Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1874-07-01
A Plea for the Cows.


We take the following strong appeal
for the better treatment and care Of our
COWS from the National LiUC Stock
Journal, and commend it 10 the
careful consideration of our readers :
Reader, are you fond OF milk =?
Do you like butter, or beef? Then have
compassion upon the kind, generous
COW? Most farmers feed their horses
something better than straw or badly
cured hay in winter, though their work
during that season Is light. Horses are
usually kept in comfortable stables,
with clean, dry bedding, renewed every
night. They are also curried and
brushed every morning, and fed good
hay oats, chOp,ete., until they are " fat
a. fools ~ II they were being prepar-
I'd for the butcher, instead of being
kept for labor. This il curious philOs-
ophy. \ fat man is not in a condition
10 endure hard work, nor IL lac ~ com.
Portable OF healthy, ~ person in mod
crate flesh.
II will Usually De- found THAI those
who thus overfced their horses, are tho
very men who stafve their cattle. In
summer they are turned into the woods
lot, the iallOw field or tue highway
while the horses are always lin Glow
err In winter, the mich COW runs
the road by day, and at night lies or
stands shivering in the wet or muddy
Darn yard, or il treated 10 the luxury
Ot - snow bank for bed. She eats
straw and corn fodder, with an occasi-
on8l frozen pumpkin! And yet she
~ expected to yield daily gallons Of
that most Indispensable article of food,
milk. IL II strange that she grows
poor, or that her calf is untbrifty? II
We have no compassion for the cattle,
and disregard the divine command to
treat them with kindness, considera.
tons Of pecuniary interest ought to
correct this cruel and inhuman practice.
"A COW that IL poorly fed can not give
much milk nor milk OF good quality,
for the plain reason, that IL Is among
the most nutritious of all the substances
We consume, and can not therefore be
manufactured from food that does not
contain nutritious elements.
Some farmers instruct their wives
that, corn must not be fed to the COWS,
because it dries them up But the
women-God bless them have COM
passion upon the kind and docile ami
NAL upon whose system such severe
drafts are being constantly made,
therefore insist upon furnishing food
that will repair this waste.
High feeding for cows in milk
pays As well as generous feeding for
steers. Let lis see. Milk sells readily
in the country villages for four cents
quart, while in the cities it brings
higher price. Suppose the COW to
give three gallons a day, we have As
cents, or something over S1i per
month, as the value of her product
What other animal will make such
generous returns for food, care and
generous feeding?
" III We consider the prOtits resulting
from raising the calves for steers, we
shall have reason equally conclusive
ia favor of generous keep. Whether
markets be good or bad, the well-kept
steers, in good form and OF good quail
~, always sells at profit to the
breeder. But we can not have good
form, good condition and good quality
where The calf was not properly started.
A runted calf becomes 'paunchy and
unthrilty, 3 form which subsequent
good keep will seldom correct.
The true principle therefore il, if
Wa regard the matter only in "A pecuni
AIRY point of view, to feed we'll, feed as
much 81 possible in-dOOrs, and we
shal! have more manure; and Jhe ma
nure where the cattle sre fed will be Of
better quality. Our land needs the
manure as much a. our cattle need the
nutritious food and thus il IL, as the
English say, the more We feed the
more We can produce. We should never
feed la the highway. II we can not
feed in~dOors, we should certainly feed
On our own land, and aim TO select n
place where il will do the most good. A"