: Cattle and Their Diseases Embracing Their History and Breeds Crossing and Breeding and Feeding and Management; with the Diseases to Which They Are Subject and the Remedies Best Adapted to Their Cure by Jennings Robert - Cattle Diseases Zoology

@FreeBooks

Posted in: #FreeBooks #FreeBooksIndia #FreeBooksApp #gg

Vote Up Vote Down   0 Reactions

Login to give Reaction!

ts of summer, and as an article for soiling cows kept in the stall. No dairy farmer will neglect to sow an extent in proportion to the number of cows which he keeps. The most common practice is, to sow in drills from two and a half to three feet apart, on land well tilled and thoroughly manured, making the drills from six to ten inches wide with the plough, manuring in the furrow, dropping the kernels about two inches apart, and covering with the hoe. In this mode of culture, the cultivator may be used between the rows when the corn is from six to twelve inches high, and, unless the ground is very weedy, no other after culture is needed. The first sowing usually takes place about the middle of May, and this is succeeded by other sowings, at intervals of a week or ten days, till July, in order to have a succession of green fodder; but, if it is designed to cut it up to cure for winter use, an early sowing is generally preferred, in order to be able to cure it in warm weather, in August or early in September. Sown in this way, about three or four bushels of corn are required for an acre; since, if sown thickly, the fodder is better, the stalks smaller, and the waste less.

The chief difficulty in curing corn cultivated for this purpose, and after the methods just spoken of, arises from the fact that it comes at a season when the weather is often colder, the days shorter, and the dews heavier, than when the curing of hay takes place. Nor is the curing of corn cut up green so easy and simple as that of the drying of stalks of Indian corn cut above the ear, as in the common practice of topping. The plant is then riper, less juicy, and cures more readily.

The method sometimes adopted is to cut and tie into small bundles, after it is somewhat wilted, and then to stook upon the ground, where it is allowed to stand, subject to all the changes of weather, with only the protection of the stook itself. The stooks consist of bunches of stalks first bound into small bundles, and are made sufficiently large to prevent the wind from blowing them over. The arms are thrown around the tops to bring them as closely together as possible, when the tops are broken over or twisted together, or otherwise fastened, in order to make the stook "shed the rain" as well as possible. In this condition they remain out until they are sufficiently dried to be put in the barn. Corn fodder is very excellent for young dairy stock.

COMMON MILLET is another very valuable crop for fodder in soiling, or to cure for winter use, but especially to feed out during the usual season of drought. Many varieties of millet are cultivated in this country, the ground being prepared and treated as for oats. If designed to cut for green fodder, half a bushel of seed to the acre should be used; if to ripen seed, twelve quarts, sown broadcast, about the last of May or early in June. A moist loam or muck is the best soil adapted to millet; but very great crops have been grown on dry upland. It is very palatable and nutritious for milch cows, both green and when properly cured. The curing should be very much like that of clover, care being taken not to over-dry it. For fodder, either green or cured, it is cut before ripening. In this state all cattle eat it as readily as green corn, and a less extent will feed them. Millet is worthy of a widely-extended cultivation, particularly on dairy farms. Indian millet is another cultivated variety.

RYE, as a fodder plant, is chiefly valuable for its early growth in spring. It is usually sown in September or October--from the middle to the end of September being, perhaps, the most desirable time--on land previously cultivated and in good condition. If designed to ripen only, a bushel of seed is required to the acre, evenly sown; but, if intended for early fodder in spring, two or two and a half bushels of seed per acre should be used. On warm land the rye can be cut green the last of April or the first of May. Care should be taken to cut early; since, if it is allowed to advance too far towards maturity, the stalk becomes hard and unpalatable to cows.

OATS are also sometimes used for soiling, or for feeding green, to eke out a scanty supply of pasture feed; and for this purpose they are valuable. They should be sown on well-tilled and well-manured land, about four bushels to the acre, towards the last of April or the first of May. If the whole crop is to be used as green fodder, five bushels of seed will not be too much for good, strong soil. They will be sufficiently grown to cut by the first of July, or in some sections earlier, depending upon the location.

The CHINESE SUGAR-CANE also may deserve attention as a fodder plant. Experiments thus far made would seem to show that when properly cultivated, and cut at the right time, it is a palatable and nutritious plant, while many of the failures have been the result of too early cutting. For a fodder crop the drill culture is preferable, both on account of the larger yield obtained and because it is thus prevented from becoming too hard and stalky.

Of the root crops the POTATO is the first to be mentioned. This produces a large quantity of milk, though the quality is inferior. The market value of this root is, at times, too great to allow of feeding extensively with it, even in milk dairies, where it is most valuable as a food for cows; still, there are locations where it may be judicious to cultivate this root for dairy feed, and in all circumstances there is a certain portion of the crop of unmarketable size, which will be of value fed to milch cows or swine. It should be planted in April or May, but in many sections in June, on good mellow soil, first thoroughly plowed and harrowed, then furrowed three feet apart, and manured in the furrows with a mixture of ashes, plaster of Paris, and salt. The seed may be dropped in the furrows, one foot apart, after the drill system--or in hills, two and a half or three feet apart--to be covered with the plough by simply turning the furrows back, after which the whole should be rolled with the field-roller, when it can be done.

If the land is not already in good heart from continued cultivation, a few loads of barnyard manure may be spread, and plowed under, by the first plowing. Used in this way it is far less liable to cause the rot, than when it is put in the hill. If a sufficient quantity of wood-ashes is not at hand, sifted coal-ashes will answer the purpose, and these are said to be valuable as a preventive of rot. In this way, one man, two boys, and a horse can plant from three to four acres a day on mellow land.

The cost of cultivation in this mode, it must be evident, is but trifling, compared with the slower method of hand-planting. It requires a skillful ploughman, a quick, active lad, and a good yoke of oxen, and the extent of the work will depend somewhat upon the state of the turf. The nutritive equivalent for potatoes in a hundred pounds of good hay is 319 pounds; that is, it will take 3.19 pounds of potatoes to afford the same amount of nourishment as one pound of hay. The great value of roots is as a change or condiment calculated to keep the animal in a healthy condition.

The CARROT is somewhat extensively fed, and is a valuable root for milch cows. This, like the potato, has been cultivated and improved from a wild plant. Carrots require a deep, warm, mellow soil, thoroughly cultivated, but clean, and free from weed-seed. The difference between a very good profit and a loss on the crop depends much upon the use of land and manures perfectly free from foul seeds of any kind. Ashes, guano, seaweed, ground bones, and other similar substances, or thoroughly-rotted and fermented compost, will answer the purpose.

After plowing deep, and harrowing carefully, the seed should be planted with a seed-sower, in drills about eighteen inches apart, at the rate of four pounds to the acre, about the middle of May. The difference between sowing on the fifteenth of May and on the tenth of June in New England is said to be nearly one-third in the crop on an average of years. In weeding, a little wheel hoe is invaluable, as with it a large part of the labor of cultivation is saved. A skillful hand can run this hoe within a half an inch of the young plants without injury, and go over a large space in the course of a day, if the land was properly prepared in the first place.

Free books android app tbrJar TBR JAR Read Free books online gutenberg

(0)

Login to post a comment!