The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1879-10-10

MS pen, ne jumped 1Or IL as IOr sweet
morsel. Beech and birch were alike
greedily devoured, but after feeding on
one kind for time he was evidently
pleased with another, though apple-tree
leaves gave him the most permanent
satisfaction. Fresh clover and grass
would be neglected at any time for some
suckers from an apple tree, and if an
apple was occasionally offered him, his
gratitude was expressed with an extra
shake of his tail and a twinkle in his eye
that were as expressive as words.
The instinct of the dumb beast evil
IDENTIFY agrees with the reason of man in
demanding what the Bussey Professors
call I" mixed rations." No farmer would
like to be confined to corned beef and
pork as steady diet sos days in the
year, though his "pot-luck" might be
accompanied with cabbage and pota-
to and his appetite sharpened with mus
tard and vinegar. Roast beef and plum
pudding would also fail to satisfy the
palate of the veriest epicure, if these
were his only ratiOns day after day.
All men recognize in themselves the
physical law demanding mixed ratiOns,
and when they cater for humanity prac-
tice upon it. In most families that are
well managed there is succession of
different dishes for each day of the
week. Thus, the average BOstonian
thinks he must have baked beans and
brown bread for Sundays dinner, and
boiled fish for Friday, with roast beef,
lamb, turkey, chickens, and cOrned
beef on the intervening days, the order
varying in different families, but the
change being universal. He would be
considered demoralized Yankee who
should provide for his household roast
lamb or turkey two days in succession.
Now, the inferior animals may not have
such delicate tastes, certainly they have
not such pampered appetites, as
city children, but they have the
same love of variety, and in their
wild state crafty it as well as they can,
and nature has provided the means for
gratifying it to a far greater extent than
most people suppose. The number of
forage plants is almost unlimited. Be-
sides the great variety of grasses-Flint
names 125 in his treatise on grasses
there are weeds, bushes, and trees in
great numbers on which most wild ami
mails feed extensively. Many of them
also have delicious dessert of the va
riOus fruits in their season. Our do
nestle animals, fed on dry hay alone
from November to May, must suffer,
and if they only could talk as well as
our children, they would say, 1--WE want
a CHANGE
Exactly what the variety in food shall
be, each farmer-as every family does
must decide according to circumstances,
and we can lay down no universal law,
except the general one of variety. We
will venture, however, to make some
suggestions on this point. In the first
place, there should be some variety in
the hay. To cOnfine horses to timothy
and cows to red-tOp is unwise, if not
cruel. Horses are very GRATEFUL for a
little well cured clover occasionally, and
like bite of fresh grass or rowen hay
better than oats. TrOtters and hard
worked horses are seldom allowed such
bite, as it makes them relaxed and
respiratory, but it does them good not
withstanding, and if every Sunday morn
ing they could be furnished with a good
feed of rowen, they would be more
healthy and live longer. Fresh grass is
natures physic, but the fast hOrselnan
prefers arsenic or some other drug pois-
on, and will not allow his horse new hay
or new oats. They must be old and dry
as cob, or his horse will not come
around ahead on the fifth heat. In win
ter, the non-trotting season, the fast
horse fares better, as his steady summer
rations of dry hay and oats are then va
ried with an occasional feed of carrots
and a mash Of bran.
Apples make an excellent dish for
cows and horses, and one which they rel
ish greatly. They are as healthy food
for stock in the barn as for the stock of
children in the house, and it is difficult |
to tell which is the most greedy for |
them. They are both SO ravenOus that
if turned into an orchard, not being ac-
customed to an apple ration, they win
eat SO many as to tax their stomachs I'M
The true mode, therefore,
of feeding apples is to make the ration
small at first. and increase the allow
ance as the animal becomes accustomed
to the new diet. Fed in this way they |
will stimulate the appetite of the horse,
esAAN CIV q AhO SAOcS W uiS Hall, duu
cause great flow of milk from cows. |
Apples are also excellent for fattening1
cattle, counteracting the tendency to |
feverish action engendered by corn-meal,
and giving fine flavor to the beef. |
Farmers are sometimes afraid of feeding !
apples to fattening cattle and sheep, be- |
ing apprehensive of what they call
IS scOuring;" but there is no danger of
this if fed as recommended for mich
cows. On the contrary, the apples will
stimulate the appetite of the animal,
and cause him to feed and fatten more
kindly. ,-, f..a..o
1t is hardly necessary to mention roots
among the mixed rations of stock. Hap
PLY, both for the farmer and his cattle.
these are now recognized quite generally
as among the essential foods. Making
milk out of old hay alone was, and al
ways will be, hard wOrk-much like
making a whistle out of a pigs tail. In