The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1876-11-29
THE PRESS.
THE FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.
Apples In the Bajry.

Apples are an excellent food for mich
cows, as they are for all other stock when fed
in proper quantity. They give an excellent
favor to milk and the butter and cheese
made from it, and increase the Weld of either.
A few observant.fa have for long time
been aware OF the fact that apples and other
fruit are valuable and healthy food for stock,
mich COWS included, and have been in the
habit OF utilizing their inferior fruit by feed
ing it, and the many are beginning to learn
its value and are yearly feeding more and
more of such fruit as is not fit for market.
The quantity which may be fed profitably va
ries with the size and constitution of the ami
NAL fed. A good, healthy COW weighing
LOGO pounds can safely eat peck of apples
twice day, and smaller animals in proper
ton. The quantity should never be so large
as to produce either securing or fevershness.
In either case more harm than good will be
done by seeding them. The feeder should be.
gin with not more than half rations, and
gradually increase the amount, carefully not
ing the effect. Taking the appetite of ami
mails as guide, it is not best to feed either
sweet or sour exclusively. If but one kind
could be used sweet would be the best, but
stock prefer to change from one to the other,
or to have them mixed at the rate of two
sweet to one sour. Either kind will be readi-
ly eaten by cows, though a mixture is pre-
ferred, and it is believed to be best for them.
The best method of feeding is to slice them in
a reot-cutter and feed in the stable. but they
may be fed on the ground. l have fed a
great many apples to cows in the orchard,
shaking them from the trees. From haste
and hooking each other, the animals are
quite liable TO get choked, but l never lost
COW from choking with an apple. Though
unable to extract the apple from the throat
and severe bloating often occurred, the fruit
would so far digest in the outlet as to become
softened, and would be thrown out through
the mouth. The experience of others may
be different, but such has been mine. A po-
tatto in the throat has sometimes proved IA
tai. In cases of choking it is good plan to
prop the cows mouth open by running a
short stick, two or three inches in diameter
crosswise between her jaws and keeping it
there by attaching a cord to either end of
the stick and fastening to the horn above.
BY keeping the mouth open the COW IS pre-
vented from crowding the obstruction any
further down by swallowing, and when soft
ened by digestion and pushed by the gas
crowding it from the stomach, it will be soon
er thrown out than if the mouth was closed,
AID this often proves a safeguard against ia
tai consequences. The value of apples as a
milk-producing food varies with the circum-
stances under which they are fed, reference
being had to the quantity of milk which a
given quantity of apples will produce. They
are pretty nearly but not quite equal to pota-
toes for this purpose. When cows come into
milk in the spring and their milk is not al
lowed to shrink by drouth or scanty food be-
yond what it naturally would by distance
from the time of coming in, and taken pro-
miscuously as they usually grow, with sweet
an sour mixed, will increase the milk in guam
tity and richness so much as to give pound
of cheese from bushel of apples, or pound
of butter from two bushels of apples, and a
half,a peck per day to COW being consumed.
# fed to cows nearly dry, or to those other
wise scantiy fed, so that the substance of the
fruit is employed to make fat or flesh, the in
crease in the yield of milk will be less. If
they are full fed, and have more recently
come in, they will give better return than
above stated. Taking the ordinary condition
of COWS at the season when apples are ripe,
and counting in their value as a substitute
for other food, as well as increasing the value
of milk, and with butter and cheese at the
prices now current, apples as a food for mich
cows are estimated at IL to Is cents per
bushel. 1 speak advisedly on this subject,
having determined by wei ght and measure
the increased yield of ration of one peck per
day each to a herd of SO cows. To be fed
advantageously to cows, fruit must be dealt
out with care and judgment. If fed little
freely, the result will be loss instead of q
profit. When judiciously fed, any kind of
fruit, and particularly apples, not only in
creases the amount and richness of milk, but
gives deliciousness of favor to both butter
and cheese beyond that given by grass alone.
,-Ne,o York Tribune.