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Show How to Make Roughages Palatable By Robert Miller HOW shall feeding stuff bo made more palatable? That nucsllon Is to be answered an-swered by me. You must begin very early In the season. You must begin when you arc cutting your hay and you must cut It early enough. You should make up your mind that you are doing one of tho Important Impor-tant duties that Is required of the farmer each and every year. If your hay is exposed ex-posed to a rouglc harsh rain, left In an unprotected un-protected manner, it will lose In one night half of its value; therefore you should be sure to cut hay at the proper time. Cut It before most people think It Is ready, because then It Is In proper condition to make good, palatablu food for your animal?. It Is alo important to cure your hay and preserve It in proper form. It has been said that It was necessary that each and every animal should have enough of every kind of food. It does not pay to till an animal up with a concentrated food. Yon can place thi'l food on the mirket and get good cash' for It. Your animals should be tilled up with rougher foods produced on the farm. IS I raw is the cheapest and the most valuable of the foods thai jou grow. I believe there Is not one farmer out of every hundred, even of tho Intelligent fanners, that attaches one-half one-half the nlue tl.ey should to straw. You should take better care of It and feed morf of It to your animals. A lesson I have learned from successful aimers in my own neighborhood has taught me to believe thoroughly that working horses 'of the heavy class should not receive one. mouthful of hay when you have reasonably good straw to feed to them during the whole time they are not working hard; in the wintor season. I have tried that myself and I have worked perhaps ns many horses a nil as severely during the summer season as , 1 he I QH't'F Be hind the. I arm One oi tlic "reAt cares ot a farmer is liow to make uc of the va;.t amount of rounhngc produced un the farm. .Mr. Millet believes, from actual experience, that "pood straw is easily digested anil a more healthful thins to feed your horses and cattle than hay' This applies to winter feeding, when the work horses are at rest. Try feeding straw and save the hay until work season in sprinjr. and a change of temperature every day. An animal that Is kept out.-ld- all Ihe thin? will never have tuberculosis, and an anlm.il that Ik kept .inside all the time will In the majority ma-jority of cases get tuberculosis If the ventilation ven-tilation Is not of tho most up-to-date kind. You do not want the animals to be too warm. I do not believe In these basement walls that so many of us went to a great deal of trouble and expense to get a number of years ago.' You do not find the people putting up that sort of a building now. I believe in having the best ventilation 'you inn get. but do not keep your animals too warm. We have tried that time after time, tiling objectionable in turning them out for a short time each day. I do not believe in tying cattle up. Yai i.m feed a lot together In a big run and they will f;et considerable exercise I put the corn In the barn In the fall f the year anil I never have any trouble wl'h mice. Well-cured corn Is as valuable as any feeil we have. If you put sulphur on your corn It will keep the mice away. Cornstalks make nice butter and good milk. I would not like to say it is bitter than ensllige; I re-ally do not know. To nil horses that arc not getting a lot of work I would sooner give good straw than feed h ly alon: It Is more- easily digested. I am speaking more of feeding In the winter season und I would not give niiieli oats anyway. fJlve him about a half feed of oats twie-c a day and plenty of good straw. Kroze-n food is not good for an animal. If you have any smut In your corn that Is oil'- of tho great causes for abortion 1 do not cut the hay for the horses unless un-less we have hay that Is not very good. If you are going to dampen the hay you should cut it and mix It with straw before you .feed It to your horse. I do not think a man should feed extra hay to a horse unless he e-uts It dampens It and mixes it with straw. I like to feed turnips. I do not think there is anything much better for horses. I like stock' to walk outside and take a di'mk. I have scarcely ever gone into a stable where water was continually standing stand-ing In front of the cattle but what that water was dirty, and I do not think It Is a good thing; and then the animals do not get exercise- If it comes disagreeable weather we don't tin n them out, but I think they should be turned out In the air and get cooled off twice a day, weather permitting. 1 do not believe In letting fat cattle run out too long, lint I don't believe there Is anything any-thing objectionable in turning them out for a short time each day. I do not believo In tying cattle up. You con feed a lot tegethcr in a big run and they will get considerable , exercise. I put the corn In the barn in the fall of the year and I njver have any trouble with mice. Well-cured corn is as valuable as any feed wc have. If you put sulphur on your corn it will keep the mice away. Cornstalks make nice butter and good milk. I would not like to say it is better than ensilage; I reallv do not know-. To all horses that are not getting a lot of work I would sooner give good straw than feed hay alone; it Is more easily digested. I am speaking more of feeding feed-ing in the winter season and I would not give much oats anyway. Give him about a half feed of oats twice a day and plenty of good straw. Frozen food Is not good for an animal. ani-mal. If you have any smut in your corn that Is one of the great causes for ahorllon. any fuimer In this room. I have sixteen horses working on one farm and 1 can tell u that we are making a deep study of how-to how-to get the most work out of them. These horses never get one mouthful of hay In the winter season, but they get good straw, and from tho time we cut our oats and barley and wheat I feel more worried to know whether we are going to get that straw into the barn without a rain than I am worried wor-ried about the curing and saving of my crop of hay. I believe It is of more importance to me. Good straw Is more easily digested and- a more healthful thing to feed your horec-s and cattle than hay. 1 elo not want you to think that hay Is not valuable when your horses are working. They do not feed hay to horses In the old country. You ean go from one end of Scotland to another and you will see stacks of hay; if you a.-k thein what they arc going to do with It they will not toll you they are feeding It to their work horses; they feed them oat, wheat and barley stcaw. Ask them what they grow It for and they will tell you they feed a little to their hunting poises and some to their driving horses, but they would consider It the next thing to poison to feed it to their heavy horses when they are not working hard; they would rather give them merc corn as they call oats and less rough fed. I believe If you would copy from them aud be more careful to save your straw by shocking your sheaves and making a determined effort each year to put the straw in the barn without letting it be exposed to the rain, we would be making mak-ing the best uc of our feeds that coulel pos sibly be made bv the farmers of our country at this time. These same lemarks apply to the cattle to a greater extent. The question of feeding horses is a different one. You must have them so that they can work. Your cattle elo not get a great deal of exercise, and If you can make straw and the rougher classes of hay more palatable so that they will fill themselves and lie down comfortably each and every night. It should be a great source of satisfaction to any man that takes tho proper view of the position in which he Is placeel as a farmer In this country. There is nothing that gives me more comfort or tends more to make me go to bed at night satisfied lhan the thought that each and every "011O of the animals placed tinder my care have had Just as much to cat as they would care for. I do not want them to be satisfied altogether with grain; that Is not necessary and It would not be profitable; it would be . very unprofitable from a great many standpoints; but I do want them to have a good amount of 'palatable feed so that thoy can lie down and chew their cuds through'the night and be satisfied until they sire-fed again in tho morning. Cornstalks, cither dry or converted Into ensilage, is another very important addition to the rougher foods for cattle. I have a silo arid I have filled Ll every year since I had it until this year. This year I had not very many cattle, and I cut the corn when It was beginning to glaze. Just about in the condition we would like to have It for the silo, and I had It shocked up very care fully. I lied the tops of the shocks into a -small point, so that should il rain the corn would not get very wet, and I have a splendid splen-did supply of feed and my cows, sheep and horses are glad to eat It. They thoroughly relish it anil I believe It makes a splendid food for cattle, horses and sheep if properly mixed and fed to them, so that they will want to eat it up elean. I grind roots find mix them with cut eorn and they stand mixed In that way for twelve hours I take my corn inside. If you leave It outside you will have trouble. 1 know that some years it is difficult to get your corn dry enough to get it Inside. It Is most Important to get your corn housed as soon as freezes come. It will pay you to go to some trouble lo mix up your .rough foods and see that they are palatable for your onimals. I believe if a man has some rough feed, such as straw that Is not very good, or hay that is not very good, he ought to feed that. In the early part of the season. Keep your sweet straw and hay to be fed In the: latter pail of the year Cornstalks will not be relished by your cattle In the spring. Feed the refuse feeds that you havo on your farms early In the winter, when the stock will cat almost anything That good, brisk temperature tempera-ture that we are luckv enough to have In this connlry of ours will make these feeds good and they win nourish I he unlmali well and make them thrive. In the spring of tho year your animals are more dainty and want to have a little bi tter and sweeter food. As to feeding the cattle outside. I believe it Is good for an animal to get the tunshinc- |
