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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.