Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-06-09

dt HlSHl. ruTtueIllOfe, aCudlIeQ IoeQS
occupy less space for storage than I'M
cut hay or straw, and can be readily
handled. Shreddding corn fodder is
regarded as an economical practice,
but apparently few experiments on the
comparative merits of shredded and
whole corn fodder fod horses have been
reported. No marked variation was
observed in the weights of two lots of
horses fed whole and cut alfalfa and
clover hay mixed in a test carried on
at the Utah station.
AT the Maryland station Patterson,
who studied the digestibility of num-
Der of whole and ground feeds, found
that grinding corn Shives, |. e.. corn
stalks from which the blades, husks
and pith are removed, until the mater
ial resembles coarse bran, did not de-
stroy its value as coarse fodder, and
the finely ground material supplied the
necessary bulk to the rations as well
as the same material unground. 1t was
further claimed that the finely ground
coarse fodder possessed an advantage
over the unground material in that it
could be mixed with grain to form a
well balanced ration and fed to horses
oi otilpDodlu vi ulluGl 0Iuildl
tions more readily than unground fod.
der and grain.
The cost of ration made up of the
ordinary grains and coarse folders
has been investigated by at least three
of the American experiment stations.
The Massachusetts, Hatch station re-
corded the kinds and amounts of foods
consumed by three farm horses for
five years, with view to learning the
average cost of the daily feed. In the
different years the cost of the ration,
which consisted of hay, corn, oats and
other common feeding stuffs, varied
from 1875 cents to 24S cents a head
daily.
At the Oklahoma station statistics
| of the cost of feed of work horses
We're also recorded in tests of the com
paratiYe value of Kaffir corn and
maize. Red Kaffir corn and maize al
20 cents a bushel and bran at %
cents hundredweight were used. The
average cost per horse of a days
labor was estimated to be II
cents.
Using mixed green rations, accord.
ing to the New Hampshire station, the
average cost of feed per horse a year
was $74.32. The average cost for feed
per hours work performed during the
two years covered by the test was 3.4
cents
The data recorded above are lin
tied for general deduction.
Experiments in Fattening Lambs.
In THE Experiment Station Record"
United States department of agriculture.
A. c. True. director, an abstract is pub,
llshed of Prof. Thomas Shaw's report of
three experiments in fattening lambs for
market made at the Minnesota experiment
station. In the first experiment the rela-
tive merits of feeding range lambs and
range wethers We're studied with one lot
of twenty wethers and four lots contain.
ing twenty lambs each. The wethers dot
No. u We're Mefino grades. The lambs
in lots Nos. ., 3 and 4. were respectively
Cotswold. oxford, Dwn and Shropshire
grades Those in lot No. We're essen,
| TALLY of Merino blood. The test began
on October 81 and covered eighteen weeks
being divided into five periods. the last
covering two weeks and all the Others
four weeks each. Uncut hay, cut sor.
ghum and different mixtures of bran. un
ground corn and oil cake Were fed. Con
sidering the test as a whole, the wethers
| pounds of coarse fodder per head a day
aud the lambs on an average 10 pounds
| of grain and l pound of coarse fodder. Al
the beginning of the test the wethers
| weighed on an average zoos pounds and
the lambs 66,4 pounds. The average daily
| gains of the wethers was "a pound, and
of the lambs % pound. in the latter CASE
the amounts ranging from . with lot No
8 to "a with lots Nos. 3 and 4. In the
case of the wethers the cost of a pount
| of gain was 4.99 cents, and In the cast
of the lambs the amount varied from 81
cents with oxford grades TO 4.07 cent:
with the Merino grades, averaging 3.S1
cents. The average profit per lamb wa!
80 cents and per wether 3 cents. The fac
is pointed out that although the wether
consumed 40 per cent more feed than tn,
| lambs. their increase in weight was bu
"a per cent greater. According to thu
author. while the difference in relatlv,
adaptability for fattcning of the lambs o
| the different Its was not very great, i
was the lowest in the lambs of the Merln'
| grades.
In the second test the value of a ratiol
of corn and bran with sand without oat
| was tested with sixteen Dorset lambs, dl
| vided into two equal lots, the lambs II
the two lots weighing respectively o
pounds and IS pounds each. The ties
| covered three periods of twenty -eigh
| days. Throughout the test lot NO. i wa
fed bran and corn in different mixtures
and lot No. . bran. corn and oats, bot
lots receiving clover hay in addition TIL
average amount of grain eaten n hea
daily by all the lambs in both lots wa
1.5 pounds and the hay s pound. The ay
erage daily gain n head of all the lamb
fed bran and corn was i, and of thos
fed oats in addition 10 pounds, the cos
of pound of gain in the two cases bein
1 % al q. - ..,,,ts, f,,n oil nf 4 n
test the lambs were sold for slaughter
the net profit lamb in the two lots be
/ ing 81 So and Sl.97 respectively. As point
ed out by the author, the lambs fed oat
in addition TO corn and bran gained 3
per cent more IN weight during the ties
than the others, although they consume
practically the same amount of feed. Th
Iproht on these lambs was also greater
although their ration was somewhat NOR
expensive The conclusion Is therefor
drawn that with prices in reasonabl
j