Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1883-12-08
paiIp Krrlrlehsr Journal.
and Feeding Stock In
Maine.

Raising and Feeding Stock In
Maine.
The practice of selling hav or eating it
upon the farm is one of the important
questions now being discussed at almost
all meetings and gatherings Of farmers says
l.. L. Lucas in the Home Farm. Those
who recommend eating it upon the farm
seem to have the best OF the argument.
In one thing they all agree that the ma
nure made from the hay is all needed even
on the most fertile farms in Maine. But
few of them. however understand just
how much plant food they are losing in
every ton of hay sold. The scientific
ones, who analyze to find what is in a ton
of hay. and how much. fix the value from
five to nine dollars per ton. including clO-
yer, based up the prices of commercial
manures, which many farmers are buying
in large quantities.
Now il the scientific ones are right. or
about right. in their estimate of the value
of the manure made from hay, it would
seem that a farmer must make very poor
use OF it il he cannot get by feeding it,
the excess in the value of hay above the
manue made from it, five dollars for the
manure and two dollars a ton tor cutting
the hay, at present prices, would not leave
great stumpage for the hay IN the field.
There cannot be any doubt that hay fed
to good thrifty young stock, from calves
to two years old. milch cows.
sheep or even good young horses.
fed intelligently, with all the sur
roundings favorable, one of which is n
warm, well ventilated barn. together with
the manure if well cared for, pays the
farmer, remote from the city markets,
much more than is often realized from its
sale. Farmers as a whole take more in
terest in growing their crops of the farm.
than they do the sto * of the farm. All
the production of the farm must come
from the soil, and the changing of the soil
products for beef. pork, mutton, wool, etc.,
is where the greatest loses are sustained
Very little judgment is used in the Sc
lection of stock to teed, and but little care
in feeding it. They do not seem to learn
that il is feed that makes stock Messrs
Bodwell & Burleigh have been importing
some very nice stock of different breeds.
and have shown to our farmers what good
breeds and good care will do, and as a
rule, in the breeding of stock. what can
be done in England can be done in Maine.
and if grown at a profit there it can be
here. But revolution among farmers
will first be necessary before they can be
trusted with the care of such stock. The
bulk of the iced summer and winter.
and two thirds of the time is wasted
upon stock that is making no growth.
and so long as that practice prevails
AS rule little growth should be
made every day in the year to all
stock kept for no other purpose than
growth, and the youngest animal of a
given size is the cheapest animal. A
thousand pound steer at 80 months old
costs less than half as much as the steer
"a months old of the same weight. Feed
decreases in value as the animal grows
older, requiring more feed for pound OF
meat at four years old than at one. Very
likely MIR. Burleigh can grow one of his
good Herefords So to dreess 1000 pounds
at 80 months old, and do it at a profit
here in Maine, and if four and one-half
years about it would make him loss. /.
&. Libbey. Esq. whose head is as usually
level as heads will average, lays more
stress on the raising of cows fOr market
| than think the profits will warrant, from
the fact that they must be kept from two
| to three years before they are any profit
but bill of expense. then two or three
years more at perhaps profit enough to
| pay their keeping, before they are tit for
the market, then they sell if remember
his statement right, for less than $50,
which is lsss than good steer would sell
for at two and one-half years old. But
cows are plentier than beef oxen, and
young stock is SO high here that cows
are about all the stock he can take to
market at a profit, and it is doubt
full about profit on sll that he takes to
market, even at the high price he sells
for. There is no profit for the Maine
farmer in raising store stock for the Mas
sachusetts market where land and feed are
worth twice what they are in Maine. II
the Massachusetts farmers can afford to
feed and manure them. the Maine farmer
can much better afford to do it where land
and feed are plenty and cheap.
| II has appeared to me for a long time
that the Maine farmers have handled their
stock to great disadvantage and at little
or no profit, and as they can't well dc
much worse, think they would run nc
risk in trying to do little better. STEP
right out of the old ruts and travel no fear
oi getting lost. there are landmarks
enough to keep the course. When the boy
looked at the picture he had drawn for the
4 horse, some doubts existed in his mind
whether he might not be mistaken fol
some other animal. and SO he wrote ''thii
is horse" under the picture. / may be
in the same dilemma, but / won't write
horse. but let your readers look at the
picture and CALI it what they please.