Norwich bulletin., 1914-07-04

Of Course, all up-to-date farmers understand the relative values of these four constituents Of a fodder Just in a rough way for the benefit trInity to keep up with the progress of forage analysis. and without any pre- tense of scientific accuracy of state ment, it may be said that the "busi- ness end" of every ration is its pro- tein- Protein represents in the nutri- ton of an animal about what nitro gen represents in the nutrition of a plant. In fact, 1t is a form of nitro ger. As a rule, plants which have the faculty of using a great deal of nitro gen furnish a great real of protein as fodder. It is protein which is chiefly responsible for making blood and bones and muscle and milk, etc, etc. The fat in a fodder keeps up animal heat and supplies energy; the carbo- hydrates are apt to be largely starchy substances, some of which the diges- tive processes turn into one thing and some into another, but which are mot in it'' with protein It would take more time and space than I've got to- day to even summarize what the stu dents of digestion have learned about the effects of these various clements in animal fodder. But, always speaking in a rough general way, it is the pro- tein in a ration which counts for the most and is the most to be sought for. Now, you'll observe from the little table above that, with the two excep- tions of corn stover and buckwheat straw. timothy hay ranks the lowest in protein of any forage commonly fed in its cured form. And even that de- i spised buckwheat straw come mighty close to it-within seven-tenths of one per cent.I It ranks high in water which Is worth just as much. nutri- t.s-- s,, Fcv-- ge- gx l the brook. It's just about average ir point of fats.
 All this, you may say, is theory-i: | laboratory farming Correct. 4 | theory, deduced from a worldwide range of facts, and evolved by those facts and fitting all those facts, is not ' to be sneered at, whether deduced D. a retort, handling professor is a lab i oratory or hoe-handling farmer in : i corn-patch.
 Experience, moreover, seems to beal | out and corroborate the theory. Ex' | perience of actual feeding of actua cows and horses and sheep. I mean. My father always had the timothI fad He was brought up in it as ; boy. and never got out of it Timo thy and clover-timothy and clover year after year, rotation after rota | tion:-those were the only grasses h' | ever sowed.
 once he tried to keep sheep. TheI did finely as long as they could hay, | the run of the limestone hills whicl make up our pasture, hills sparsel! | covered with growths Of wild grasses and weeds and briars and brush Bu
 every winter they literally went int a decline They were given som, m l turnips but had to depend mainly 1ol their winter nutriment on the hay mow which was filled with choice tim
 othy hay And they simply wouidn
 eat it,-couIdn't, I fancy They'd u,
 their best, but every morning thel
 racks were found filled with "orts
 which had to be shaken out and car
 ried to the horse-barn and cut ul
 with a dusting of ground-feed for th' horses to struggle with. CThe horse' used to eat them, but I never noticed that they were particularly glad t'
 pet themO At last the governor gav' up his sheep. Later, when l started fresh flock of my own- he cautioned
 me one day against timothy hay To
 them. He still stuck to his love fo
 the grass. and it was something Of
 wrench for him to admit that It wa
 poor stuff for sheep. But he was hon est even if he was sometimes "sot T his v-avs'' and he out with r. Gutd ing myself by the analyses from tn laboratories and also by his experI ] A tte timothy from sheep pens: fe'
 mixed grasses, wild grasses, weed hav.-au,-thing but timothy. And m, sheen used to do better, winters, thai
 they did even on pasture. They use
 to do sn we'll on hay which ] couldn'
 have sold in any market that l hai
 to cut off all grain to my breedini ewes Otherwise they would get S
 fat as to make lambing dangerous.
 But how about horses2 Isn't tfmoth.
 the one grass to feed them? Don't tn
 livery stable men all want timothy And don't they know?
 It certainly is true that livery keep
 CTS largely adhere to the use of timo
 thy. So do keepers of big stables wh
 have to rely upon hired attendants t
 care for their horses. As l understanI
 it, the chief reason for this Is tha
 timothy, being a clean stalkea and
 when properly cured. almost dustles
 hay, is much less liable to caus
 heaves when recklessly fed by careles
 or ignorant tenders to horses whicl
 may have been oyerdriven and, per
 haps. overwatered when heated.
 But when T. B. Terry of Ohio bough
 his first span of good horses he hadn
 an~ fiu10fhr fA faed them He Wa