The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1869-04-30
HOUSE END FARs.

Why Cut Feed Is Best. At recent
meeting Of the Farmers Institute Club
of New York, the old question of cut
ting feed was pretty thoroughly dis
cussed. n. G. Meeker, the agricultural
editors of the Tribune, observed that
nothing could be gained by cutting
what was not good feed before that
operation. Some seem to think that
by cutting wheat straw and the butts of
corn stalks, and adding meal TO induce
animals to eat the mixture, they gain,
but the idea is a delusion, for some
thing cannot come out of nothing
DIR, Trimple, theoretical farmer, also
remarked that it was absurd TO think
one can save feed by putting it into
another shape without adding more
nutriment. If a horse needs twenty
pounds Of norishment in uncut hay, he
could not see how ten pounds of cut
| hay, would answer. Whereupon the
editor of the Rural Neac Yorker replies
! to these scientific farmers and hits the
nail squarely on the head.
What is the truth in this question
which causes the doctors to disagree so
| widely? Simply this: Cutting fod-
| der does not add more nutrimant to it,
but changes its mechanical condition,
| and enables stock to consume i'm less
time and thus have more for rest and
digestion. This is a valuable consider
| alton for hard worked horses, but not
as great one for animals that chew
their cud. Again, cut hay or straw
/ slightly moistened and sprinkied with
/ ground grain is much more palatable,
and stock prefer it to unmixed and
| whole food, and maintain more vigor=
Gus appetites than if confined to the
| unprepared food. A baked potato,
with salt, pepper and butter, is dish
that a hungry king wouldn't turn
from but beggar would dispise the
meal if obliged to devour the potato
first, then the salt, and the pepper
and butter. 1t is the faculty of mix
| ing the food right that tickles the pal
ate.
Every observing farmer that has
tried the experiment knows that his
stock prefer cut feed and ground grain
mixed and noistened, to the same
article fed whole. Though there is no
more nutriment in food thus prepared,
yet the animal system gets more out
of it, and less is passed off in the excre-
ments. The question of economy in
the matter must be decided by the val
ue of labor as compared with the value
of food in each locality where stock is
fed.
The Future Of Wheat. The Chicago
Tribune brings good reasons to the SUP
port of the argument that the price of
wheat will be much lower durin theg
coming year, and it concludes its article
by advising holders ''to prepare to look
their losses in the face as gracefully as
may be, and decide to let go, lest the
chance of selling be denied IN toto.-
The supply is too abundant to admit of
a scarcity, and sellers to the great
world of consumers are too numerous
to admit of the holders being able 10
dictate in the matter of pricesn
A correspondent of the Western Far
naer advises planting sweet corn in
hills, instead of drills-the rows to be
81 feet apart and hills one foot apart.
He recommends feeding it to cattle,
Gears and all, and warrants more but
ter than can be made from grass feed
as the result.
The eGardner, London, says: Earth
ing up potatoes diminishes the product
and retards the ripening Of the tubers.
Long experiments in England have
proved this fact-that hilling up pota-
toes may reduce the crop one fourth.
A correspondent of the Country Gen
tlemdn says that if sheep or calf is
covered with leather spread or thick
blanket, and tobacco smoke be make
ur.der this covering, every tick or nit
will be destroyed in half an hour or
less.
Care should be taken to procure
good seed. Many crops have failed Gq
account of old imperfect seed being
sown.
Thesowing of plaster on clover fields
should now be no longer delayed. 1t
needs the help of the spring showers
: to develope fully its action.
IoaCa has so extended her wheat
acreage that she will raise 10000, 900
| | huShels more this wear than last