Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1875-12-23
WinlerIng Stock,

The New York Times says: Over
feeding Is, perhaps, the most serious
error of wintering stock under the old
or common system. 1t has been sup.
posed that an animal would eat only
what nature requires; consequently the
general rule has been, in feeding rum.
Inants, to give them all they would
eat, without regard to its fitness OF
quality. In feeding late-cut and very
ripe hay, that food constituents Ol
which have in great part been changed
into almost indigestible cellulOSe, il
might require all, and even more than
an animal could be induced to eat, to
keep it i'm condition. 1t is no uncom-
uon occurrence, in the experience OF
stock-keepers, that strong, healthy ani.
mails lose flesh when fed upon poor hay
alone in uustinted quantity. Animals
thus treated acquire the habit of stuff
fing themselves very full; in fact, they
are Obliged to do SO in order to obtain
sufficient nutriment. But change from
poor hay to that cut in the first blossom
(thevery best time, in point of econO-
my, for cutting grass, one pound OF
which Is worth for feeding at least two
pounds of that which is over-ripe; the
animal relishing it much better will eat
even more, if possible, than of the poor
hay, consequently she may have more
Than twice the nutriment she had form.
erly. If her digestive capacity WAS un.
limited, so that the added nutrimr nj
would add SO much to growth or the
accumulation of flesh or fat, the error
would not be so serious; but here comes
n fact ;aI,
system of wintering stock is founded
an absolute limit to the digestive ca.
pacity of the animal. If that is ex-
ceeded, theIe is not only waste in pro.
portion to the excess, but the system
becomes ciOgged, and, in the very Ma
ture of things, serious y deranged. But
suppose that in the place of the early
cut hay we feed rowen or aftermath,
which, pound for pound, has twice the
value in food elements of the former (if
cut when not over six or eight inches),
and what utter folly to allow the ami.
NAL all it will consume OF this rich food!
Some new milch cows, whose tactical
glands are very active and well deveI.
oped, might possibly consume it with
out much waste; but it is safe to say
that not one COW in one hundred could
do it. Yet many dairynen are in the
habit of feeding their cows all they will
eat the year round, regardless of the
fact that, as the flow OF mink naturally
decreases the capacity of the lacteal
glands to convert the constituents of
food into milk, milk is diminished in
proportion, and even when the cow is
dried off, they go on feeding at the
same rate, not considering that half her
digestive powers are dormant. The
question for every man who keers a
COW to study is not how much hay or
grain, as the case may be, she will eat !;
that is easily'determined by placing the
food before her; but how much can she
assimilate without waste? If she had
recently dropped her calf land is giving,
we will say, forty pounds of milk daily
she will require more than twice the
suecuient food that would serve her il
dry; If she has been in milk, say six
months, and her flow of milk is reduc.
ed one-half, about one-third less will
supply her wants.