The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1894-11-08
PREPARE FOR WINTER
Figure to Garry Live Stock
Comfortably Through.
HOME SUPPLY OF SUCH THINGS

Provision for an Adequate Supply of
Proper Food is of First Importance,
and Calculations Should at Once be
Made as to the Amount Required.
After harvest it is well to turn ones
thoughts toward the long, cold winter
ahead and "fgure" on what prepare
tons will be necessary to carry the live
stock comfortably through. The pro-
vision of an adequate supply of proper
food is of first Importance, and calcula-
tions should at once be made as to the
amount required. The home supply OF
such things as hay, fodder, corn and oats
is usually ample, but other foods are
necessary, and by commencing early to
think about such things it will often be
possible to save dollar before raise
in price takes place. Every owner OF
stock can afford to sell off a portion of
his ear corn, and with the proceeds pur-
chase bran, shorts, middlings and Oil
meal, but in many districts where grain
is taken to the mill the "grist" is got
in trade and usually is better sample
than the commercial stufs. Oil meal is
not yet commonly used on the average
farm, but is becoming rapidly and right
ly popular, for surely we can better at
ford to feed it at home than send the
bulk of it abroad to be bought greedily
at high prices by the men that feed
steers against our cheap meat. In this
country of the golden grain-maize or
Indian corn-along with such ample
supplies of prairie hay and corn fodder
there is surely a rich supply of carbo-
naceous foods, and our stock needs such
supplies for the long fight against cold;
but we do not feed a sufficient amount
of heterogeneous food to finely finish prime
beef, pork or mutton. Our foreign
neighbors use our corn in large quantl-
ties, but the American food they prize
most is the Oil cake that comes from the
linseed oil and cotton seed oil mills, and
they pay prices that are really astonish-
ing. The Farmers Review would strong
ly advise its readers to substitute por-
ton of oil meal or ground cake in the
usual ration for animals that are being
finished for the Christmas markets, and
the old ration, if the cost of the ration
be properly figured as but one part of
the oil meal will be needed to seven
parts of carbonaceous food, such as corn.
When laying in a supply of such foods it
is also we'll to take precautions against
waste of good feeding material due to
poor shelter for the stock; for one of the
most serious leaks in farm economy is
that in the barn that lets in drafts and
so causes waste of heat-producing food.
It should be understood that good venti
lation-plenty of fresh air-never re-
tards fattening when animals are tied
up indoors, for such air is needed to sup
ply all the other forces that unite in the
assimilation of food and formation of
flesh and fat the hot non-oxygenized
atmosphere of an overcrowded barn is
also detrimental, as it causes animals to
sweat, drink large quantities of water,
and in other ways fail to thrive. See.
then, that the stables are well venti-
lated yet free from drafts, and depend
upon it that they will be warm enough
when full of cattle, and that too much
warmth is decidedly detrimental. An
other point to remember in preparing
for winter is the water supply, which
annually is a source of trouble upon
thousands of farms. We need give little
advice, but merely remind our readers
how absurd it is to have to water hun
dreds of cattle from common well and
hand pump, or have the water pipes ex-
posed so that they are constantly freez-
ing up and bursting.
Farm Life.