The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1879-05-08
Early Maturity.

IT is q well-known fact, although it
has been proved but recently, that an
animal makes its most profitable
growth in the earliest part of its life.
A noted example of what we wish to
illustrate was given q few years ago by
the Hon. Geo. Geddes, in regard to q
steer fed by an Orange County IN. ~
farmer. The figures given in the very
particular statement furnished by Mr..
Geddes showed the cost of the animal
from the first month OF its existence up
to the period of four years, when it was
slaughtered. At two years of age, the
steer showed profit in its feeding, but
from that time the cost gradually ex-
ceeded the growth in weight, until at
the end of the four years there was q
serious loss. It has been found by
trustworthy experiment that q young
animal will gain one pound in weig ht
from the consumption of three pounds
of corn meal or its equivalent in food of
similar quality as to digestibility and
nutriment; that four pounds of meal
will be required for q pound of increase
at six months; four and half pounds
at twelve months; five and q quarter
pounds at eighteen months; and six
pounds at two years. By judiciously
generous feeding acalf may be made to
gain 100 pounds in month; while
three-year-old animal consuming twice
the food which supplies the calf, win
increase only fifty pounds in q month.
There is no occasion to enforce the
application of these facts; they are
suggestive enough to attract the atten-
ton of all those whom they may con-
Germ. But at this season when we are
preparing to plant and SOW our fields,
it may be pertinent to allude to the
analogy which exists between animal
and vegetable life. The latter exists
by food as much as the former, and the
manner of growth in each is parallel
with that of the other. The laws which
control the healthful growth of an ami
NAL may well be applied to our culture
of plants, and from the former we may
learn that the early forcing of q crop
may be done at the least cost. Our
method of fertilizing, or feeding, crops
may be open to the objection that we
pour into weak organization vast
surplus of food by which its growth is
stunted, or we starve it by giving food
as yet unified for its wants, or by
neglecting to supply food at all. Cen
orally the whole supply of fertilizers is
added to the soil before the crop is
planted. This must certainly be waste
full practice, because active decomposi-
ton and diffusion are going on, when
there is nothing in the shape of roots
adequate for the utilization of the pro-
ducts. If we believe there is any an
alogy existing between animal and
plant growth, we should feed our crops
accordingly. Let US apply barnyard
manure before planting, if we will,
because we cannot avoid that, and
leave it to decompose and become
auailahln "A tha rnnta may reach it,:
but we should apply some active fertiI-
izer in the hill, or drill, or near the
seed in small quantity, suited to the
feeding capacity of the young plant,
and in quality fit for its actual need at
this period; and afterward, as may be
proper, add q further supply at each
cultivation (of cultivated crops) TO be
worked into the soil or occasionally to
be carried in by rains. In these limits
the subject can only be limited at, but
it is presented as food for thought and
work for experiment-Rsrol Nesc
Yorker.