Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1889-11-13

U
New made honey. Well, pity it's
When golden Octobers done!
Golden Days.
Feeding Cob-mea1.
Prof. E. w. Stewart IN the Country
Gentleman, in his very interesting
articles on feed-values and methods.
saws
The supposition that the potash in
the cob is what gives it's extra value is
all imaginary. The reason why corn
and cob-meal will produce as good re-
suit in milk as pure corn meal, is SIM
ply that the ground cob separates the
particles Of meal and gives bulk to it IN
the stomach, making it porous so that
the corn meal is more perfectly acted
upon by the gastric juice. But the
same weight of the cob in shortcut oat
straw mixed with the fine corn meal
will produce even better result, be-
cause it has greater bulk according to
weight than the cob, and carries the
meal into the stomach in still more
porous condition, and will cause the
meal to be raised and remasticated
ton of the meal is the secret of the
cob's virtue. The cob of the corn,
fairly cured in crib is counted to weigh
IA pounds to the bushel. This is
pound of cob to pounds of corn meal,
and when 4 pounds of corn meal are
mixed with l pound shortcut oat straw
there would be the same relative pro-
portion, but it would be better to feed q
larger proportion of straw. The ordi-
nary feeder persists in feeding tull corn
meal alone, or separate from the coarse
fodder, and when SO fed at least one
fifth Of the meal passes into the drop
pings undigested, which is saved when
mixed with the cob or other coarse fod-
der.
Feeders have been very slow to rec
ognize the fact that nature leeds grain
anC stalk together. Animals in a state
OF nature eat whatever there is of grain
or stalk together. When the animal is
placed under artificial conditions, and
the concentrated grain is fed separate
ly, there follows large waste of the
nutriment in the grain. Western cattle
fed upon corn in the ear require three
times as much grain to produce the
same result as when the grain ground is
mixed and fed with coarse fodder, and
is raised with the cud and remasticated
Get Out of the Rut.
We are all in the rut. It may be one
rut and it may be another. but human
nature seems to be deeply in love with
old methods and to greater or less ex-
tent clings to them. In one line or an
other a man strikes out on a line of
progress, but he seldom strikes out on
all the lines that stretch out. Perhaps
we are breeding one of the improved
breeds of cattle. That is good as far
as it goes. But are we breeding the
best breeds? That is another question,
but it is an important one. 1t is true
that all the breeds are good, and yet as
we are breeding to make money, it
should be our special business to study
the characteristics of all breeds to the
end that we may get the best, if there
is any marked difference, and thus
make more profit. We may be breed
ing horses. Very well, but perhaps it
is not as well as it might be. Would
not breeding mules pay us better ?
Mind we do not intend to intimate that
it would, for we do not know whether it
would or not, but we make the sugges-
ton by way Of calling attention to the
fact that comparatively few of us have
ever instituted comparison between
breeding horses and breeding mules.
In other words we have got into the
horse rut and gone along without even
thinking whether or not it would be
better for us to get out of it.
AS before said we do not personally
know which is the most profitable.
horse or mule breeding. We are like
the great mass of people, never have
given the subject close study. From
general observation we conclude that
there is money in it, for. as mules are
bred and reared, it must cost less to pro-
duce a mule than it does to produce a
horse. That ought not to be the case,
for the mule should have as good care
as the horse. But as rule the animal
does not receive such care. A good pair
of mules, however, bring from $500 to
$4OO in some sections of the country,
and there must be good profit in that
But our purpose in these suggestions, is
simply to stimulate thought and induce
farmers and breeders to institute COM
parsons between what they are doing
and what they might do and between
their own breeding and that of other
people. This is an age of thought and
thought pays. 1t is possible that our
breed, though not the best. is so nearly
the best that it would not pay to change.
But would it not be well to know that ?
So far as the cattle are concerned the
fat stock shows are excellent places at
which to study the comparative merits
of breeds. In time the block will tell
which breed is superior at these shows.
- Western Rural.