New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1885-04-22
Selling Crops for Cows.

SOllM& crops Tor Cows.
tits seldom that the summer months
pass in any year. writes dairyman in
The Lire Stock Journal, that drought,
more or less severe. does not occur
during July, August. or September.
and sometimes it happens that no rain
at all falls in any of these months. The
result of this is an entire scorching and
destruction of the pastures. and con-
sequent decrease of the milk flow. Hay
and grain feed is not q sufficient sub
stitute for the grass. and no amount
of it fed to the cows will produce as
good results in milk and butter. It
therefore becomes important for the
dairy farmer to prepare for such an
emergency. This is done very cheaply
and with little labor by the use of
green corn, planted in early May, con-
tinuing every two weeks until the
middle of June. The corn should
be sown thickly-on well-prepared
ground, the richer the sod the better
will be the results-in rows two and
one-half or three feet apart; this ad-
mits of cultivation, free circulation of
air, and promotes the growth of the
young plants. When the corn has at
tanned height of three to four feet it
is ready for use, and may be cut and
given to the COWS, The most econom-
ical plan for feeding is to haul it to
the stable and feed it to the COWS at
milking-tim in the managers. If fed
upon the ground a waste will be
caused by 1t being trampled upon
by the master cattle in their greed to
get more than their share and in driv-
ing the timid ones of. BY the manger
system of feeding, each animal is pro-
vided with the proper amount, and
she is at full liberty to enjoy it at her
leisure. An increased flow of milk will
follow; the cattle will thrive better be-
cause of the agreeable change of food,
and the general condition of the herd
will be greatly improved.
Green oats, mil]et. clover, rye, or
any of the rapid-growing grasses will
answer the same purpose, but corn
prepared and used as directed is much
the best. Cattle will eat the stalks
with great relish, even after they have
become hardened and partially dry.
Some of the larger kinds of sugar corn
make the most successful soiling crop,
and are to be preferred to the ordinary
field corn, because they contain more
saccharine matter, and are conse-
quently eaten with more relish, and
possess greater nutritious qualities.
All animals confined in the stable or
iebarred the privileges of the pastures
should by all means be provided with
green crop in summer. Growth,
thrift, and health in.peratively demand
such diet. Bulls that are kept for
service are usually confined in box
stall, with q yard adjoining fer oxcr-
else, but never allowed the freedom of
run at grass. These will be i'm
nleasurably benefited by daily rations
of green food from the beginning to
the end of the growing season. IT he
be a Jersey bull, the characteristic
golden, yellow skin, so often promi-
tnent in this breed, will be to a degree
absent unless he is fed upon green
food. This consideration alone is
worth, to a breeder of Jerseys, all the
labor and expense of preparing the
crop, for there is no outward indica-
ton of richness and fine quality in this
breed of cattle that ELECTS so much adj
miration and contributes as much
value as a beautiful orange skin, and
there is no kind of food that will pro-
duce this condition to perfection like
grass, or some substitute in the form
of green food. For calves or Young
stock in the stables or deprived of free
allowance of grass, tits indispensable
to thrifty growth and development.
Fifteen or twenty rows, fifty yards
long, planted near the barn, at the i'm
tervals suggested, will furnish an
amazing quantity, abundant to supply
fifty or more cattle literally every day
until the next crop is large enou gh to
feed. If more be grown than is re-
quired for summ'er use, it makes an
excellent winter feed if cut when the
ears are beginning to form, cured and
tied into bundles convenient for hand
ling, and stored in a dry place, under
roof is best, but it will keep perfectly
and be eaten by the stock with iujoy-
ment and benefit if,mell and securely
stacked out of doors. The dairyman
who once tries theexperiment of grow
ing soiling crop for his cattle in sam
mer will not attempt to get along with
out it. 1t is cheap, easily grown, and
the returns are enormous. ~
1nebriety Among Railroad Engineers.