The Abilene reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-09-03
ADVANCED STEPS.

Farm Animals and Cultivated Grasses IT,
Main Dependence of Educated Farm
There are two important directions in
which the farmers are making advanced
steps; and that. too, in matters that are
not likely to undergo any retrograde
movement. These are O. steady ac-
cesSions to the number of farm animals
that are of improved lineage. and (2),
the steadily increasing surface devoted
to the cultivated grasses. Grass is the
natural food of four-foosd beasts. The
| digestive organs of the rrlminants are
especially roomy. made 80 to provide
for the more bulky kinds of food. This
is especially true of cattle, and a cattle
beast bred for meat production is not
what it should be. and is far from being
up to possible development for this par
ticular end. unless quite capable Of
being made fit for the butcher upon
good pasture.
The natural cOarsenesS in grass. made
so by its woody fibre and its succulency,
| from the abundance of juices and water
contained, render it particularly well
calculated to keep digestion and assimi-
lation up to their highest state. DigeS-
| ton is not often disturbed by grass feed,
given alone in abundance, as is evil
denced by the fact that offensive gases
are seldom given off with, or from the
excavations of cattle fed upon grass
alone, while it is not uncommon for
digestion to be disturbed while upon
| free ratiOns of grain, especially if the
ration is wholly or mainly of corn, as
to render the offensive odor almost I'M
bearable. The value of grass in its
green state is quite well Illustrated by
the greater value of early-cut hay as
compared to hay cut late. Early-cut
hay more nearly compares with grass
in the green state than any other feed,
and the greater value of the early cut is
speedily shown when cows giving milk
previously fed upon it, are abruptly
changed over to late-cut hay. The OBJ
| servations of some farmers have been
80 fixed upon these results as being uni
form under uniform circumstances, that
they have settled upon the grass ration
as second to no other factor upon the
farm in insuring success in feeding.
1t is hardly yet known to what eX-
tent meats are affected. favOrably or
unfavorably, by the feed given being in
the highest degree favorable to a rapid
digestion and assimilation: or, on the
other hand, by these processes going
on tardily, feculent matter remaining
for too long a period in the system, Of
fenSive gases being generated, and,
through the faint. naturally commune
Gated to all the tissues by these, on the
same principle that milk is tainted by
foul OdOrS or gases in the milk-room.
and through a degree of blood poison
ing setting in from absorption of fecal
matter. Taking, on the one hand. 4
bunch of steers tied up in a close, filthy
stable, and crammed with still-slop dur
ing an entire winter, receiving Scant
ration of poor hay as the only variety
and. on the other hand, a bunch of
like age and kind, on abundant grass
from early spring till late frost, with
| access to pure running water who will
presume to say that the flesh of the one
lot would not be tainted, while the flesh
of the other lot would, from the nature
of the influences acting upon it, be clear
of any possible faint. Take two col
lections of dairy cows. placed under
like circumstances, how well we
know that the milk from the one
lot would. through that same principle
that causes the fluids within the body
to intermingle pretty much without re-
straint. be perceptibly tainted. Milk so
produced will hardly keep from souring
from night till morning. and a young
infant fed upon it becomes thoroughly
imbued with its faint; takes on putty
color. and. more clearly defining the
condition, is under state of blood
poisoning, loses flesh, and ceases to
grow. 1t hardly requires an expert
dairyman, or competent housewife upon
farm. to detect the effects of such a
course of feeding, when contraSted
with the grass-feeding plan, upon the
milk, and, later, upon the butter prod
uct. This permeation of the tainted
product of foul food through the milk
and blood. and. as a consequence,
through the agency of the latter to all
the tissues of the body. is as invariably
i necessary sequence as any other ply
Biological process that occurs within
the body of a beast.
1t is not the purpose to pass lightly
over the subject of feeding corn and
other grains, but the point we desire to
make plain is, that the rule which gov
ems the making of tub of butter, a
loaf of bread, or any other article that
requires absolute fitness in the material
used should be applied to our modes of
feeding for the production of edible
meats; for in the case of the latter, the
animal flesh eaten is as clearly the direct
product of the food given from day to
day. and As necessarily influenced by it.
are the other articles named. Not per-
haps perceptible to the same degree.
but nevertheless there is no escaping
the conclusion that more or less faint
will be imbibed by the meat if it be
made from blood. the product of diges-
ton befouled by bad fOod.-Lire Stock
Journal.
Plain Black Dresses.
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