Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1884-01-18
Fertilizers and Cow Feed.

In talk on dairy farming recently
given by DIR. Voelcker to the students
Of the Royal Agricultural College. he
said of the management of pasture land,
that while in some places steamed bone
meal produces excellent results, In 9TH
srs it produces no effect at all, even
when applied in very large quantities.
This little item of experience, within the
comparatively narrow boundaries Of
England. besides suggesting caution in
the use of this fertilizer, also shows the
folly of some writers for our agriculture
al papers, who, because they see no
good effects of heterogeneous manures in
their own immed ate neighborhood, pro-
coed to advise everybody else all over
this great eXpanse of country not only
to lay out no money for the costly nitro
gen of commercial fertilizers, but also
to pay no heed to waste of nitrogen in
their own stable manure. by overhead
ing in the pile, or by teaching out in the
yard-most pernicious advice.
But DIR. Voe!cker also expresses his
very decided opinion that the use of ar.
tificial manures generally, and especially
of guano or nitrate of soda, does not
pay en- permanent pasture. He affirms
that his own numerous experiments
have taught him this lesson, and also
that those which Lawes and Gilbert
have been trying for so many years
teach the same lesson. But something
must be done 10 replace what is carried
OFF from the pasture i'll the milk and
meat sold or it will surely run out,
sooner or later; hence his sound advice
to feed oil-cake To the pas ured stock,
and for this he particularly recommends
the cake So easily had in this country
decorticated cotton-Seeu cake, given at
the rate of two and half pounds pei
day an animal. if both pasture and COWS
are to be kept i'm good condition. AT
certain seasons of the year, as in the
spring, when the first grass is eaten, he
would give undecorticatcd cake, three
pounds day: lis husSs are preventive
against scours; he would also use this
cake if Indian meal is fed.
For feeding dairy stock In the barn
he quotes the use of bean meal and oat
meal, one or DO h rs the case may be,
by a very successful Scotch dairymcn,
who supplies round of customers that
want very rich milk. Voelcker himself
finds five pounds Il day, head, of a
mixture in equal parts of decorticated
cotton-seed cake, bran. bean meal and
oat meal to be As good or better than
bean meal or oat meal alone. Another
dairyman, every one of whose Short.
horn COWS makes not less than one hun.
dred dollars year for him, gives one
bushel of brewers grains. two and one
half pounds of bean meal, two and one
half pounds OF Indian meal and forty
! nnnnIS IN -,
the summer, when the animals are in.
pasture, he gives two and one-hali
pounds of decorticated cotton-seed cake.
Thus it is seen that cotton-sced cake
enters largely into the milk ration il
English dairy husbandrv.
Occasionally complaint is made in the
papers that the cotton-sced giveS a taste
TO the milk; but every such assertion
always calls out So many experiences &c
the contrary, from those who have used
it freely, and whose milk and butter arc
III many cases disposed of to fastidious
customers, that there can he no doubt
that if the cake meal is clean and good,
and is properly used, from two to fouI,
pounds Il day may be given to eacE
animal, with good results. Doubtless the
larger the natural weld of the cow the
more literally sue NAV be fed with con
centrated fodder, rs general rule: but
the careful farmer will always keep
watchful eye on both COW and milk pail.
| especially when giving this high feed;
/ even if the health of the animal is kept
| in prime condition, and allowing that
/ the richer the fodder the richer the
manure, it will depend upon the profit
with which the rich manure can lie used.
on crops that bring good prices, whether
very rich feeding pays, unless it pays in
| the milk.
Of the use of oat meal for cows men,
! ton is not often made in this country:
but when spoken of it is always with
! praise. That it is better than corn
meal there can be no doubt: it is rich
or in b. tn albuminoids and fat; and
! the usefulness of these two nutrients.
and especially the former, for making
milk is shown not only by the results Of
numerous careful experiments, 5ut by
the acknowledged usefulness of O l-cake
meal. Where this meal is used freely
there would be less use for oat meal:
but under some circumstances it might
/ he advantageously substituted for the
bran in the favoritc mixture for COWS
of Indian meal and bran. N. Y. Trio.
une.