Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1890-08-28
AGRICULTURAL HINTS.
ROOT CROP.
Their value - Food for 0AoOp aDa

Their VoluO - Food for 0oool ooe
Swine.
A correspondent of the London Live
Stock Journal thinks that the feedinG
of mangels to soGs. when in pig 10 ept
to cause the pigs to come dead. or to die
shortly after birth. He mentions .
number OF csses going to prove thst
mangels produce these ehectA The i'll
results OF feeding mangels to in-piG
toned by others hsving experience in
the handling OF sheep and swine.
The subject is treated in volume 1
OF the American Sonthdown Record by
Henry Wood, who wrote when in charge
OF the Lord Walsingham hocks, saying:
Sup to the year 1853 the Merton ewes
were folded on tufnips from the end Of
October until the spring OF the follow
ing year They were then as unhealthy
- any ewes in the country. In the
early part OF 1854 there we're something
like one hundred and ten cases Of abor-
ton, and eighty ewes died. Feelin :
that change in the treatment must be
made, determined that in the future
the ewes should not be fed on
turnips Except for five or six
weeks when the rams are with
them) until they had LANDED.
Since that time they have been fed and
folded on grass land, with the supply of
grass daily supplemented by "a reason
able allowance OF Q mixture OF hay
chaff and bran, at the rate of four BUSH
els of chaff to one of bran. At about the
fifteenth week of CESSATION half bushe1
more bran is added to each four bushels
OF chat, and this allowance of mixed
food is gradually increased in proper
tion to the increasing demand made by
the unborn lamb on the system and
strength of the eve. Since the intro
duction OF this change in our system of
feeding the in-lamb ewes, cases of
abortion have been unknown, and the
mortality among the ewes has been at
a minimum. On this point L may be
permitted to call your attention to my
lecture on Abortion and Mortality
Among Ewes delivered. in 1877. To
enable me to arrive at something like a
definite idea of the cause of the fearfully
large number of ewes which aborted and
died in many parts of the country in
the early part of the year referred to,
sent out more than four hundred cir
cular letters of inquiry, each letter con-
tanning twenty questions, to fock-mas-
ters and others throughout the United
Kingdom. These were almost all re-
piled to and the questions fully an
swered. They showed clearly and con-
clusively that the greater part of the
abortions and deaths occurred in focks
where the ewes had been fed on a COM
paratively unstinted allowance of COM
mon turnips and swedes unm1xed with
dry food; and that good allowance of
dry food undoubtedly does away with
many of the i'll effects produced by SIM
pie root diet. 1t was also very clearly
shown that where the ewes were grass
fed there was an entire absence Of any
serious amount of abortion or mortali-
ty."
Much is said and written every year
of the Importance of sows being prop
erly fed when IN pig. The great point
with most writer's is that the bowels be
kept open, and to this end the feeding
of roots is very generally recommend
ed. But this, as many a breeder we'll
knows, has not enabled him to save his
February and March pigs. They come
dead, or with so little life in them as
to be unable to endure the least cold or
find their way to the teats. With pigs
that come later, after the sows are
turned on grass, such losses do not
usually occur. It is not intended by this
to discourage the growing Of root crops
for sheep and swine, but it is as we'll to
know when their use should be avoided
IS to know that they are in any way
useful as food for live stock.-Phil
Thrifton, in Breeders Gazette.