Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1860-01-26

tended to, is, that all animals require bulk
as well as nutriment in their food. No def
mite rules can DO laid down, and if the far
mer has the faculty Of keen observation, no
will not need them. A general rule will DO
OF service, and that is, to distribute the
coarser and less nutritious food with the
finer and more nutritious, as corn meal, or
oil cake with straw or any coarse hay, fine
hay of good quality with corn stalks, and SO
generally, that each animal may receive both
the bulk and the nutrition which he needs
with something like regularity, instead of
living for time almost wholly on fine nu-
tritious food, and then as exclusively on the
coarse and comparatively innutritious. The
finer and coarsor need not be given at each
meal, but should be each day. A frequent
change of food is desirable, but the changes
should be SO managed as to keep in operation
the principle Of affecting the anilnal-both
sufficient bulk of food to answer the demands
of his digestive organization, and sufficient
nutriment for the formation Of bone, muscle
and other tissues-or in other words, to
keep him constantly growing.
A due attention to the above general rule
would enable the farmer to dispose of his
second-rate and thirl-rate forage without
waste. Every particle of straw not wanted
for wrapping paper or for necessary bedding,
could be disposed Of to much better advan-
tage than to turn it, as many do, on the field,
or suffer it to be tramplod in the barn yard,
as is the practice of more. For instance,
you winter three-year old steer on two tons
of fine hay, worth say 500, and it is ten to
one if his growth will pay you back much
more than half the money. Half that hay
and four bushels Of cornmeal, with plenty Of
straw, cut and steamed, and not worth pen-
ny less for your land for having been eaten
with the cornmoal, would have brought him
through in q better condition, worth more in
the spring, and at cost Of twelve instead of
twenty dollars; very considerable step to-
wards the probability ofpay for the food and
something left for profit.
IF it is true that good farming. in the
growing of crops, pays better than poor as
almost all are convinced it is still more evil
IDENTIFY true that good management in the e.
psnditmrc Of crops pays far better than the
random throwing Of them out and yet the
latter course prevails to vast extent. By
judicious feeding distribution of the farm
productions of the country to animals kindly
protected from the cold, and in such proper.
tions, mixtures, changes and adaptations to
each kind of stock as would suggest them
selves to a thinking and carefully observant
farmer, the annual results of our agriculture
might be increased by sum at length equal
to the much talked of expenses of the Mex
lean war.
When the crops are in, the question how
to expend them adyantageously comes up
Now is the time to answer it. To prepare
for winter in autumn is at least us important
as to prepare for war in time Of peace
Let water be brought to the yard if possible.
The sheds should be extended, if not already
ample. A disregard to the comfort of do
nestle animals is as Improbable as it is cru
Ell. Let all requisite preparation be made in
time !; then feed with care and judgment
through the winter, and the results of the
year, from the last planting time to tho next,
will most assuredly be the better for it.