The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1906-10-20
Home and Farm

flock of active young laying hens. kept
in roomy. clean. warm henhouse.
This method. we know from expert
ence, says correspondent. will give
an abundance Of good wholesome eggs
for the table. just as fresh as they
make EN-"
Upon this question. however. Farm
Poultry. a high authority. says: THE
water glass method is now so widely
adopted that all other methods, such
as picking in lime. packing in salt, or
sreasing. may be put one side. The
poultry keeper OF today must be up
to date in every phase Of his business.
and In egg preservation he cannot
afford to be behindhand. The prepara-
ticn known as water glass (silicate of
soda) is now sold in tins. and is added
to water which has been boiled and
allowed to cool. in the proportion of
one part of the preparation to six to
ten Of the water. After being we'll
stirred the mixture should be poured
into an earthenware vessel. when the
eggs should be placed in as laid. In
this way they will retain their fresh
ness for months"
The water glass may be obtained
from any first class druggist. or from
poultry supply houses. If any of our
readers know Of a better method that
they have tried and know will work,
we should like to hear from them.
PREPARING FEED STCFFS.
The advisability of soaking, steam
ins. cooking and fermenting feed
stuffs for stock has been carefully
tested by the different experiment
stations and practical feeders in vari-
GUS countries. Half century ago
eStravagant claims were made. COM
mending the use OF these methods of
preparing feed for live stock. Recent
investigations have shown the very
opposite to be the case in most in
stances.
Any benefits which may be derived
from such methods of preparation
must come from two sources: their
influence on the digestibility of the
feed stuff or the palatability of the
same. Practical and scientific tests
have proven conclusively that no one
of the above mentioned methods can
have any direct favorable influence
on any feed stuff from digestive
standpoint. They may indirectly be
beneficial by making the food more.
easily masticated, thus more thor
oughly digested. The cooking Of
pigeon grass seed. which has a hard,
woody covering, furnishes such an
example. That some of the above
methods, when applied to certain
classes of feed stuffs may increase
the palatability of the same so that
the animal will consume it with
mohe relish, cannot be questioned.
The cooking of potatoes or roots for
swine furnishes such an example.
AS these methods are applied to diff
ferent kinds of feed stuffs and for
different classes of animals it will
be best to treat each one separately.
Soaking Feed: Soaking feed is
oftentimes practiced for cattle and
swine feeding purposes. 1t is not
done with the object of directly in
creasing the digestibility of the same,
rather with view of making it more
easily masticated. Hard corn in the
spring and summer months should
be soaked for cattle or swine feeding
purposes. If fed without grinding O.
soaking it may cause sore mouths,
due to its hard and flinty nature.
Cattle with sore mouths will not eat
enough to make good gains; in some
Instances the trouble may be such as
to cause them to shrink in weight.
Experiments conducted by Wolf in
feeding soaked beans and corn to
healthy horses showed NO advantage
from the soaking. In the case or
old horses. or young horses at teeth
ing time. the soaking of corn to soften
the same might accomplish good re-
suits.
At the Kansas experiment station
in cattle feeding experiment where
dry corn was fed in comparison with
soaked corn, the soaking of the corn
saved about fifteen per cent of the
corn. The hogs following the dry
corn lot made the better gains and
required less extra corn for a given
amount of increase in ewight. Com
bining the results of the cattle and
the hogs it was found that there was
saving of about five per cent OBJ
tanned by soaking the corn feed.
In feeding dairy cows many good
dairymen chop their hay and straw,
grind their feed. and moisten the
same and mix all together. This is
done for the sole purpose of making
the ration more palatable. There
seems to be but one experiment re-
ported where dry feed was fed in
comparison with soaked feed to
sheep. This work was done by Muel-
Ter, the grain used being corn. Two