The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1903-06-23

hundred pounds of milk varied with diff
terent COWS from tWenty-nine and a half
cents to fifty-two cents and the cost OF
food for a pound of butter ranged from
5.91 cents to lis in the case of diff
ferent cows. With butter at twenty cents
pound the net profit from a COW for
one year ranged all the way from S1471
to $51.37. Another experiment made at
the Pennsylvania station which lasted or
$50 days, showed that the difference be-
tween the profit of the best COW and the
poorest COW during that period was $33. l Q; ;
the cost of food was very nearly as much
for the poorest as for the best cow. but
the value of the product from the best
cow was s6432 and from the poorest
COW only $2S.o6. These were Jerseys and
grade Guernseys. Whatever the breed no
COW can be deep milker unless she is a
large cater To get the best results a
milch COW should be fed the year round.
There should be an extra supply of summer
as we'll as of winter food
There can be no excuse in the South
for rot raising large forage crops, and IN
many localities there ought to be well-sct
pastures. There are nearly hundred
grasses that may be successfully grown
in the Southern States, but the very best
forage crop which can be planted, and
one that never fails, is cowpeas. These
should be sown at intervals of two or
three weeks throughout the summer and
the peas should be cut and the haulm fed
to milch cows without permitting them TO
tramp over the vines. Clover of course.
is the best of all forage crops, provided a
stand can be secured, but this crop has
failed so often during the past few years
in the very best clover growing districts
OF the South that many farmers are now
substituting coWpeas or the vetches or
| crimson clover or some of the annual
grasses as millet and Hungarian. Indian
! corn. when properly sOWn, makes a large
amount of forage. 1t should be planted
in rows four feet apart six to eight quarts
| to the acre and worked like the ordinary
corn crop without thinning it out. There
will be many small ears on a stalk and
! when the kernels of the corn begin ia
! grow hard the stalk should be cut off close
! to the ground, and, after summing for q
| few hours, it may be set up In shocks
around two hills of corn left uncut and
twisted together. This fodder is excellep;
for milch COWS Mllet impoverishes the
land very rapidly, especially if the seed be
permitted to ripen. but if sown at al
it should be sown after. the ground has
become warmed by the June suns One
good rain after the sowing of millet vii
!
usually mature the crop About one bush
el to the acre should be sown on fertll,
soils well broken and narrowed until 1T is
in fine tlth, and after the sowing of The
seed a light harrow should be drawn ovcl
the surface. Glover hay sometimes in
jures the flavor of milk where it is tht
principal feed but this flavor can be de
stroyed by sailing the cows every morning
before turning them on the clover fet
or feeding them with clover hay.
One of the best feeds for milch COWS
when combined with plenty of forage, J
oil cake. either from the linseed or from
the cottonseed but care must he taHel
not to use too much, as it will detrac
from the good flavor of both the butte
and milk. This seed cake is now largel
exported to Denmark and it has bee
one of the means by which the dairyne q
of that Industrious little country nav
nearly monopolized the butter trade c
England.