The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1878-10-24
Don't Waste the Straw.

EAhAHNO w HUI 0PPl OCASbCo % OllCy
should the great value of straw. And
fed alone, it is poor feed; so, also, if
we had nothing but potatoes for our
diet, we should fail to thrive upon it.
But roast beef and potatoes together
make grand meal. There is mitch
gluten in potatoes and straw; and when
these articles are fed with stronger
and richer food, they become in the
highest degree valuable. We doubt
the policy of turning scarcely any of
our grass lands into meadows. If the
straw is saved in q bright, good con-
dition, and if fed out in the right man.
ner, there will be but little use for hay.
Our method of feeding straw is as
follows: We run it through cutting
box, and then we mix two quarts Of
meal with each three pecks of mois-
tened straw. This makes a splendid
feed for an animal. And, if an animal
is warmly sheltered and watereJ, and
is fed daily two such rations as this, it
will be kept in q good and thriving
condition throughout the winter.
We believe it would be good policy
for farmers generally to keep more
mich COWS upon their farms. Indeed,
we think that enough should be kept
to have one hired mans attention
given up entirely TO them.
Mich COWS can be kept all through
the winter at profit, instead of their
being, as is usually the case, bill of
expense. BY feeding them these ra-
tons. at a daily expense of five cents
each. good cows will produce milk
enough to make q pound of butter q
day. One man can cut the straw and
attend to fifteen cows, including the
milking and the churning the cream.
The expense, therefore, of attendance
at the usual winter wages, would not
exceed five cents to an animal. Here,
then, we have ten cents as daily out
60 for each cow, and, for our income,
one pound of butter. Assuming that a
good article of butter is made, the
price would certainly not be less than
twenty cents, while many farmers
would manage to get from twenty-five
to thirty-five cents a pound. But even
if the price was only twenty cents a
pound, every good cow would make a
clear profit of ten cents day. And,
fifteen good cows being kept, net
profit of $45 month would accrue to
the farmer. But, in addition to this
comfortable income coming in every
month, we will enumerate some other
good advantages that would result
from adopting this policy:
l. BY mixing bran with the sour milk
and buttermilk. and feeding it twelve
hours thereafter, the farmer will have
nm ovon11nnk &ond e., hsS h~r,,
2. He will accumulate through the
winter . large quantity of superior ma
nure. And . plenty Of fine rotten ma
nure is the very thing the farmer needs
to scatter over his wheat fields Just aft
er the seed is drilled in.
5. BY butter making becoming an
important and leading business with
him, he will never rest satisfied until
. first-class article is turned off from
his establishment.
4. He will be furnishing steady work
to some worthy man Needing employ
ment, and be relieved at the same time
of the worry and trouble of feeding,
watering and taking the winter-care Of
his animals. saa
5. Having no use for meadows, he
can enlarge MS pastures Tor the sum-
mer feeding of his animals. And this
will relieve him also from the hard
work of 'haying'' in the burning heat
of summer.
While we know, from personal ex-
perience, the profit of feeding cut-straw
and corn-meal to cows, both during the
summer and during the winter. we are
unable to say of our, own knowledge
what the advantages would be by adopt
ing this method Of winter-feeding fat
tening cattle. But we believe it would
be far more profitable than to raise hay
to feed them. t.44 s.e.s s. ID 1.trr,. :,
| When we shall see farmers, on farms
even of 160 acres, all having magnifi-
cent barns, into which we can enter in
winter and see in one part fifteen find
COWS, under the exclusive supervision
of one man. and in another part TWEEN
ty-five fattening animals under the
supervision of another man-all fed on
cut-straw and corn-meal, we shall see q
race of thriving and well-to-do farmers.
Their land, too, instead of becoming
poorer, and more and more worn out.
win all the time be growing richer,