Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1859-12-10
From The Country Gentleman.
EcOnomy In Feeding Stock in Winter,

From The Country Gentleman
EcOnomy In Feeding stock an Winter,
Oflate. years much has been said and writ.
ten and for the main part Justly too, per-
haps,) upon the economy of cutting or
steaming food for cattle in the winter; q
course which is doubtless under certain cir
cumstanceS and in some localities, highly to
be recommended. But that it should be
universally followed cannot bring myself
yet to conclude. One objection to this
course is the great amount of abor required
to cut the food for large stock of cattle,
through winter of from four and a-half to
tige and a-half months. And for one can
not see what advantage it possibly can be,
If my stock both consume the food give
them without wasting, and we'll digest it. as
they probably would if kept wholly on good
bright hay. r-I0-s i
am aware, in advancing this theory,
am conflicting somewhat with our modern
teaches in agriculture who advise us to feed
nothing without being prepared by the Knife
or otherwise.
And while upon this snbject of stock feed
ing, and as the present is the proper season
for rehearsing such matters, allow me Just
tosay that the common opinion that stock
OF cattle cannot be carried through the win
ter without large stock of hay-equal
usually to two tons per COW, and about
double that quantity for bulock-is in
my view likewise preposterous Or in
other words that hay, and hay only, is what
we must have for stock-feeding in the win
ter months. ~ I'D.
Suppose we just look into this matter,
and calculate Yankee-like, as you per.
ceive am from Yankee State Farmer
A. has stock of ten cows to winter. For
this purpose be must have twenty tons of
good hay, taken from as many acres proba-
bly--as one ton per acre is likely full aver
age for our hay crop
Now there is Farmer BIS neighbor,
who believes and practices different doc
trne. He has like number of COWS, and
calculates" to carry them through on his
500 bushels of roots, taken from a single
acre, (either carrots, bagas, or mangolds, J
and his ten tons of choice corn fodder, raised
from two acreS-and | will venture the as
sertion that Farmer BIS cows " III give more
milk and took smoother in the spring than
bis neighbor's, which have been fed solely
on dry bay. .l
Now Messrs. Editors, what say you? Is
there really anything iH this theory, or is
it all theory and moonshine. fl did not
dislike to be personal would give you
some statistics in support Of my method =
and think it becomes some of the farmers
of Western New York to look into this
matter the present season, when hay is al
ready selling in some localities for twenty
dollars per ton, and just see if there is not
really some way to keep ock cheeper than
feeding them wholly on hay. Probably it
weuld be economy to feed even proper
tion of meal when hay commands price
approaching one cent per pound, and meal
can be had for enc and a-half or two cents.
All | ask Is for intelligent thinking men
to look into and examine the matter, and
not think there is only just one way to do
here, |. E., the very thing they have alloay,
done, and their ancestors tefere them, bnt
to recollect that the present is truly an age
OF progression, and he who fails from lack
OF confidence, either in bis own energies oil
IN the new methods constantly being brought
forward, from yenturing into some of the
aeso.fangled theories, as be may in derisor
call them, must jnst be content to be a lag
Qard in his are