Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1883-10-12
Heading and Feedinr.

After the reading of Prot. Cheeseman's paper
on 1.-The influence of chemistry on a rational
system of stock feeding" at the winter meet
ing of the state board of agriculture in
Northampton, Mass, last winter, a gentleman
present rose and said, in effect: IAN these
facts, as l suppose them to be, are interest
ing, but | am only plain farmer, and l do
not understand these strange terms this talk
about heterogeneous and heterogeneous sub
stances, carbohydrates and albuminods, is all
Greek to me. Now what | want, and what
all the rest of the farmers want is to have
these things brought down so that we can I'M
derstand what is meant. Let us have it in
plain language, SO that we shall not have to
dig and puzzle our brains in trying to under
stand all these new tangled ideas"
This sally was followed by buzz of APP
proval all over the hall, in the midst of which
up rose another farmer and said, substantial,
ly lone day last July had number of
loads of hay ready to draw to the barn, and
up came shower about noon and wet it so
that haying was impossible for that afternoon
came into the house and got out some of
Prof. Sanborn's tables of value of different
feeding materials. I sat down to them for
the purpose of studying out from the tables a
mixture of hay and grain which / thought
would give the most milk. J worked at those
tables all the afternoon and l never did a
hhll-hhJ NOIh lIhl llEtu NE any more IMAM
it did to fix that fodder ration in my mind
and in accordance with the tables. The fol.
lowing day began to feed my herd of cows
the mixture had decided on. The COWS fell
of in their milk the first day, the second day
they came back all right the next day they
gained little, and each day after that little
more, till the average milk increase of the
herd at the end of a week or ten days was 20
per cent. on the new ration. Some of the
cows increased more than others, and ono COW
neither gained nor lost the ration had no eff
feet on her to increase the flow of milk Now
it seems to me that if this matter of feeding
could be reduced to system, so that every
man could pick out particular table which
would be just what he wanted we farmers
who do not understand chemical matters
would be saved much trouble"
The speaker resumed his seat in the midst
of sensational rustic of approval and vol
ley of questions, of which, "Will the gentle
man just seated please tell us what the mix
ture isI' was the most prominent. With
true farmers frankness he gave statement
OF the combination of different grains and
folders he used, but 1 could no more have
taken his receipt and compounded his ration,
than | could have calculated the time of the
next solar eclipse Yet in his mind the matter
was as clear as the sun at MONDAY, for the
reason that he had studied it out, and reduced
theory to practice on his own farm.
At this point in the proceedings the clear
ringing tones of the late President Chad,
bourne of the Massachusetts, agricultural col.
lege was heard. as he said 81 want 10 drive a
wedge here. The gentleman who last spoke
said that he never did harder half.da work
than the time he spent porting over those feed
ing tables of Prof. Sanborn's. l should like
to ask the gentleman if he ever did half
days work that paid him any better, or
brought him any more money! think from
his own statement that it was the most prof.
table halliday work he ever did on his farm. "
President Chadbourne went on to say that
the coming farmer was TO be a book farmer /;
that the tables, so hard to be understood by
the farmers, are none the less hard to be un-
derstood by educated men; and that it would
be no advantage to farmers to make table
to be read at sight, if it were possible. His
feeling was that farmers needed educating on
the farm, not off from it, and that machine.
farmer was a poor sort of a machine. II
needed study-hard, wearing and laboriuus
to accomplish the highest results in these
latter day glories of agricultural thought and
conquest The most successful farmers
would be the studious ones.
This presentation of the case brought those
present to consideration of the subject in
an altogether different light For myself. on
coming home turned my attention TO those
same tables, with result which surprised me,
| am not going to tell you what my receipt is.
You can get up as good or better one if you
try. 1t has been help TO me- but | think
there is room for improvement and what
use will the unsettled conclusions have
reached do those who may chance 10 read this
article II you want to know something