The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1882-02-04
Food Equivalents.

It seems to me that the great majority
of farmers need good deal more knowl.
edge, both practical and scientific, In
the matter of the values of different
kinds of food for stock. Such knowl
edge will enable the farmer to feed his
stock with greater economy and at the
same time keep them in better condi.
ton. The practice of farmers in feed
inc stock varies in different localities,
and even in the same locality. One
farmer will winter his cattle entirely on
hay, and often, before spring, they will
become so constipated that their excre-
ment is voided in hard balls; they fall
off greatly in flesh, and spring finds
them in bad condition. remember the
time when it was a common practice to
winter cattle at a straw stack, with no
food except the straw to which they
helped themselves. Cattle confined for
a long time to q single article of diet
which, like this, is deficient both in flesh
formers and fat and heat producers,
were generally in a terrible condition to
endure the March winds. Many OF
them died, and many more were so run
down that il took all the best part Of the
season to get them back to as good
condition as they were in the previous
fall. In the great corn-growing States
many farmers run to the other extreme,
and feed too lavishly of corn, which
contains an excess of heat and fat-pro-
ducing elements. / have known farm
ers to feed horse thirty large ears OF
cord day-eQual TO twelve or fifteen
pounds of shelled corn--all through the
winter when the teams were not work.
ing, and often they were not taken out
of the stable for week, except to water.
We have seen men keep hogs shut up in
close pen or muddy yard, obliged to
sleep on dusty floor, and for months
not feed mouthful of anything except
corn. 1t is little wonder that with such
management our western horses break
down esrly; or die of collie, or that chol-
era keeps our herds of swine out OF
existence. Common sense teaches. that
the more comfortable and contented our
stock is kept, the better they will thrive
and generally the more profitable they
will be to us. An animal cannot be
comfortable when suffering with hun
ger, or when gorged and clogged by too
great quantity of rich food. The an
imal wintered on straw or poor quail
ty of hay, will suffer both with hunger
and cold; for there is not enough fat in
the food to maintain vital heat, OF
enough of the flesh formers to replace
the waste. The animal that is fed toe
much corn meal loses appetite, and al
the digestive and assimilative organs
become deranged. The knowledge
which the farmer should have, and
which science can help him to gain, viii
enable him to so combine the different
articles of food as to make the proper
tons of flesh and fat formers what they
should be. Millions of acres of corn
stalks, in our Western States, are left
r in the fields and fed off after the rains
and winds have bleached them unit
they are nearly worthless, and the lane
! is damaged by tramping more thar
! all the food is worth. Straw stacks, by
the thousand, are left to rot. All THU
material can be fed to stock profitablyi
!, and will be relished by themif combined
+, with some of the richer foods. Cor
| COlL,lt1.u Gentleman,