Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1885-12-11
farmers' Column.
Give fools their gold Il naves their power
Let fortunes bubbles rise and fail;
Who sOyvs field trains n flower.
Or plants a tree. is more than all.
Cattle and Improved Agriculture.


One of the correspondents Of the
Lire Stock journal having called at
tention to the steadily changing prof
its of cattle farming, the margin be
coming less and less both for beef and
dairy products, he thinks more con
slderatlon must be given to what he
calls the Indirect income from cattle
farming-improvement of the farm,
the account having usually been the
cost of growing and fattening the cat
tie and the market price, or the cost OF
keeping and labor expended upon the
dairy cow and the market value OF
her product, no account being made
OF the return of cattle farming in ma
nure.
The editor says he might have said
that it is only few years since the
manure was considered as nuisance
In consequence Of the labor required
to get it out of the way. 1t is well
that farmers begin to think of the in
cidental compensation in cattle nus
bandry. Large portions Of Illinois
ceased TO produce paying crops of
wheat, and this cereal had been aban-
doned for some years, and more stock
was kept instead. This was the cause,
in some localities. of introducing the
then new industry of dairying, and af
ter few years these districts were "a
gain successful in the wheat crop. Cat
tie and grain farming must go togeth-
er-they are a compensation for each
other. The indirect income from cat
tie is just what the grain farmers
should most carefully study. If they
fully comprehend it, they would be
much better reconciled to lower prices
for cattle and dairy products.
The English farmer thinks himself
we'll compensated in feeding cattle if
he can get the manure for his labor
If his cattle pay for all they consume,
he knows that the increase Of his
crops will figure up a satisfactory pro-
fit. The English feeders cost of food
is much higher than the American
feeders. The former feeds largely Of
the oil cakes imported from this coun-
try, which in turn greatly enrich the
manure; but the American feeder fat
tens mostly upon corn, which being
composed SO largely of starch and 9TH
er carbohydrates that produce fat,
does not enrich the manure so much
The manure from a ton of corn has
only about one-half the value of the
manure from ton of the best clover
hay, and little more than one fourth
of that from a ton of linseed meal or
cotton. seed meal.
Professor Sanborn has found wheat
braa to be more valuable for growing
young cattle and pigs than corn meal,
and this is what might be expected
stsom-its composition, as it has much
more material for the growth of mus
Gle and bone; and the manure from a
ton Of bran is worth double that from
ton of corn. If the manure is all
saved, it is worth the whole cost OF
the bran, and, as We have shown in
the Journal, bran is cheap fertilizer
if applied directly to the crops. But,
of course, it is still more profitable to
feed and then apply the manure, for
the bran will fully pay its cost in the
growth of animals, and the manure
may then be had free. 1t may safely
be said that the manure from growing
or fattening cattle is worth one half
as much as the growth or grain on
the cattle. And if the manure is fully
saved from an animal during its whole
life, it is worth, at least, one half as
much as the animal at market age.
And if that is safe calculation, as we
believe, it is certainly an item well
worth considering in the profits of cat
tie farming.
This item will raise the present
low price to very satisfactory basis.
The first great reform in cattle feed
ing is to devise means of perfectly saw
ing the liquid and solid droppings,
and, in the stable, this can only be
done by using water-tight manure
gutter, and then applying both liquid
and solid droppings together fresh to
the soil.