The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1898-07-05


as hay, are the clovers, Canada peas.
soy beans, COW peas and vetches.
Their advantage over the hays of
grasses, corn fodder and stover for
feeding is due mainly to the large
quantities of protein they contain.
When plenty of clover is available for
feeding dairy stock less of such feeds
as cotton seed, linseed and gluten
meals need be purchased. Some of
the coarse growing legumes, like the
COW pea and soy bean, which cannot
De readily cured and preserved dry,
may be made into silage. By mixing
them with corn fodder i'm filling the
silo a mixed silsge of greater value
than that made from corn alone can
be obtained.
Mixed fodder Of oats and Canada
peas grown together in the northern
states, and oats and hairy vetch (or
winter vetch, as it is sometimes called),
grown together in the southern states,
are coming into great favor.
There are three chief uses of food to
the animal: O To supply the waste
materials Of the body that are used up
in the operations of the animal ma
chine. 90 To yield energy i'm the form
of heat to keep the body warm, and in
the form Of power for the work it has
TO perform. (3) To build up new
products, such as meat, milk, wool,
etc. The chief muscle forming ingre.
dients are the protein or heterogeneous
compounds. They build up and repair
the nitrogenous materials, as the mus
Gle and bone, and supply the albumi-
noids Of the blood, milk and other
fluids. The chief fuel ingredients of
the, food are the carbohydrates, such
as sugar, starch and fiber, and the fats
and oils. These are either consumed
in the body for the production of heat
and energy, or are stored up as fat.
The value Of a ration depends quite
largely upon the relation Of the pro-
tein or flesh forming materials to the
fat and carbo hydrates of heat pro
ducing materials. The relative pro.
portion Of protein to the fuel ingre-
dients is expressed by the term nutri
tive ratio. The fuel value of fat is as
sumed to be about two and one-fourth
times that of carbohy drates and pro
tein. II the sum of the weights of the
digestible carbohy drates and two and
one fourth times the digestibIe fat of
the ration is divided by the weight OF
digestible protein, the quotient gives
what ia called the nutritive ratio.
IL the digestible carbohydrate and
fat In a ration are less than six times
as much as the protein the ration is
called q narrow one; If more than six
times it is q wide ration. If there is
five and q half or six times as much
digestible carbohy drates and fat as of
protein in the ration, it is, for most
purposes, a well balanc ced ration.
A large amount of experimenting in
both America and Europe seems to in
dicate that for the production of milk
and wool, and for growing young
stock, q narrow ration gives best re
suits, while for work animals and
those being fatted for meat, wider
rations may be used to advantage.
The value of heterogeneous feeding
stuffs for manure is an important fac.
tor in their use. This is especially true
in the older parts of our country
where the fertility of soils has been re-
duced by long cropping. Nitrogen is
the most expensive ingredient in the
fertilizers we purchase. It costs from
three to four times as much perpound
as potash, and from two TO four times
as much as phosphoric acid.
The real value that the farmer is
able to get out of his folders i'm the
form of manure depends upon the
composition of the fodder, the kind of
animal, the kind of product for which
the feeding is done, and the way in
which the manure is cared for.
The leguminous coarse folders, such
as clover, vetch and peas, are worth
more for manure than similar folders
of the grasses, corn stover, corn fod
der, etc. Based upon the trade values
of fertilizing ingredients used in 1892,
such folders as clover hays have a
value for manure nearly twice as great
as the hays Of our common grasses,
while Chicago gluten meal, the old and
new process linseed meals, and cotton
seed meal are from two and one half to
four times as valuable as corn meal.
Experiments have shown that in
feeding mich COWS about % per cent.
of the tertilizing value Of the food is
used by the animal, leaving 76 per