Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1874-07-03
Stock Raising.
DANGEROUS STOCK FEEDING.


l wonder how many cattle and horses aud
sheep are destroyed annually by mistakes in
fecding2 know OF so many, even in this
limited neighborhood, that the total must be
alarming. Mr.. So.and.So, wishing to get
his horse "well up" for the show-yard, gives
him wheat meal, so one morning he is found
dead. Another Mr.. - loses half score
Of valuable fat bullocks and some horses
from nearly the same cause. The food is
too nitrogenous aud glutinous. The Same
remark applies in degree to bean.meal.
Horses getting at heap Of dressed wheat
are almost sure to die. If beans and wheat
were given in the same condition in which
they crew. mean with tho same proper
tion Of straw, pod and chaf-there would
be no danger for who ever saw horse in
jured at harvest time by helping himself to
wheat with its straw and chaif2 Animals
will seldom 90 wrong if they have plenty of
chaf, pollard &C., with their rich diet.
Why are oats so safe for feeding compared
with beans? Because they have n thick,
chaffy jacket, not like the rich bean or
dressed wheat. An old farmer, with long
or clear head, mixed his bean.meal with lin.
seed oil made into balls No fear Of wind
or blowing in such case. Whenever am
short of green food in July and August,
when the beans are full podded, pass them,
stems and all, through n chaff.cutter, aud
they make the best of food for all farm an
imals. In winter, the bean stalks, as hard
as sticks are passed through the chaff-cutter,
afterwards mostened with hot water, and
thus become soft and most acceptable food.
No bean straw should ever 90 under foot.
See its analysis, second only to hay. ltal.
ian rye grass, forced TO rapid growth by gu.
ano, with its excess of ammonia, would kill
our lambs, and even some Of the older sheep /;
not so when manured abundantly with an-
imal excrement. The same remark applies
in degree to ammonia-forced roots De-
pend upon it, a mixture Of straw chaT with
very rich food is profitable safeguard. So
many cattle are lost by fatulence (distention
or bowing), that my stockman and l often
talk over the matter especially as VIC never
lose one from that cause; and he is of opin-
ion with myself that our freedom from these
losses arises from pulping of the roots and
their admixture dry and fine cut hay
and straw chat, and with bean meal, bran,
malt combs (culms), and cake. The food
thus lies compactly in the stomach, but yet
is free to receive the permeation of the gas
trio juices. 1t is easy TO imagine that a
mass of pulpy, adhesive, gutinous wheat or
bean meal is by no means readily permeable
We know, by the old.fashioned use Of the
choke-rope, thai some animals are apt to
bolt their food in Masses am firm be-
lever that the mechanical or physical con-
dition Of ine-cut straw in the stomach has
much to do with digestion and health, as
well as by its chemical composition. After
30 years of close observation and practice,
both | and my men have come to decided
conviction that the turning out and roaming
at large is dangerous aud Improbable prac-
tlce, and that it pays better TO bring the
food to the cattle than the cattle to the food
and that in the case Of the sheep close fold
ing aud q removal of the fold tiron hurdles
on wheela), every IL hours is the truest and
most profitable practice. The waste Of food
and loss of stock by the roaming at large
plan is something fearful besides the an-
imals do not progress so well.-J. j. Meehi,
IN Canada Farmer.