that the
abundant supplies, under the old system of
slavery, engendered a sort of general waste.
His attention was never called by necessity
to the importance of the subject. The
stringency of the t\mes now demand a more
careful economy and it is well to direct his
attention to it.
In view of what wo have passed through
within recent years, in being brought
almost to the door of starvation through a
false economy engendered by the notion
that cotton was king, no subject could be
of greater importance to us. Where sup
plies are limited as they are and have been
it is of the utmost importance to make the
most of them.
If the bad crops of the past few years have
done no other good, they have at least set
us to work to ascertain the best methods of
making them go farthest. It has been said
no evil comes, but it brings some good with
it. So, I hope, our misfortunes in cotton
raising will add something to our stock of
information in economical feeding and lead
eventually to filling our stomachs and those
pf our animals with cheap food.
Southern feed products do not differ so
materially from those of the north and other
countries as to demand more than the inci
dental notices given of them in the course
of this discussion. To do otherwise would
require an elaborate discussion, which I do
not propose to give it To treat properly the
subject involves the consideration of somo
such questions as these, viz: the relative
value of feed products, and how far these
values are effected by the purposes for which
the animel is fed, and the circumstances
under which the food is administered, to
gether with its race, age, size and constitu
tion. This opens up a broad field and one
upon which I propose to offer only a few
general remarks. What I shall say shall be
rather suggestive than exhaustive.
Economy in feeding requires some knowl
edge of the value of the feed products and
their adaptation to the ends aimed at. These
feed products contain in different propor
tions the elements that go to make up the
system. They furnish flesh producing, heat
producing and fat producing principles. It
takes one ingredient to make muscle or flesh,
another fat, and another bone. Hence, it
makes quite a difference in their value as to
how and to what you apply them. If you
desire to build up the flesh of an animal,
you must know not to feed those substances
containing little flesh, but much heat and
fat producing principles, and vice veria. By
way of illustration, somo time ago I was
trying to raise a fine calf and was feeding
him on wheat bran, a substance rich in fat
producing principles, to build up his frame,
and noticed that I was not accomplishing
my purpose, when I learned upon investiga
tion, that I ought to have been feeding the
stuff to the mother to get milk. Hence, it
is important to know the effect that is likely
to be produced by the course you adopt in
feeding.
In a few words, if you desire to build up
the bony system or to decrease its size, you
will feed such substances as are rich in the
phosphates, or withhold them as the case
may be. Such substances are the grains,
rye, oats, wheat and corn. If you desire to
lay on fat, you will feed the oil cakes, and
such like, and in this connection I will say
that we have a fountain of wealth in our
cotton seed. The meal contains:
Flcsli forming principles..™...... 41.086
Heat producing —17.0H
Fat producing prlodples—...~~...~..™...184HS
Flcsli forming principles. 15.175
Ueat producing principles..... ........78.885
Fat producing principles............ 5.015
Thus it will be seen the cotton seed meal
contains about three times that of corn, of
flesh and fat producing principles, but is
greatly inferior in heat producing principles.
Again, if you desire to build upthe frame of
your animal you will feed substances not
only rich in the phosphates to supply
the bone, but such as are rich in
muscle or flesh producing principles, of
which last, peas and beans among the culti
vated seeds and the leguminous plants, such
as clover, pea-vines and such like. Whoever,
therefore, that expects to feed stock to the
most profit, should study this subject fully.
Again, a due consideration of economy in
feeding requires a mixed diet. From wbat
has been said it will be seen that if the
body is to be sustained, it cannot be done
by feeding one substance, because it is hard
to find a substance containing the fat, flesh,
and mnscle producing principles in the
proper proportions. Corn alone will not
sustain your horses and mules; not only
must the diet be mixed to sustain the ani
mal in health, but it must be suited to the
capacity of the stomach, and therefore must
not be too bulky, or too concentrated. The
stomachs of the cow and pig are quite dif
ferent in size, and requires somewhat differ
ent food. A proper distention of the stom
ach in animals having large ones, os the cow
and the horse, isnecessary to maintain health.
I have seen the horses in Gen. Lee’s army
unable to pull a cannon or ambulance, and
yet they had corn in abundance. I see every
year farmers with poor horses who have
plenty of corn, but an insufficient supply of
long forage. I have long noticed that when
I feed poor fodder, which is not well eaten,
my horses fall away. It is well, therefore,
having a due regard to economy in feeding
to save all one’s straw of the grains with
plenty of hay and grass, and to alternate the
diet between corn, oats, green feed, fodder
and hay, and whatever else one has. A due
regard to economy in feeding requires some
attention to the comfort of the animal. A
cold, shivering animal, cannot thrive and
fatten. Even in our mild climate, some
winter protection is demanded, but neither
large nor costly barns are necessary. The
colder the animal the more rapidly it
breathes, and consequently the more waste
it throws off. The internal fire must be kept
burning and more fuel must be added, the
extra supply of which, goes not to building
up the frame and adding fat, but to supply
ing the waste. An experiment in England
Was made to test this very matter, which
showed that 20 slieop housed, and 20 un
housed, fed for three months on the same
rations, gave very different results. Those
in the fields consumed considerably more
feed and increased only SO stone 8 pounds;
while those housed increased SO stone 0
pounds—a difference of about 20 stone.
Good roomy stalls, or it open sheds are
used, Borne division, by which the weaker
may eat in peace, with good racks and man
gers, add very much to economy, and to the
ease and comfort of the feeder.
A proper discussion of this subject in
volves the consideration of the old system of
pasturage and the new one of soiling. This
is rendered more important at this time by
the recent abrogation by the state of the
fence laws. 8hall we attempt to fence pas
tures at great cost of money, and waste
boundless tracts of land by the indiscrimi
nate roaming over of herds of cattle and
horses and flocks of sheep. The better and
more economical plan is to reduce the area,
and apply the cost of fences to a greater
supply of manures and adopt the soiling
system in whole or in part. To the small
farmer who keeps a limited amount of stock,
this change need not be a difficult one. It is
true that the labor of raising, cutting and
getting to the bam green crops, is somewhat
troublesome, but it is in the long run more
economical. Some of this labor may be
avoided in part by tethering or confining the
animal to a limited area by a rope or chain,
much practiced where land is of much value,
and where agriculture is brought to a high
state of perfection, as in the Island of Jersey,
where every acre is made to sustain its cow.
The horse of the poor man when not at
work, and his cow can thus be kept for
practically nothing, for on all plantations of
any size, there are tracts of luxuriant native
grass all summer, especially on branches
and creeks, that can be utilized in no other
way. I have seen the effects of this plan on
my farm the present season, where one family
has had a large supply of milk and butter
from a single cow, whilst others had neither,
their cows having been allowed to roam
around in a bare pasture.
The same could be applied to rich lots of
early sown rye, barley, oats and clover, or
the grasses whero they can be made to grow,
to carry them through the winter. In this
connection, I desire to say, that these rich
lots around ones' homestead, if planted in
forage crops like the millets, are invaluable
and will afford the largest supply of cheap
food. These together with wheat and oat
straw, shucks from the corn and cotton seed,
will carry safely through the winter ones’
stock of cattle and sheep at very little cost.
ENSILAGE.
On large forms where much stock is kept,
this system of soiling is not practicable, but
there is a modification that is entirely so,
that I fully believe in time will work a revo
lution in our system of husbandry. I refer
to the system of ensilage, which is the pre
servation of green crops in pits or silos, by
means of pressure and the exclusion of air
and water. This is the invention of a
Frenchman, M. Goffart, about eight years
since, who successfully introduced it into
France, and received the medal of the Legion
of Honor therefor. It has been practically
tested in this country and found to be all he
claimed for it.
Lately an Ensilage Congress was held in
New York city, which was largely attended
by many leadingagriculturistsand scientists,
who were enthusiastic in its praise. Mr.
Francis Morris, the President, thought “ it
is the greatest thing in the world.” Tho
wonderful tales they told of the immense
yields of green crops, especially of sowed
com, together with the cheapness of produc
tion and the ease with which they are saved
and fed; in fact, the economy of the system
is somewhat astonishing. If it be such a
good thing for them, why may it not be a
greater thing for us, who labor under the
disadvantage of not being ablo on account
of climate, to raise the Northern and En
glish hay and pasture grasses, but who can
beat them in the luxuriant growth of some
of the same staples upon which they princi
pally rely in ensilaging; and who have the
cow pea, especially adapted to our soil and
climate, rivaling if not surpassing red clover
itself in its feeding value and the improve
ment of the land ?
They spoke of from ten to seventy tons of
sowed corn per acre. Mr. Wolcott of the
Vendome Hotel, Boston, averaged fourteen
tons per acre on thirty-four acres. He said,
“ I know it is the best food I can give eighty
cows. I am satisfied an acre of ground will
keep a cow twenty-four months.”
He raised two crops a year on the same
ground, one of ryo nnd another of sowed
corn. The cost was $2.55 per ton.
Mr. Mills, of Pompton, New Jersey, said,
"I kept last year 120 head of cattle and 12
horses upon the product of 12 acres without
any hay orstraw."
He fed threo quarts of grain per day to
the head with sixty pounds of ensilage, but
was satisfied he made a mistake and was now
feeding only two or three quarts of grain
and thirty pounds of ensilage.
The result of the deliberations of the Con
gress was the following resolution:
“Resolved, That it has become a well es
tablished fact by six years successful use in
this country, and by the concurrent testi
mony of many farmers, that the ensilage
system is of great advantage to the farming
interest and to all mankind.”
Which was os mild as they could put it.
If half they said be true, it is a wonderful
thing. Granting such to be true, to what
better use could wo apply our low bottom
lands, that we cannot get in early enough to
mature properly, than to growing sowed corn
for ensilage, or our uplands which weaTe
wearing out in cotton, than to growing rye
and peas. If any country on the globe
could make a success of it certainly oura
could. While I have not tried it, I firmly
believe it will affordsuch an abundantsupply
of cheap food that we will in a few years
be able not only to supply the home demand
for imported products of bacon, beef and
mutton and enable us to raise our own
horses and mules, but even to have a surplus
for exportation.
In conclusion, if you desire to feed eco
nomically, diversify your crops. Plant not
more than one third of your land in cotton,
the balance in corn, small grain and grass,
(Bermuda in preference to any other grass)
and “go it strong” on cotton teed meal, en-
tilage and oalt. Col. J. D. Wylie, of Lancas
ter, and Mr. Sloan Marshall, of Anderson,
the one with 187 bushels per acre, the other
with 135, have demonstrated this year what
can be done in furnishing an abundant sup
ply of the cheapest food.
Masonry of n Cigar.
No wise man will set out on a journey
without providing himself with at least
fifty cheap cigars. Those which can be
bought for two cents are just as good os
those sold for a dime, and the gift of one is
rewarded with just the same courtesy. You
are in a hurry to change trains and re-check
baggage. The clicckman doesn’t care two
cents whether you ore left or not, and the
chances are that you would be left but for
the cigar. Edge up to him, drop the cigar
into his fingers, ask him to re-check you to
Indianapolis, and you are fixed in six sec
onds. Hours later, when he comes to sit
down for a smoke, he may remember your
phiz, and bleBS it—but you are far awny.
Tho brakeman on the passenger train studies
gruffness. You can’t offer him money, nor
ask him to take a glass of beer; but if you
want to know exactly how long you have to
wait at Hanover Junction, and how long it
takes you to run from there to Washington,
just tender him a two-cent cigar. His granite
countenance will instantly melt and run all
over his face, and he will feel himself bound
not only to answer all inquiries, but to tell
you how to savo two dimes in getting your
supper at the restaurant. In fact, the in
fluence of a two-cent cigar is almost bound
less. It will stop any citizen, and make him
feel happy to answer a dozen questions. It
will direct you to the best hotels, point out
the best sights, make street-car conductors
talk, give you the best seat in the omnibus,
and accomplish all that gold and silver can
do. No man should travel without them.