Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1893-09-15
Barley as Stock Food.

slider that it is, | want every one not
acquainted with its good qualities to
have the benefit. 1t is lamentable
fact that the majority of farmers
have fallen into the deplorable habit
of raising only corn and oats every
year. A simple glance at the asses
sor's books for 1898 showing acreage
of different grains raised in 1892,
will attest to this fact All over the
country the cry goes up about loss of
brood sows and young pigs. Let it
be painted in large red letters on
fences and school houses; let every
farmer paste it in his hat, or inscribe
it on his dinner plate in letters of
gold, that the main cause of all this
is corn.
On this farm of 3,400 acres we
raise all kinds of live stock, from
mastiff pups and wild geese 10 trot-
ting horses; and we raise lots of
them, too Bear with me moment.
Do not til k am trying to adver-
tise the farm; far from it, but | want
to prove to you why | think our ex-
perience superior to that of a man
who only farms on Il small scale. We
run eleven work teams Of good Ken
lucky mules, cultivating 700 acres,
besides putting up oceans" OF hay.
Our mules never wintered finer and
got through spring work in as good
flesh as this past one, and their feed
has been barley | fattened a small
bunch Of beef cattle on barley for
house use, and quicker" and finer
favored beef | never put over the
Goals. BY quick beef | mean that
they fattened quickly, and as a con-
sequence the meat was juicy and ten
der. We marketed over So, 600 worth
of hogs last fall, and wintered all our
shoats on an exclusive feed of barley,
and in the fftee- years this ranch
has been in existence shoats never
wintered as finely. Our ewes on
same rations sheared heavier fleece
of wool, and had larger and stronger
lot of lambs than ever before Our
entire band OF brood mares had their
regular feed of barley, and never had
a stronger lot of foals with no
trouble whatever in foaling. The
stations and colts had the same ra-
tions and opened up the spring cam
paign vigorous and keen.
1 deem corn as certain death to
breeding stock, writes William Berry
IN the American Irotter. While its
superior cannot be found as a cheap
and easier fattener for all butcher
stock, its fattening and heat produc-
Ing qualities are just what have the
killing effect on breeding stock.
Now, word as TO brood sows.
Every year up to 1889 our bunch of
fifty or seventy-fve brood sows were
allowed to run with the stock hogs
behind the steers in feed LIS. They
were all removed few days or weeks
as occasion called for to the farrow-
ing house, but the deadly corn had
gotten in its work, and we annually
lost quite q number of sows and
scores of pigs. The litters were
small and so many either came still
born or were so small and weakly
that il was a sure case of the survival
of the fttest. In 1899 we introduced
a radical change. Corn was entirely
discarded, and sows put on diet of
ground barley and oats. Sometimes
barley alone, and occasionally bran
was mixed with it, but barley was
the main food. Now. mark you, since
1889 we have not lost a single SOW in
fattening, and all stillborn pigs could
be put in common water pail The
filters averaged from thirty-three to
fifty per cent larger in quality and
numbers. Instead of four to eight,
each SOW would have from seven TO
thirteen in a litter, and all healthy
little fellows ready to scrape for their
dinner at the drop of bucket.
California is great barley raising
and barley feeding state. and look at
the results. Don't give all their sue
cess to climate. The only thing
against my argument in favor of
barley is that am young man, and
TO some people that is crime. And
while | never was on a farm until
seven years ago, yet during that
blluC ~ a obuNtls DO
my Cesar and Virgil in school, and
have raised moro grain and live
stock than some old cranks through
whose hair the hay seed of sixty
summers have sifted, and through
whose "gazalas" the winds of sixty
winters have whistled. Simply be-
eau ) some of us "kids" don't do as
they and their fathers did down on
the rocky hillsides of vermont" is
no reason why mo good thing can
come out of Nazareth. "
Remember that ali this is gratui-
tous and free as air. 1t don't cost
any man a cent. II any man wants
to know of any further particulars
all he has TO do is TO pay the postage
and | will do the rest. ] will isst
mention in closing that a ration OF
ground barley. oats and bran with q
dash of oil meal occasionally, makes
nice feed for colts or other young
stock.
Model Hog House.
G. II. c.. Cedar Bluffs, Neb., write:
Orange Judd Farmer: The building