Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1892-12-29


bulky food to get best results.
Mrs. Laughlin: would you feec
clover hay dry to horses?"
| Mr.. Erwin: eyes"
Colonel Hutton: "Why do they
steam feed at experiment ssations2'
Mr.. Erwin: because it sound
better on paper when told have
tried all the methods that the news
papers have suggested and do no,
brlieve in these so-called modern ap.
pliances. My neighbor did not use
any of these appliances when I did
and l found his stable and his COWS
in better shape, while his butter and
milk were fully as good"
Mr.. Potts: "Then you get the
best results from food just as nature
has provided it?"
Mr.. Erwin: eyes, sir, I do. AS
to silo, l don't believe one preserves
any more of the food qualities of tho
corn stalk by making silo than by
feeding the fodder, but it is more
palatable and the cattle enjoy it bet
ter. The waste milk from the dai-
ry may be feel to the pigs or chick
ems when mixed with grain"
Mr.. Waters thea took up the sub
iect. He held himself down to the
principles underlying stock feeding.
He used a chart to illustrate. His
idea of feeding is practically the
same as MIR. Erwin's. If a steer
can be fattened by one method of
feeding in 600 days and by another
in 900 days, 30 per cent. was lost
there. One hundred pounds Of flesh
can be put on yearlings 25 per cent.
cheaper than on 3 year olds. Five
bushels of corn will put the first
100 pounds on young pigs, but it
takes eight bushels to put on the
second 100 pounds. Therefore
handling young animals pays best.
Different feeds have different COM
position-and different animals
have different needs. He said if all
foods had the same composition or
all animals had the same needs,
then the question would present no
problem whatever, but to satisfy the
different requirements of animals
by the varying composition of foods
comprises the skill of intelligent
stock feeding, all Of which is GER
tainly true when viewed properly.
After showing the different compost
ton of plants and what certain ami
mails require, the speaker then took
up the next step, which related to
the daily maintainance and showed
very clearly that as an animal must
have food first for heat and force
purposes before it would lay up any
excess or growth, this daily ration
should be required as few days as
possible, hence early maturity. This
daily ration is greater in larger and
older animals, hence young animals
will add pounds to their weight for
less pounds of food given than older
and larger ones. This position was
fortified by statistics given.
MIR. Waters made this striking il
lustration of the difference between
the warm and cold blooded animals.
"I saw rattIesnake that had not
eaten a thing from August until
the following January. When a
mouse was put in its cage it would
die of fright at the flashing eyes and
darting tongue of the fierce reptile
inside of an hour, but the snake was
not hungry or needing food. 1t
was a cold blooded animal. A
warm blooded animal would have
burned itself up in that time, using
the fat, flesh and fibre of its own
frame to feed the fame that is ever
burning. So does the steer or hog
use up its own body to feed the fire
when it is not sheltered and has but
little food.
''In feeding our stock we may re-
turn to the soil from 80 to 95 pei
cent of the richness. Thus animals
may live on the produce of the soil
without robbing the fields of much
of their worth"
With chart Mr.. Waters illus
trated the different amounts o1
essential plant food in all farm
growths. The worth of all stock
foods depends on its manuria
value, and this is best seen illus
! trated in England, where every rem
ter gets rebate if he feeds stock
| certain kinds OF food. Linseed and
cotton seed meal are used there to {
great extent for feeding. They
build muscle and increase fertility
of the ground. To follow the ex
ample of advanced agricultural
countries we must feed such mater
Iial as is of most value to the land
The most valuable of these are lin
seed meal, wheat bran and Glove
hay. There is great deal OF valu'
in stable manure.
Mr.. Erwin: "Would like to cal
attention to the fact that the plan
can only take up such parts of tn
plantfood rs are soluble in water.
| Mr.. Waters: "Soil full of vege