Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1909-11-10

DR.. Smead IS rlgnt IN urging eau
ton in feeding cottonseed meal,
writes Professor Massey in the Trib-
une Farmer. Fresh, bright meal that
has the normal bright yellowish green
color can safely be fed in connection
with good %roughage, if not fed in too
large an amount. While l value cot
tonseed meal and believe that the
Southern farmers should keep more
of it at home and feed it to cattle, I
know that the injudicious feeding Of
the meal, especially that which has
got old and changed to a brownish
color and has developed fungous
growth that lis as poisonous as ergot,
has led to serious losses.
A dairyman in North Carolina came
to the conclusion that he had the
best and cheapest COW feed in the
world-cottonseed meal and cotton
seed hulls-and he went. to feeding
these literally as the sole ration. Ere
long he began to lose cows, and final
ly discovered that it was his ration
that was doing the mischief. He
changed to a better ration, with pea
vine hay and corn silage, and, while
still feeding some cottonseed meal,
he is very cautious as to what Eleal
he feeds and how much.
Where one has plenty Of cowpea
hay and corn stover or silage he can
probably feed two ard a half to
three pounds Of good bright cotton
seed meal daily. While analysis will
show that the hulls have some food
value. the tax on the vitallenergy of
the animal to digest them makes.them
poor feed. and the best place for the
cottonseed hulls is as an absorbent
in the manure cutters.
And yet. so into the cotton growing
sections and o will find men call
ing themselves farmers buying baled
bulls in town to carry home for feed.
when they could grow the finest of
forage in peas and crimson clover.
There is no doubt that fedijudiciously.
with plenty of good roughage. the
cottonseed meal is the cheapest and
best protein feed that can be had,
while, fed with bulls as the sole
roughage, there is nothing that will
kill cattle faster.
Some years ago an experiment was
being made at the North Carolina
Agricultural Experiment Station in
fattening beeves on cottonseed meal
and bulls. They gained very we'll for
about eighty days and then began to
pass bloody urine. Some of t:lis was
brought to my laboratory, and
showed at once that it was crowded
with crystals of nitrate Of urea. and
told them that the feed must stop
right there or the animals would die
from uraemic poisoning.
This sort of feeding will make beef
es strong as mutton. and butter hard,
white and crumbling, with a rank
flavor. At an institute in North Caro-
lima some years ago the director OF
the station. who was an enthusiast in
tie feeding of meal and hulls. said
that Professor Massey was the only
one he ever knew who said that he
could tell beef that had been ~fattened
on meal and hulls from the odor. at
once several men arose and told him
that they could tell it easily-in fact,
/ gave orders to my butcher that IL he
sent me cottonseed meal beef l would
always return it at once.
A professor of agriculture in a
Southern agricultural college once
said to me: II can feed cottonseed
meal to COWS till they will make pure
oleomargarine instead of butter" and
there is no doubt that the excessive
feeding of cottonseed meal is not only
dangerous. but that the product in
beef ard butter are unfit for human
consumption.
And yet. as l hare said. | know that
the Dleal is the best and cheapest pro-
tein feed that a farmer can use. if the
meal is fresh and is fed in limited
quantities along with first class for
age. The thing We need to fear is
the incautious advice of the enthusi-
asts for meal feeding. who argue SIM
ply from the ANALYSIS of the article.
AS to the danger OF abortion. !
think that is slight if the meal is
fresh and the amount used is not ex-
cessive, but with odd meal this is GER
tainly a danger. But all over the
South we need to. encourage more
stock feeding. The cotton farmers
are selling million of dollars worth
of nitrogen from their soils and then
trying to replace it with a tenth part
of what they sell. and I have often
urged them to keep the cottonseed
meal at home By not selling the seed,
but exchanging it for meal and hnlls
at the oil mills. the oil having no fer.
tilizing value, and then to grow good
forage and feed the meal judiciously
and use the hulls for bedding. as they
are better than planer shavings for
this purpose, though not much better
fer feed.
In fact, / would like to see the day
when not a pound of cottonseed meal
was sold out IF the South. but all re-
turned to the soil after being used
for feed. The best feeds can he
abused and made harmful by rash
use of them, and there is no reason
for the abandonment of cottonseed
meal as feed for stock If 1t is fed ju-
diciously and with plenty of carbon