Amador ledger., 1906-02-16

this was made necessary by an acci-
dental injury to one of the COWS. One
regular breeder is fifteen years old, but
is still vigorous and healthy, giving
milk enough to make it profitable to
retain her in the herd Experts in the
Department of Agriculture state that
they have never seen a thriftier, better
kept lot of cows. Balanced rations are
fed to them every day in the year, con-
sisting of some succulent material
silage in winter, and rye, timothy and
clover, corn or peas and oats in sum-
mer. A second portion is made up of
dry hay or fodder, which gives some
consistency to the manure. The third
portion consists of meal products, of
which three kinds are used-bran, oil
meal and gluten. Many dairymen
would be surprised to learn that every
cow on this farm has four ounces of
salt daily, mixed with her fodder, fine
table salt being invariably used ana
evenly divided among the three feeds.
There are round silos on the farm,
each ten feet in diameter and thirty
four feet high. These altogether hold
about 100 tons of silage and this guam
tity of corn silage is produced on four
acres, planted on June 22nd. Eleven
men, three teams and a traction en-
gine to run the cutter are employed in
filling the silos.
The proprietor of this farm has not
adopted any systematic rotation of
crops, as every foot of land receives an
abundance of manure every year or
two. There is but little trace of weeds
and those that do grow are not of the
undesirable kind. Intelligent methods
of cultivation enabled the owner last
year not only to produce all the rough
age required for thirty head of stock
but to have left nearly 1000 pounds Of
hay, which was sold.
Handling the Manure.
The remarkable yields on this farm
ere due entirely to the intelligent use
of stable manure. Most farmers waste
more than half of the value of the
manure produced on their farms. On
this model farm every particle of the
plant food is utilized. The method of
handling manure in this case can be
used only on farms on which stock is
kept in stalls and is therefore not ap-
plicable to all styles of stock-farming
Behind each row of cows is a gutter,
eighteen inches wide and seven inches
deep. These cutters have no outlets.
They are thoroughly cleaned daily
/ (the whole barn is disinfected twice
a week by free use of creoline, and
the interior is frequently white
washed). When cleaned, the cutters
are sprinkled with ashes or dry dirt
to absorb what moisture may be pres.
ent. During the day a quantity of
absorbent, consisting of leaf mold, rot
ten sod, ETC., is placed in them. The
manure is lifted from the cutters Into
a cart backed up to the door and is
then taken directly off to the fields
and spread over them. In summer II
is applied to the land from which the
soiling crops are removed; in winter
it is spread on the rye and grass fields
No manure is used on newly seeded
grass lands.
, This is the experience of a pioneeI
e farmer starting in with no previous
5 training, but going to work in meth
odical manner to learn what he coult
from the experience of others. He ha
applied principles and business meth
I ods and has blazed a path into
1 region of great possibilities. There 1
'-lno doubt that his experience can b