The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1880-07-29
Food for Farm Steck.

dition when fed out, exercises a WON
derful influence upon the health and
general welfare of farm stock. The
season in which to give this matter
special attention is during the summer,
while the various plants cultivated for
the food of animals are growing or be-
ing gathered for future use. The most
nutritious food is not always the bes5
under all circumstances and conditions,
but the farmer should aim to produce a
variety, so that his animals may have a
change occasionally and at all seasons
of the year, as this is usually conducive
to good health. Food in its green state
is certainly more natural than when
dried, as in hay. grain, and straw; but
in cold climates we are compelled to
preserve food plants in what may be
termed an unnatural condition, and by
artificial means, for the use of stock
during the winter, when they are una
ble'to procure it for themselves. The
farmer should, therefore, endeavor to
secure the food for his stock in as good
condition as possible and in such va
riety that change from summer to
winter shall not prove deleterious to
the health and comfort of his ami
mails.
To take stock from the pasture where
they have been feeding for months up
on green, succulent heritage and then
contine them in the stable or yard and
give them nothing better than dry hay,
cornstalks, or straw, is too great a
change and it should be leSsened or
moderated by feeding some kind of soft
food for few weeks along with the
dry, in order that the digestive organs
may not be impaired by the change.
If the farmer cannot supply his stock
with roots for green feed he can at
least give them the softest and
best hay, or even steam or moisten
it before feeding. But if he
thinks of it in time, he can have, if he
will take the trouble to raise them, a
quantity OF turnips, beets, carrots, or
similar roots ready for use at the proper
time, and, in fact, he should have these
roots on hand all winter and give his
stock an occasional feed of them, if only
as a medicine or health preservative.
If those who keep stock would think as
much of the health and comfort of their
animals as they do of their own health
and comfort, we should not hear so
much of diseases among animals, espec-
tally during the winter and early spring
months.
Animals that are well fed with nutri-
tious and easily digested food and then
sheltered from cold storms are gener-
ally in condition to resist diseases, and
it may be safely asserted that seventy
five per cent. OF all losses of farm stock
is the direct result of neglect or starva-
ton. 1t is very difficult to make a
farmer believe that his animals are suf-
fering for food while he is giving them
an abundance of what he thinks is good
enough; still, if the food is not adapted
to their needs they may not only suffer
Inconvenience. but in some instances
actually starve when surrounded by
plentiful supply of food such as it is.
Then, again, an animal may thrive
upon a kind of food while young and
his digestive organs are healthy and I'M
impaired, and yet starve upon the same
when old or in i'll health. We have fire.
quently heard farmers remark that the
old horse or COW " did not do as well
as they used to, although they were get
ting the same feed they always had"
and this was Just the reason why the
animals did not thrive; they needed
better and more easily digested food
than had been fed to them in their
Younger DAYS. In some of our Western
and Southern States whole dry corn is
the only grain fed to mules and horses
and their owners think it good
enough; but while we are willing to
admit that these animals may thrive
for a few years upon such food, they
are far more likely to fail or give out
early than animals fed upon oats or the
same kind of corn ground and fed in
the form of meal. Grain when ground
into meal is more readily assimilated
than when fed whole, and to further
increase its digestibility it may be
steamed or cooked. Boiling or steam
ING food is extensively practiced for the
purpose of making the cOarser kinds
soft and facilitating their assimilation;
but it is not always practicable to use
food in this form, nor is it economy
where grain and all kinds of fodder are
abundant and cheap.
Good timothy, blue grass, or red-top
hay, with plenty of oats, may be con-
sidered excellent food for both horses
and mules during the winter months,
but an occasional feed of roots, cut hay,
and corn or Oat meal, and similar
changes, will do much toward keeping
the animal healthy. The same is true
with cattle, and no one should expect
them to thrive upon one kind of food
given continuously through several
months of the year. A change from
coarse to fine or the opposite, with grain
whole, then ground and occasionally
cooked will often prove more efficacious
in both preventing and curing diseases
than any other kind of medicine There
is nothing like good food and plenty of
it to cure those imaginary diseases
known among a certain class of farmers
as hollow horn" or "hollow tail"
If the animal is kept in good condition,
it will be enabled to resist the attacks
of parasites, whether they be internal
or external, and when stock are troubled
by either it is pretty sure sign that
there is or has been something radically
wrong in their treatment. Internal
parasites, or worms, as they are termed.
usually attack feeble, poorly fed stock
of all kinds, seldom or never the we'll
fed, sleek and healthy. External para
sites breed mainly in filth. and lousy
are, as rule, those that are
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