The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1900-12-11

and rub on the wart. If any of your
readers are bothered in this way,
advise them to try the above method.
first saw it recommended in Hoard S
Dairyman and know from experience
that it is first-c1ass A. H. ID.
Cabarrus Co., NJ G,
THE PROBLEM OF WINTERING CATTLE
Editor Wallace, of Wallace's Far
mer, lives out in the country s great
est live stock region and knows a
great deal by personal experience
and observation of live stock and
feeding problems. What he says be-
low is worth study:
The greatest losses in the cattle
business are not due to the flies and
heat of summer, nor usually to in
sufficient pasture, nor yet to expos
ure to the inclement weather of the
winter, nor even to the insuficiency
of winter food, but mainly to the
feeding of an improperly balanced,
or, if you prefer, an improperly
mixed ration.
It cannot be impressed too earnest
~ nor too often on the mind of the
farmer that the animal cannot work
miracles; for example, that it can
not make muscles out of carbon any
more than it can out of water. Car
bon is absolutely essential to the
maintenance of heat and the storing
up of fat in the flesh, but the flesh
itself is made from what we call the
albuminous or nitrogenous elements
of the food. These can be used to
keep up the heat, but never at
profit. They are too expensive,
Inasmuch as the exposure and
severity of the winter requires an
unusual amount of heating food, car
bonaceous foods can be fed liborally
during that season, but if flesh or
muscle is to be increased-in other
words, growth instead of fat-then
the animal must have supply of
foods richer in muscle-making ma
terial.
No food on the farm is made up
entirely of carbon and none made up
entirely of albuminoids or muscle
makers. What we call carbonaceous
foods are foods that contain more of
the fuel and force elements than the
animal requires; what we call nitro
genous or albuminous contain less,
For example, corn and all it's prod
ucts are carbonaceous because con-
tanning these elements in excess of
the requirements of the growing ami
NAL Corn itself has no considerable
excess of the elements required for
the animal in process of finishing
for market, ard this is the reason
why hogs and cattle both thrive so
we'll when finishing on corn, which
|, is our cheapest source Of supply for
carbonaceous grain food.
The large per cent. of animals kept
through the winter on the farm are
young and presumably growing, and
the reason why they frequently come
out as light in the spring and even
lighter, than they went into winter
quarters in the fall is because they,
are not fed properly balanced
ration. The farmer thus meets with
a severe loss without knowing it.
None of the animals have died, for,
on counting, he finds he has just as
many as in the fall. He is so used
to seeing them come out in the
spring thin that he thinks this is the
natural order of Providence, or some
thing else, and is not aware that un-
less he has made gain he has lost
the larger portion of the food they
have consumed during the winter
He has simply used them as manure
factories, and the man who does this
is not likely to haul out the manure,
at least until it has lost most of its
value hence, the feed he has given
them is almost total waste unless
there has been considerable ad-
vance in the live weight of the stock
during the winter.
Unfortunately, the great bulk of
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