The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1879-12-11
FARM TOPICS.
GRASS.


n ~ 81
- FARM TOPICS. II %
-s-aEss.lzas.s-a GRASS 'aa1--
Men who have large farms are too
often tempted to put more acres IN
plowed crops than San be got in In sea-
son, well cultivated while growing, or if
ftife soil isstifin moreasiard is plowed and
planted than can be, properly MANFRED
TO insure a full return for labor e&pend-
ed. This kind of enterprise and in
dustry is .notdrected good Judgments
A small acreage well cultivated and
planted in proper season, yields more
bushels than a much larger extent badly
prepared, planted out. of season, and
but indifferently cultivated while the
crops are growing. In one case the
farmer drives his work and makes a
profit: in the other the work drives him,
his yield is generally poor, and he can
scarce make both ends meet. Grass is
the sheet anchor Of farming. If the
land is thin and lies in grass, the grass
being allowed to fall and mulch and
shade the groi1nd while it rOts, the soil
is improved more cheaply than by any
other mode. If a farm is large and the
owner has not sufficient force or capital
to farm it all, he should turn the parts
| into grass that are not used for Gulf
! waited crops, and when his rotation
/ brings him round to these sod-covered
fields he will grow immense crops of
grain from them. A close grass sod is
the best subduer of weeds that can be
introduced on a farm. a heavy coat of
grass protects the ground from the frosts
of winter and the scorching sun of sum
mer, keeping it mellow, moist and fer
tile, and preserving the soil in that con
dition, which is most admirable, return
1 by the farmer Grass is the farmer s
best friend, but few there be who seem
to have discovered this fact.-HanSaS
Farmer.
DAIRY MANAGEMENT IN WINTER.
.Dairymen are learning every year more
and more about their business. 1t used
to be considered good management for
a. dairyman to get through the winter
twith as little expenditure of food aspos-
tsible 1t was a common thing for a
smart one to boast how cheaply he had
carried his herd through the cold sea-
Fson, principally on straw, saying
".They are a little thin, but they will
pick up when grass comes." This man
did not seem to realize that the 'pickr
ing up ), would all be expended on the
recovery of lost condition, and that very
little milk. would be produced while this
was going on. Most dairymen have
learned ere this, that a COW in poor con-
dition in spring will yield a compara-
ltiyely poor return of milk through the
season. They have learned that g some
thing never comes from nothing" and
that no policy is more suicidal for a
dairyman than to winter his cows on in
nutritious food, so as to reduce their
flesh. Every dairynan, who has OBJ
llserved the effect of condition on the
flow of milk after calving, knows that
extra flesh represents.an extra yield OF
milk. 1t is not difficult TO determine,
very closely, how much milk every
pound of extra flesh and fat represents.
A deep mixer is very apt to draw so
heavily upon her own flesh as to become
thin at the end of the season, having
used all the extra food consumed during
the summer in, the secretion of milk, be-
sides her extra flesh in the spring. If a
COW has accumulated 100 pounds of ex-
ira flesh or fat during the winter, she
will yield Gf a good milker) at least 800
pounds more milk during the season, or
| ) pounds of milk for one of extra flesh
or fat. We think 6 pounds of milk to
one of flesh is nearer the actual yield.
The dairyman, therefore, who does not
feed his cows well through the winter,
is not only unmindful of the comfort OF
his cows, but is cheating himself out OF
the profits of next season. The prudent
stock-feeder looks ahead and lays in the
needed supplies for the future necesSi-
ties of his animals. Like the good
merchant he takes account Of his Stoca
of fodder on hand, and calculates how
1 he mayuse to some account all the prod
ucts of his farm He learns TO COM
bine his straw or corn fodder with good
timothy, or clover hay, and, il
he is Short of hay, he will still use
all his straw by feeding small portion
OF grain with it, so as to make it as good
as the best hay, for the small ration OF
grain will cost less than whole ration
of hay. Suppose he has abundance OF
wheat, oat or barley straw, and he wishes
to make this as good as prime hay, lei
him feed 4 pounds Of cotton-seed cake
and 4 pounds OF corn-meal on % pounds
of straw This would be equal in nu-
tritive effect to so pounds of timothy
hay. The cotton-seed. or cOn-neal
would cost about cents, while the hay
would cost from 10 to % cents in most
localities. This would give good price
flor the Straw also. If the quality Of the
Straw is good, cows will do better upon
this ration than upon hay If the dairy
man has half hay and half straw to mix
together, then the addition of + pound;
of bran, costing usually2 to 3 cents, will
make an excellent ration. But dairy
men are far too apt TO feed straw alone
instead of mixing it with good hay
that is, they have a straw period and
then a hay period, each being fed alone
for. several weeks. This is similar to the
b farmer's living two weeks upon pota-
toes, then two weeks upon bread, then
two weeks upon meat. Let him try this
once himself, and he will never feed his
COWS on straw only for two weeks again
Animals require variety, and the ia.
ton should always be a mixed
ration of various kinds of food,
Hay makes a good ration by itself. and
the reason is that this is not a single
food. Our hay crop is composed oi
many varieties of grass. From the same
field comes clover, timothy, red top,
June grass, wire grass. and a dozen
others-all called hay. SO nav is, gen
orally, very much miSod Iation. The
dairNmen shanld sturdy the Sos of hi.