The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-07-26
SUMNER FEEDING
4 BIG PROBLEM
Many Different Methods Used
by the Farmer.
FASTING Is NOT BAD IDEA
Other Topics of Interest to the
Farm Worker.

The farmer always has a big problem
On his hands for solution. 1t is, declares
Uptodate Farming: How shall 1 feed the
hungry animals and maintain the flow
of milk or steady growth when the pas
turage is short?
Some do not attempt to solve it in an
economical way. They let the stock go
hungry or supplement their short grass
ration with bought feeds. This is very
common practice and an expensive one
for the farmer. A better way even where
the main dependence is upon pasturage
is to supplement this with forage crops
to be fed green. In fact there is perhaps
no more. wasteful practice in agriculture
than the one of Unfortunately pastur-
ing of tiliable land. The old saying that
the animal has one mouth TO eat with
and four feet to tramp with is a good
Illustration of the waste. The droppings
of the stock is another waste of both
manure and the lands present produc-
ton.
Against pasturing comes the further
and again it requires a vast amount of
land. Ordinarily three acres are required
to pasture single cow. and according
to the last report of the Bureau of An
imal Industry, In 1900 there were in this
country 2s.722, s27 cows. According to a
recent report of appropriated land in the
United States there are nov 1888, 422
acres owned or occupied. This gives us
only one cow to about twenty-three acres
of land. II is not to be concluded, of
course, that we are able to maintain,
and may not maintain, more cows than
that to the acre, but the fact stands that
we do not. These are cold figures and
highly suggestive. Can it be possible
that we are living so far below our OPP
portunities? Is it any wonder that our
farms are deteriorating in value? We
should be keeping all the stock our farms
will support. Only in this way can We
expect 10 keep UP their fertility. Othing
in the world will enable Us to do ,his like
stock. We have tried commercial fertil-
izer. we have tried blowing under green
crops, and worse than all, we have been
going on year after year using no fertil-
izer at all, drawing from our reserve and
leaving the future to look out for itself.
But the intensive soiling system of sue
cessive crops cow may be kept for each
acre under cultivation with more profit
than by the extensive system of grazing
BY the partial soiling system. that is,
using the green crops to supplement the
pasture, from three to five cows, ten
sheen or ten hogs NAV be kept on the
produce of one acre. sTillage and rotation
keep the soil fertile, and the plants used
for soiling are large and yield a much
larger tonnage per acre than do the
small pasture grasses.
Professor Griffith, of the Colorado EX-
pertinent Station, conducted some inter-
esting experiments in soiling. He select
ed Jerseys, Shorthorns and common cows
for the trial. The cows were not allowed
to Craze. but were kept in their paddocks
and fed on alfalfa cut from an adjoining
field twice week The alfalfa was fed
three times daily with a small ration of
bran added. BY this method, one acre
supported four cows during the growing
season. We consider partial soiling the
best. as it requires some experience and
much calculation to feed stock through
the warm season on soiling crops.
At least ten pounds of green forage
should be provided daily on the average
for every one hundred pounds of weight
of the animal. For instance a dairy COW
Will eat IS to los pounds of green forage
daily, while a hog Will consume % to 80
pounds.