The Lee County journal. (Leesburg, Ga.) 1904-19??, 1909-11-26

LIT otASaU ~ right III uIBlHS Cdu-
ton Ia feeding eottonseed meal,
writes Professor Massey In the TrIb-
une Farmer Fresh. bright meal that
has the normal bright yelIowigh green
color can safely be fed In connection
with good roughage, If not fed in too
large an amount. While value cot
fonseed meal and believe that the
Southern farmers should keep more
OF It at home and feed 1t to cattle, ]
know that the injudicious feeding Of
the meal, especially that which has
got old and changed to brownish
color and has developed fungous
growth that is 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 bulls 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 q better ration, with pea
vine hay and corn silage, and, while
still feeding some cottonseed meal,
he is very cautious as TO what meal
he feeds and how much.
Where one has plenty OF cowpea
hay and corn stover or silage he can
proftably feed two and 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 vital energy Of
the animal to digest them makes them
poor feed, and the best place for the
cottonseed huIIs is as an absorbent
in the manure cutters.
And yet. go intothe cotton growing
sections and you will find men CALI
ing themselves farmers buying baled
hulls 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 fed judiciously,
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
fattenihg beeves on cottonseed meal
and hulIs. They gained very well for
about eighty days and then began to
pass bloody urine, Some of this was
brought to my laboratory, and I
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
AS strong as mutton, and butter hard,
white and crumbling, with rank
flavor. At an institute in North Caro-
lima some years ago the director Of
the station, who was an enthusiast In
the feeding of meal and bulls, 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 1t easily-in fact,
gave orders to my butcher that If he
ssent me cottonseed meal beef would
always return 1t at once.
Al professor of agriculture in a
Southern agricultural college once
said to me- II can feed cottonseed
meal to cows till they will make pure
oleomargarlne 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 and butter are unfit for human
consumption.
And yet, as have said, know that
The meal is the best and cheapest pro-
tein feed that afarmer 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 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 II with tenth part
OF what they sell, and have often
urged them to Keep the cottonseed
meal at home by not selling the seed
but exchanging it for meal and hull'
at the oil mills, the oil having no fer