Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1881-04-06
Corning, Steuben Co, N. Y.
Sheltering and Feeding Cattle. --SiIOs

A large farmer IN MlddleSeX county, who
has new, warm barn, has been feeding
large quantities of apples to his COWS the
past fall and winter, writes that his win
ter's experience has strengthened his faith
in warm stables, warm water, corn fodder
and apples for stock. He has fed all his
cattle apples, and believes that they have
given him far better returns than if they
bad been made into cider, His neighbors
also have fed apples very extensively the
past season, and are equally well pleased
with the results.
His stable is in the basement but is
made very light by large windows, which
let in flood of sunshine through the
entire day. Water runs into the stable
from IA spring, and is but little colder than
in summer, BY raising large quantities
of field corn, and curing the fodder with
care, he has been enabled to sell a large
portion OF his hay crop at the high prices
which prevail the present season. Corn,
as field crop, seems to be gaining friends
in Massachusetts with every returning
year.
Our own experience with the crop the
past year has been unexpectedly satisfac-
tory. The season was favorable to the
crop, especially in the autumn during the
harvest, the fodder coming to the barn in
October as bright and green as well cured
English hay. The green rye and barley
Sowed in August kept the cattle we'll sup
piled till after the ground froze in No
vember, since which time corn fodder has
been the chief food till about the middle
of March, both for cattle and horses. We
cannot claim that corn fodder is better
than good English hay for cattle but if the
land cultivated is thin, dry, and but poor
y adapted to grass. it is certainly much
cheaper. 1t has been claimed for wears,
Oy many good cattle feeders, that English
nay is too expensive food for our mich
COWS at the present prices received for
dairy products, and our last years expert
ence has inclined us very much to that
way of thinking,
With the same number of acres (twenty
SiX) in 1879 and 1880, and but IL small diff
ference in the number of pounds of live
weight to support, we find that with
twenty acres in grass and six acres in till,
age IN 1879 the barn was empty of hay
before the first of April, while in 1880,
with twenty-five acres in tillage, and ONLY
four acres at the end of the season in grass,
I very large amount of fodder is on hand
ut the end of winter, MANY tons more than
enough to carry the stock through till
green crops are fit 10 cut The explana
ton is this: In 1879 twenty acres of grass
with an untavorable season for rowen. cn
on the average considerably less than two
tons per acre-many acres but little over
i ton. This had to be fed freely during
summer and fall, and by the time winter
set in the barn was half emptied. In 1880
some fifteen or sixteen acres were in grass
up to July. or till one crop was cut, when
al but six acres were put under the plow
md some annual crop grown, such as
milleI, barley or rye. The ten or eleven
acres under tillage in the spring produced
a crop OF winter rye, which was cut for
nay and the land then planted to corn, or
II grew heavy crop of oat fodder, which
was followed by milet and then seeded
again to rye for feeding green thus spring.
lie corn field produced fully two tons of
good fodder per acre, and from one to Two
tons of rye hay, beside the ears of corn,
which averaged not less than one hundred
baskets per acre.
A good many farmers and others are
getting excited somewhat over their ex-
pectatons concerning ensilage They find
that an acre OF heavy corn cured in slo
will go long way in feeding animals,
and they are consequently proposing to
silo all their fodder, including their best
English grass. But it must be borne in
mind that the advantage of slo can
never be SO fully realized where grass is
used for filling it. as when it is used for
preserving corn, for the reason that grass
can usually be cured quickly and cheaply
by drying, while corn fodder is exceed
ingly difficult to cure in this way. But
the chief merit of the silo will probably
be found in the facility with which the
fodder from the corn field can be preserv
ed, and that the field of corn contains, if
the crop is heavy and we'll grown, much
more cattle food than an acre of ordinary
grass In short, the silo makes it possible
to substitute the cheaper corn for the dear
er timothy and red top hay.-New England
Farmer.