The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1895-02-14
DIVERSIFIED FARMING.
From hrst page.

keep, clothe and educate the year
round, can't raise it for so cents and
come out even; so in our dairy. the
profits will be less in proportion in the
small dairy than in those with every
modern appliance and advantage, and
herein lies the benefit of cooperation.
To make success of the butter dairy,
one should have one-third of his COWS
come in in the spring, and the balance
in the fall, say March and September.
Of course this necessitates an abund-
ance of feed, for out of nothing comes
nothing. This arrangement will give
you a steady flow Of milk the year
round, but you must feed heavy for
success. Remember that it takes Just
so much to run the COWS machine for
herself, and what you can get her to
eat and digest beyond that, she will
turn into either beef or milk according
as she is best adapted, 40 that if your
COW does not prove good for the dairy,
she is ready for the butcher, and your
feed will not be lost. As to the best
grain to feed l would say, those are
the best that you can raise the most
of on your own land and this can be
best found out by experiment. At
the present price of butter, I think
wheat is worth more than 50 cents per
bushel fed to good mich COW. To
feed wheat to cows, should take 100
lbs. wheat, 100 lbs. oats, and rs lbs.
f1axseed and grind it together. Then
add 200 lbs. brand or shorts, mix we'll
and feed from 6 to 10 lbs. of this feed
twice day, according to the size of
COW and the roughness fed with it.
In the place of oats, corn or barley
can be substituted, and at the present
price of oats in this county are cheap
or. I say nothing about the dried
peas as they are worth more fed to
the hogs or sheep. The coarse feeds
l prefer in the order enumerated:
millet, timothy and clover. cornstalks
and prairie hay, all to be cut while
succulent, and we'll cured. The mil
let (all the varities are good) should
be cut as soon as nicely headed out,
and cured as much as possible in the
cock. Be sure it is we'll cured or it
will be dusty. If you will feed your
COWS literally of millet cut and cured
as above recommended, in connection
with the grain ration, you can make as
good butter in January as in July and
that too, without butter coloring.
Timothy should be cut while in bios
som, for if it gets too ripe, it is woody
and not as palatable or nutritious.
Clover should be cut when few heads
have turned brown, and cured as
much as possible in the cock, to save
the leaves. l believe the mammoth
kind will be best suited TO this county.
l think perhaps l ought to have put
corn stalks ahead of timothy and
clover, and should have done so but for
the labor in preparing them, and
their liability to mould in storage, and
I believe the extra labor may be more
than offset by the benefit of corn, in a
system of rotation in diversified farm-
ing, for timothy is hard on land. The
best way | have seen in caring for
corn fodder, is, to cut as soon as the
corn is glazed, put it in shocks from
about ten hills square, and husk as
soon as properly cured. Then when
ready to husk, bend in large bundles,
and store in long narrow stacks, not
over 8 feet wide and cover with coarse
hay. To bind the stalks, take 6 feet of
small rope, put an iron hook on one
end, and as you husk, lay your stalks
across your rope stretched on tn }
ground, till you have enough for a
large bundle, then with your rope
draw your bundle tight, fasten it tenn
porarily and tie a piece of binding
Irvine around your bundle. Now you
can loosen your rope and you have a
bundle of corn stalks that you can
handle with ease and save all the
blades, which are the best part of the
fodder. To handle corn stalks loose
is both wasteful and laborious, and
not conducive to piety. To get the
best results from corn stalks they
should be run through cutting box,
and cut in pieces, not over inch
long, and the cattle will eat them
nearly clean. Prairie hay should all
be put up before harvest, or it is hard
and indigestable. 1 had rather have
one load of good hay put up before
harvest than two put up afterwards.
Late cut hay will make stock wormy.
Good oats, barley or fax straw may be
fed occasionally, and if cut little on
the green order, and at threshing
properly stacked, considerable of it
will be eaten. For more succulent
food to increase the flow of milk we
have ensilage and roots. If one has
good buildings in which to put a pit,
and plenty of help and machinery to
store it, | have no doubt but what
ensilage is good thing, but I think
the average farmer will find roots
more convenient and easier for him
to handle. 1 have found both man
gels and turnips good. OF the man.
gels think very highly, as they stand
the summer heat better, are more