The Daily state journal. [volume] (Alexandria, Va.) 1868-1874, 1872-02-05
AGRICULTURAL.


81. SHELTERING SToCK,-The policy of
shelter for stock in the gain of weight and
health is well illustrated by the case of a
farmer in Central New York, who, in a
communication to the Agricultiuist, States
that he selected two lots of sheep, Of equal
weight and condition one lot was Kept
out of doors and unsheltered, the other
kept in close pen. The lot unsheltered
ate 1912 pounds Of turnips, against $50
pounds eaten by the other lot.
The gain in weight was twenty-three
pounds per head in the first lot, and TWEEN
ty-eight pounds per head in the second.
Sheep will stand more exposure than calves,
heifers, or even full-grown cattle; but even
then, the feeding had to be abandoned, or
the sheep could not have stood the expos
ure. Any one can figure up, then, the
comparative profit of wintering flock.
The gain in the sheltered flock was 90 per
cent, or one-ffth while the cost of feed
ing was less than half, say 45 per cent. In
other words, sheltered flock would live
six months upon the food of tho unshel-
tered for three, and still gain profit of 20
per cent. Counting, then, for the same
length of time, say three months, the pro-
fits will be more than double. Neverthe-
less, we still see in many farmyards the
cattle exposed to the keen air, and their
shelter entirely inadequate to their needs.
PROFITS or PoULTRY.-in well-kept
poultry-yards the net returns of eggs and
chickens will average about 50 to each hen.
With turkeys the profit will vary from SO
to SIS to each hen. This seems to be the
usual average, as determined by various re-
ports of actual experiments. In COM
munication to the Farmers Club, this city,
grower at Hammonton, N. j., gives the
results of his poultry farm for 1871:
81 have twenty-nine hens, which have
laid 1894 eggs and, if my arithmetic is
right, they averaged $50 and fraction
over. | raised sixty chickens, worth $50.
The eggs averaged twenty-four cents per
dozen, making s87.2S for eggs. Add $50
for chickens, and you have SHES. The
cost of keeping l. am not SO sure, as the
count has not been kept so exact but
about 500. The hens are a mixture of
several breeds, but none pure. The White
Leghorn and Brahma predominant. The
feed has been corn and wheat screenings,
with some hog-cheese and wheat middIings,
pounded oyster-shclls, etc."
WHEN is THE BEST TINE TO CUT
CoRN-FoDDER ?-Very..few farmers are
able to judge scientifically of the value of
corn-fodder when cut before the ear forms,
and know whether there is any difference
in nutrition if sown in drills or broadcast.
Experiments like these are Of great value
to the farmer, and DR.. Nichols, of Boston,
with view to obtain something definite on
this point, instituted last season several
trials to determine the excellence Of corn
fodder grown under different circum-
stances. Part of the field was sown broad
cast in May, and the rest was planted in
drills. The stalks were cut just before the ear
began to form. The plants from the broad
cast sowing contained ninety-two per
cent. of water, and those from the
drills eighty-three per cent, leaving eight
per cent. of solid matter in the former and
seventeen in the latter. That is to say, the
plants sown in drills contained more than
tWice as much solid matter as did those
sown broadcast. The solid matter was
starch, gum, sugar, and woody fiber the
broadcast specimens containing scarcely
any gum and sugar, while those to which
the air and sun had access in the drills con-
tanned these substances in considerable
quantities. The Doctor goes on to say that
his experiments convinced him that COM
fodder should not be cut until the flower is
fairly developed and the ear begins to form,
and any corn that is planted that the ear
cannot form is practically worthless as fod-
der. ga.r. .. .