Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1896-07-16
agricultural
Gossip.

tI4lINe TalIO OIL MIX ana SOOQ Fr6Sh
June grass was about the same This
term "nutritive ratio means the pro-
portion existing between the blood and
flesh and muscle forming substance (tne
albu1niroids) and the material that
goes t. make heat and fat (the carbo-
hydrates and fat). 4 COW giving milk
wants about one part Of aluminoiis to
Eve o. the carbonaceous elements IL
round numbers, in her food. Milk has
about this proportion in it. So has
June grass when fresh and good
Hence it makes milk. The COW does
her best on it. Nothing that you can
add will dc any good, because you can
let improve on perteatiCn. What We
term June grass is called by many blue
grass. But now feed the COW some OF
GinaIy timothy hay, cut just before IL
is ripe enough, so the seed will shell.
Keep her on this diet for a time, and
will she give you full flow Of milk,
as much as on June grass? No, not o.
a good deal. Why? Because the nu-
tritive ratio in such timothy hay is
about 1 to II, instead of ! to 5. The
COW has very little material to make
blood and milk of Che albuminoids).
Feed the COW on straw and she will do
worse yet, for the same reason. YOU
can feed with the timothy, wheat bran,
or oil meal, Or cOttonseed meal, and
balance up the ration, make the proper
ton of the albuminCids and carbo
hy6raIes about right, and then you will
rro% Il h
thing suitable to make it of.
But now supposing along in May
when your timothy is a few inches
high, and fresh and nice, you turn your
COWS i'll; wouldn't they give lots of
milk? Would you need to feed bran
and oil meal with it then? No; like
the June grass, it is about, if not quite,
d perfect food. When does the change
in the nutritive ratio take place? Sup
pose you turn your COWS into a field of
timothy when just coming into bloom.
Try and see if they don't milk pretty
well. OF course it will not be quite the
same as when it was small, but [ will
predict that they will do far better On
it than they will later when the timothy
more and more of the dieestible ma
terial changes into indisestible, woody
fiber. II I remember correctly, i'll Or
binary timothy hay as found in the
market there is about 90 per cent. of
this indigestible material. I never
could see any sense, myself, i'll letting
timothy and other hay get about ripe
and lose in feeding value. where one is
tC feed it out to his COWS and young
stock. TO sell in market, that is an
other matter. The hay gains in weight
and the market demands rather late cut
hay. 1t is better for driving horses. in
that it is less 1oosening, less like grass
It is net better for the health of the
horses, only for drivers But for home
use why not cuc early: Why no. have
dried grass, or the nearest approach to
actual grass. to feed during the winter?
! will admit You will not get as many
tons, tut neither do you craw On the
soil AS much, and what you do get is
worth more. You let the seeds form or
ripen and cattle will not digest them
You lose the feeding value in them. Bu-
cut While the material TO make the
seed is in the stalk and you get most
of it. l know people get some strange
ideas. I have heard men say that their
stock did not do as we'll Oh early cut
hay as on that cut later. Well, this is
contrary to our experience. We nave
always cut all hay early when we could,
and considered it a serious loss when
the weather prevented us from getting
all cut when about in full bloom. What
is the difference if we do not get as
many pounds per acre? 1t will be
more tLan made up in the second crop,
which will spring up more rapidly
where the first has been cut early. To
my notion, farmers often have wasted
too much value along this line, and then
went without it or bought it at high
price. In Honand the great Holstein
COWS were bred up anG are kept win
tiers largely on dried grass-grass cut
when not more than about foot high,
moved two or three times in a season.
Little grain is needed with this. It is
almost summer food. I have heard men
say that they did not like to grow
clover and timothy together, because
they did not ripen 1T the same time.
Why, bless you, you do not want them
tc ripen for your stock to eati Cut the
clover when in full bloom, or soon
after, and the timothy that is mixed IN,
just heading out, will be splendid dried
grass, relished by all stock. l confess
the early cutting of hay has been one
of my hobbies: but 1 love to have the
animals have the very best food in win
ter. I have seen time and again which
they like best. I have seen that they
did not do as we'll on hay that bad
We ather had compelled US TO cut lare -
T. B. Terry in Practical Farmer.
Bogus Butter Doomed-The French
chamber of deputies has passed a very
stringent measure win a view TO pre-
venting fraud in the sale Of butter, and
in the event of the senate indOrsing The
bill, it seems as if it will be impossible
to r,aIr11 cff cleo other cOnoO0Si-