The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1876-01-20
Feeding Meal to Live Stock.

Inc pracClCe OF IeeOlng live STOCK on
corn-Ineal without any grass, hay or straw
is not, as L. W. Miller appears to think,
a new and recent discovery. Scores OF
farmers fifty years ago, who are now
among tile departed, frequently kept a
portion OF their cows, young cattle and
horses on meal and wheat bran without a
mouthful of hay or straw. When the
country was first being settled the pioneers
of the wild old woods often had des-
pcrate struggle for healthful existence
Their limited crops were often drowned
out during one part Of the growing season
or dried up by the scorching sunshine and
drought at other times. twas no uncom-
mon occurrence for farmer to travel
twenty or thirty miles through the forest
to procure few bags of meal to feed his
stock, without hay, cornstalks or straw.
The oldest farmers of our country are we'll
aware that live stock will subsist on meal
only. Yet they will all agree that their
stock will thrive far more satisfactorily
if they can be supplied with some grass
or hay also, in connection with the meal
consumed. Many years ago some farm
ers having only a few cattle were 50 i'm
poverished that they were obliged to 20
to the forest every day and cut down
number of trees, so that their cattle could
forage on the buds and small twigs.
Strange as it may appear, others carried
their cattle throug III on browse only, until
grass appeared, without meal, without
bran, without shorts, hay or straw. This
practice is one step in advance of Mr..
Miller's practice OF keeping live stock on
meal alone. Bnt there was not a farmer
in the country who would not aver at
once that those cattle which ha! subslstcd
on browse would have been more health
full and thrifty if each one could have
been tea few quarts OF meal or some
good hay daily in addition to the bass
| wood browse. We have in mind some
INDECENT families having only one cow
nor browse to keep COW from starvation.
So the father would shell a neighbours
corn, accepting the cObs only as remuner-
alton for his Smelling the grain. Those
corn-cObs we're then broken into fragments,
stepped in hot water during the night or
day, and a few pounds were doled out to
keep the furnishing brutes from starving
until grass appeared. This was the best
thing that could be done under the Cir
cumstances. Those cobs furnished only
meager quantity of nourishment, as the
chief chemical constituents of corn cobs
consist of potash, trace of soda and
woody fiber. Yet the cows survived until
grass appeared. But who would think of
advocating cOrn-cObs as an economical
feed for live stock of any sort? When
cattle were required to subsist on browse
they filed themselves well. Yet would
they not have been far more thrifty if they
had been supplied with q few pounds
of meal each per day? Now, then, reverse
the supposition. If those animals had
received no hay, straw, nor other coarse
fodder, but were confined to meal alone,
would it not have been better for them in
every respect if they could be allowed to
fill themselves with browse, or better still
with hay? No intelligent breeder of neat
cattle will deny this. BY allowing the
browse to remain in the rumen or paunch
until the coarse feed had become sotteled
during the process of mastication and d.
gestion the tender twigs and soft buds
furnished nourishing gum, sugar and
woody fiber. Hay also will supply the
same elements of nutrition. When meal
only is fed to live stock-to fattening
swine, for example-the animals will be
trough or the floor, or eat their bedding,
or devour charcoal or any other substance
that will distend the stomach. When
some persons partake of hasty-pudding,
or mush, disagreeable feeling follows
which Is .ffsqen1y called ]" heartburn, y
but which is nothing more nor less than
stomach burn" The concentrated food
lies so heavily in the stomach that fer
mentatlon commences before digestion of
q part Of the food Is half completed. But
when such heavy nourishment Is taken in
connection with . generous supply of
cabbage. turnipe or other bulky food no
heartburn" will be felt after partaking
Of hasty- pudding. ss:s.
A man will subsist on hash or bologna
! sausage or Limburger cheese. But would
not fretter fpet LEGS If he could have a