Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser. (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1845-1898, 1885-10-09
farmers' Column.
Give fools their gold X knaves their power
Let fortunes bubbles rise and fail;
Who sOyvs a field trains 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 pro
fits of cattle farming, the margin be
coming less and less both for beef anG
dairy products, he thinks more consid
GRAFTON must be given to what he call
the indirect income from cattle farm
ing improvement Of the farm, tn,
account having usually been the cos
Of growing and fattening the cattle
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 man
ure.
The editor says he might have said
that it is only few years since the
manure was considered a nuisance in
consequence Of the labor required to
get it out of the way. 1t is we'll that
farmers be gin to think of the inciden-
tai compensation In cattle husbandry.
Large portions Of Illinois ceased to
produce paying crops of wheat, and
CulS CCI col Ddo W Oe dOdluOuCo lOi
some years, and more stock was kept
instead. This was the cause in some
localities, of introducing the then new
industry of dairying, and after fe"
years these districts were again sue
cessful in the wheat crop. Cattle and
grain farming must 60 together-they
are compensation for each other
This indirect income from cattle is just
what the grain farmer should most
carefully study. If they fully COM
prehend it they would be much better
reconciled to the lower prices for cat
tie and dairy products.
The English farmer thinks himself
well compensated in feeding cattle if
he can get the manure for his labor
If his cattle fully pay for all they con-
sumo, he knows that the increase of
his crops will figure up satisfactory
profit. The English feeders cost of
food is much higher than the Ameri-
can feeders. The former feeds large
ly of the rich oil cakes imported from
this country, which in turn greatly
enrich the manure; but the American
feeder fattens mostly upon corn, which
being composed so largely of starch
and other carbohydrates that produces
fat, does not enrich the manure so
much. The manure from 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 ton of llnseed
meal or cotton seed meal.
Prof. Sanborn has found wheat bran
to be more valuable for growing young
cattle and pigs than corn meal, and
this is what m: ght be expected from
its composition, as it has much more
1shateriHi fort the growth Of muscle and
oone; and the manure from ton of
Oral lseWorth double that from ton
OF Corn. If the manure is all saved, it
rs 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
anlulalS, anu tue manure may Ue LuSn
had free. 1t may safely be said that
the manure from growing or tattening
cattle is worth one half as much as
the growth or gain on the cattle
And if the manure is fully saved from
au animal during It's whole life, it is
worth, at least, one half as much as
the animal at market age. And if
this is safe calculation, as we believe
it is certainly an item we'll worth con-
siderihg in the profits of cattle farm
ing.
This item will raise the present low
price to very satisfactory basis. The
first great reform in cattle feeding is
to devise means Of more perfectly saw
ing the liquid and solid droppings,
and in the stable, this only can be done
by using water tight manure gutter
and then applying both liquid and So
lid droppings together, fresh to the
soil.