The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1894-06-06
Practical Subjects
Intelligently Discussed by an Orange
County Farmer.
Selected.

A letter recently received from j. z.
Sargent of Corinth contains so many
practical and intelligent ideas suggested
by articles that recently appeared on
the agricultural page of the WATCHMAN
that we gladly give it space this week,
and invite others to follow Mr.. Sar-
gents example. He says:
In an article taken from the New
York Tribune, printed in this paper
under date of May 16, the writer gives
his experience as proving that twice as
much profit, or much more than that,
can be derived from feeding skim-milk
to pigs as can be obtained by feeding
the same amount of milk to calves.
Although that may have been the re-
suit in his case, it does not follow that
it must be in general cases. In the
first place, he kept his calf clear beyond
the limits of profitable calf feeding. If
a calf is to be fed on skim-milk and
sold at all, it should be sold at from six
to twelve weeks old for veal. Another
mistake he made was in feeding corn
meal to calf A much better feed for
a calf is old-process linseed meal and
white wheat middlings, equal quantities,
and this should be fed in very small
quantities at first and increased very
gradually. / have sold veal calves fed
in this way that gave a return of one
cent quart for all the skim-milk they
ever ate, besides paying for the prov
ender, and have had as good sue
cess with one or two that had moth
ing but skim-milk; but all calves
will not do equally well. Some calves
that do poorly on such diet the
first six weeks will, with careful feed
ing, make good veals at from eight to
twelve weeks old; and there is occa-
sionally one that, on account of weak
stomach or some other cause, never can
be made to pay for it's feed. Very
careful watching and feeding is essen
tial to success with skim-milk calves
anyway; but, with that, one expert
enced dairyman tells me that he can
make So on calves with the same
amount of milk it would take to make
one dollar on pigs.
Creamery milk that has become cry
sour is dangerous feed for calves, but
when it must be fed it is much i'm
proved by adding soda to cut up the
curd and neutralize the acid.
In the same number of this paper, an
article from the American Cultiuator
recommends ensilage and dry corn fod-
der for sheep and corn for provender.
That is very much like the boy who
wanted some molasses with sugar on it.
Such feed would contain too much
carbon and too little of anything else
fnr A
ration would be clover hay for dry feed
with the ensilage, and oats and peas for
grain.
What shall we raise for the COWS? If
a man is located near railroad station,
where all kinds of feed can be bought, it
is very easy matter, with little
knowledge, to obtain mixture of feed
that ought to make cows yield good
return, provided he has the means to
pay for it; but in many cases the feed
bill so nearly balances the butter check
that the fun all leaks out of the enter
prise and the profit never gets in, 80 that
for farmer who must pay his own
way-and perhaps mortgage into the
bargain-what feed he can raise him
self becomes an important question.
On farm suitable for corn, no doubt
that is the cheapest feed that can be
grown; but as it has the same deficiency
of heterogeneous elements as the rest of
our common feeds, we need something
else TO take the place of bran, gluten,
etc. A larger amount of clover, both
for winter feed and for soiling, would go
far towards supplying this deficiency
AS a grain crop, nothing else yet found
appears TO come so near to filling the
bill as oats and peas. In this vicinity,
at least, they give larger yield than
clear oats or barley, and are worth
much more than barley to feed.
A much larger number of farmers
might profitably supplement short fod-
der crop by sowing Hungarian grass or
millet, early in July, on ground from
which they have cut crop of hay.
EnDTNrTuT