Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1872-10-03
Agricultural Contributor to Hartford
COurant.l
Apples for Cows.

! The apron of PomOna-yOur temperate
! fruit man don't like the sound of her
''horn," and those old goddesses need a
! trifie Of clothing-I say the apron OF
Pomona is so near bursting with apples
| that note from East Windsor Hill,
stating that the CoVrGnt's readers were
welcome to know the particulars of GER
tain experiments which were being sue
cessfully carried out there, in feeding
sour apples to mich COWS, was very
gladly received by this penholder. Mr..
Erastus Ellsworth of that place, finding
there was likely to be more apples in his
neighbOrhood than the cider mill could
handle, if it were in running order, or
| barrels be found to hold, bethOught him
self of feeding them to his cattle. But
local advice was against it. Apples were
worse than useless, farmers said. They
would dry up a cow. Weren't worth
six cents a bushel, and laughed at the
idea of feeding them to cows, as ridicu-
lous, absurd and foolhardy But Mr.
Ellsworth was not deferred by such
means from investigating for himself.
He Overhauled his files of the Albany
CultjUatOr, and there found between
1910 and 1860 ten instances where good
and true correspondents of that journal
had recorded their experience in feeding
apples to farm stock with decided APP
pr0val. The popular notion that apples
lessen the flow of milk seemed to have
no support except from the occasional
breaking of bounds by cattle pent from
the orchard. A glut of apples from
piles gathered for the cider mill may be
as dangerous to an animal as a glut of
grain or green clover, and no more so.
Accordingly, Il trial of the abundance
of windfalls, principally greetings and
Baldwins, was commenced about August
1st. In the manifold stOmachs of a cow
these hard, sour apples, when bruised
and ground, become sweet and soft quite
as readily as in the vat of a cider mill.
A large COW, something along in years,
feeding exclusively in her summer pas
ture, and producing four wine quarts
daily, was used for the first experiment,
beginning with four quarts of apples
night and morning. The quantity was
increased, until at the end of a week she
was eating a bushel of the hardest, sour
est windfall apples each day. This COW
was near her time of going dry, but such
was the effect of the apples as to bring
llGl Jl ONllNG VI illIllN lAOlll IbIA w cttIiCI
more than six quarts per diem.
Another COW, in fresher milk, yielding
eight quarts daily, was then put upon a
ration Of apples. At this time of meas
urement Mr. EllswOrths COWS had been
running several days in rowen feed,
which would naturally help flush the
milk pail. Yet upon top of this succu-
lent pasture the second COW was brought,
when upon her full ration of apples-a
half bushel night and morning-to a reg
ular daily yield Of twelve to fourteen
quarts of milk.
All of these COWS, give number-eX-
cepting one-would have eating more
apples if they could have got them.
That one was younger and smaller,
though a good sized heifer. Half a
bushel was found to be as many and
sometimes more than She could manage
at one feeding.
There arose a cry from the dairy di-
rectly for more milk-pans, und as the
average increase upon the five cows was
fully fifty per cent, and a notorious
matter in the household, the warnings
of ruin to Mr. Ellsworth's dairy from
kindhearted neighbors soon ceased.
The butter made from this milk was
first-rate, as | had an opportunity Of
knowing. inquired particularly wheth-
er at any time there had been the least
symptom of ill-effect upon the cows
upon the bowels or kidneys Nothing
Of the sort sir" And | cannOt refrain
from a slight expression of eXultation
here, as this instance of the superior
wisdom of a former generation. 1t has
been somewhat fashionabl to wish to die
young. Fast young men want to make
a grand splurge and burst. I'm tired Of
such hot-bed fruit-the more Disguised
with 1t after testing the mature eXellen-
cies of the vigorous years in store for
the heedful ones beyond the seventies.
In fact-Wherc there is room for til
slap my thigh, whirl around upon one
toe, and give a little yell of triumph,
whenever | think of this veteran of a
good old governing stock-he told me he
was eighty-three years old-coming glo-
riously to the fore with these timely,
painstaking and exact experiments,
while young farmers, routine farmers,
close farmers, men who wouldn't waste
a cents worth if they knew it, are actu-
ally gathering apples from their fall
feeding grounds, and dumping them into
noles in the street, rather than to risk
giving them to their cattle.