| OF INTEREST TO FARMERS |
THOSE KICKING COWS
Not long ago a dairyman got
.ticked by one of his cows and, be
ing human and like so many of us,
he immediately proceeded to give
that cow “a good lesson.’’ It so hap
pened, and it almost always does,
♦ that the dairyman get a lesson, too.
when he thumped that cow over the
back with the milk stool. The les
son was about as follows: In Sep
tember this cow had produced 41
Sounds of butterfat. The ccw kicked
im while the cow tester was on
the job. Both the milk yield and
the fat for that milking were down,
and the milk yield stayed down for
a few days. The result was that
from 41 pounds in September the
cow dropped to 27 pounds in Octo
ber. In November, when the dairy
man and his cow had again made
truce, the vield climbed back up to
37 pounds of butterfat. It cost this I
dairyman some money to “give his !
cow a lesson.’’ Long finger nails :
poked into the cow’s teats by an
unthoughtful milker probably don't
feel especially well. Sometimes teats
become cracked or sore from vari
ous causes. The cow’s reaction Is to
resent being hurt by the milking
process, and she kicks. Occasionally
there is a cow that just seems to
kick because she likes to. The solu
tion there seems to be to purchase
one of these devices to prevent cows
from kicking, or Ise to tie the cow’s
legs together. Still another solution
seems to be to use a milking ma
chine. for seldom does one find a
cow that dislikes being milked with
a machine if it is properly operated.
—-« ♦
SELF FEEDING SWINE
The best measure of a feeding
standard for swine, or of a method
of feeding, is to be found in the
quantity of feed required for 100
pounds gain, the daily rate of gain
and the time required to bring
weaning pigs to market weights, To
determine whether one standard or
method is better than another, one
must make comparisons of the re
sults obtained under the two or
more methods of feeding. No bet
ter illustration of this is to be
found than from a summary report
of everal feeding trials in which
full-feeding pigs by hand was com
pared with full-feeding similar pigs
by the use of self feeders. The data
to be reported cover eight feeding
trials involving 16 groups and 103
pigs. The ration fed was corn and
tankage plus rape, alfalfa, blue
grass, timothy, or red clover pas
tures. Shelled corn was fed in all
but one trial and in this one trial
ear corn was fed. In all but one
trial the pigs were carried to ap
proximately 220 to 225 pounds
weight. The pigs in the groups that
were self-fed averaged 46.9 pounds
at the beginning of the feeding pe
riod. It took 134 days for them to
reach an average weight of 222
pounds. The gain made required
380.05 pounds concentrates plus
pasture lor 100 pounds of gain. The
pigs that were full-fed by hand av
eraged 47.7 pounds at the beginning
of the feeding period. They required
147 days (13 days more) to reach
220.6 pounds average weight. They
required 394.81 pounds of concen
trates (14.76 pounds more) plus pas
ture for 100 pounds gain. Not
counting other advantages of self
feding over hand feeding—giving
the pigs an opportunity to help
themselves at all times—resulted in
a saving of 13 days' time, and of
nearly 15 pounds feed for each 100
pounds gain. But these pits were
fed on pasture. Let us compare the
two methods of feeding with pigs
under dry lot conditions. Two ex
periments in which the self fed pigs
averaged 47.1 pounds, and the hand
fed, full fed pigs averaged 46.9
pounds at the beginning of the
feeding periods, show that the self
fed pigs put on 1.36 pounds daily
per pig, whereas the hand fed pigs
put on only 1.16 pounds per pig.
The former required 409 pounds
feed and the latter 439 pounds feed
for 100 pounds gain. These two ex
periments, the one with pigs fed on
forage and the one where they were
fed in dry lot, began with weanling
pigs. Let us examine the data when
well grown feeder shoats are put on
self feeders. Four groups involving
32 pigs were fed in dry lot for 104
days. They averaged 177 pounds
at tne Degmmng oi tne reeding
period. The ration offered was
shelled corn and tankage. The self
fed shoats averaged to gain 1.65
pounds per head daily, whereas the
hand fed, full fed pigs gained only
1.47 pounds per head daily. The
former required 462 pounds feed,
and the latter 485 pounds feed for
100 pounds gain. Thfse data show
that self feeding swine put on more
gain in less time with less feed than
does hand feeding to the limit of
full feeding. While self feeders are
by no means automatic in their op
eration, their use involves consider
ably less labor than in feeding
swine by hand. Self feeding swine
has become popular and is today
the established practice among
those who have given the method a
fair trial. It is interesting to note
the comment on this method of
feeding by several well known swine
feeders and experiment station
workers. Self feeding swine is not a
foolproof automatic method. The
operator must do certain things if
he is to get better results than
from good hand feeding. The feeds
offered must be of such kinds and
palatable so that the pigs, in mak
ing their free choice, will consume
the feeds LI such proportions as to
give them nutrients in the right
proportions for their needs. In other
words, if either the kinds of feed or
the palatability of them are such
that the pigs cannot or do not make
the proper selection for a well bal
anced ration, the results will not be
satisfactory. If the supplemental,
high protein feed, —or mixture of
such feeds, is not palatable, the pigs
will eat too much of the carbonace
ous feeds for rapid gains; or, if the
reverse is true the pigs will eat too
much of the high priced, high pro
tein feeds for cheap gains. It has
been aptly stated that “the hog is
a physiologist, not an economist; he
FATTEN YOUR PULLETS
Much of the success in getting a
maximum egg yield from the pul
let flock, at the same time keeping
the birds in good weight and flesh,
depends upon feeding. The pullets,
if given nothing but a concentrated
laying mash and scratch feed, will
lay heavily, but will cease to gain
in weight or even lose weight, ulti
mately going to pieces. This can be
prevented and the pullets will con
tinue to gain in weight well into the
new year, if in addition to their
dry mash and scratch feed they are
fed each day a fattening mash. An
excellent mixture has long been
used at the New Jersey egg-laying
contest, being fed in open tro”oh*
eats to suit himself, and corn at
35 cents and corn at $3 look all the
same to him.” It is important to
mention that wecnlir.g pigs require
more protein than do feeder shotes,
say those weighing 150 pounds or
more. We must not forget that self
feeders are subject to mechanical
difficulties under various condition,
that keep them from operating per
fectly at ail times. They must be
looked alter and kept in good work
ing order. Those who have not tried
the self feeding, free choice method
of feeding swine will find it it a
means of making more money from
their feeds and from their labor.
GET PULLETS IN
It never pays to leave the pullets
out on the range too late in the fall,
especially as many are apt to be
roosting outdoors in the trees. From
now on we get cold nights, and it
does not take much damp, wet
weather to throw maturing pullets
into bad colds, with roup and allied
infections. They are better off,
even if not fully matured, In good,
well-ventilated laying houses where
they can be properly fed and han
dled. The pullet flock should be
gotten Into laying condition by the
middle of October and laying heav
ily by the first of November. When
housing pullets we have found it
desirable to handle the birds along
the following lines: Each pullet
should be banded with a sealed leg
band with raised numerals, so that
her identity may be clearly estab
lished. Next, if there is any chance
of the birds being let out-of-doors,
especially if they are of the active
Mediterranean breeds and apt to
fly and mix up one pen with anoth
er, th$ primary flight feathers on
one wing should be clipped off
about one inch from where they
grow out of the wing. This will keep
the birds in their own yards. Next,
to insure freedom from body lice,
as the biids are caught each one
should be treated w'ith blue oint
ment, or mercuric ointment, made
by mixing equal parts of the former
and vaseline, and rubbing a small
particle well into the feathers
around and below the vent. One
application of blue ointment will
keep the birds free from body lice
lor six months or longer. In the
case of most ranges and most pul
lets there is some infestation of in
testinal worms present when they
are placed in winter quarters. We
have found it feasible to treat the
pullets with iodine vermicide when
they are placed in the houses. This
not only kills worms and worm
eggs, but acts as a distinct tonic.
Lastly, before the birds are re
leased it is wise to draw a blood
sample from the wing and subject
it to the agglutination test for B.
W. D., eliminating reactors, or iso
lating them in separate flocks,
purely for egg production. If only
vigorous well developed birds are
housed, the pullet flocks should
prove profitable even under the
rather discouraging egg price con
ditions now prevailing.
---—~+ -—
fattening range turkeys.
The plump, fat turkey is bring
ing premium enough over the range
fed bird to pay turkey raisers to
fatten their flocks and keep all birds
till they are prime. The dealers
agree that the demand for quality in
turkeys is increasing each year. The
United States department of agri
culture is helping turkey raisers, and
dealers understand just what a
prime turkey is by holding a grad-,
ing school in the center of the tur
key-growing region, early this
month. The ideal, or United States
prime A-l grade turkey, should be a
young, fine-grained, soft-meated
bird W'ith a broad, full-fleshed breast
and its back, hips and pin bones
fully covered with fat. The breast
bone must be straight and feathers
well grown, as many pin feathers
spoil the looks of the carcass. Start
out the fattening of the flock by
giving an evening feed of grain in
small quantities at first, but rapid
ly increasing the quantity till you
are feeding all the flock will clean
up. The market flock can also be
induced to increase its mash con
sumption by moistening some of the
mash commonly kept before them
and feeding this in the forenooh.
Feed troughs must be kept clear!
Moistening the mash with milk will
add to its palatability and to its
food value. A good fattening mash
may be made up as follows: Fifty
five pounds of corn feed meal, 20
pounds of wheat middlings, 14
pounds of ground oats, 10 pounds
of meat scraps. 1 pound of salt. Skim
milk or buttermilk makes a veFy
satisfactory substitute for the meat
scraps: but if used, it is advisable to
add about 3 per cent bone meal
Commercial fattening mash Is very
satisfactory for the market flock.
GRAIN WITH ROUGHAGE "
On a good many dairy farms the
winter supply of roughage is not of
as good quality as under normal
crop years. There is a shortage of
legume hay for which other less de
sirable roughage must be substitut
ed. Dairy cows do not eat lanfi
quantities of roughage they do not
like. While it is advisable to do ev
erything within reason to make
substitute roughage more palatable,
in most cases it will be necessary tq
make slight adjustments In the
rate of feeding grain. In doing this,
however, the price of milk and the
cost of grain are very important
factors, so much so that keeping
production records is going to be ft
necessity if many (farmers avoi<|
losses. With a poor quality of honty
grown roughage, a high price for
good roughage that may be pur
chased, and on’y a very ordinary
price for milk dairy farmers caft
not afford to retain poor producer*
| in the herd. /
to each hundred birds around 11
o'clock every morning. The mash
consists of one pound of yellow corn
meal, one pound of rolled or ground
oats and one-quarter of a pound 01
cod-liver oil, the mash being mixed
to a crumbly consistency with but*
termilk, skim milk or diluted evap
orated buttermilk. This mash stim
ulates the appetite, increases food
consumption, maintains the body
fat and helps to hold the birds in
prime condition even In the face of
heavy egg yield.
HERE'S AN IDEA
Have ycu electric lights In the
hen house? Might as well use eled^
tricity to heat the w|ter. Ihea.
Atlanta Justice Learns
Of His Appointment
Samuel H. Sibley, of Atlanta, pic
tured in Federal Court, Atlanta,
Ga., after he had been apprized of
his appointment as United States
Circuit Court judge in the Fifth
District Court of Appeals. Judge
Sibley has been on the Federal
bench for the Northern District of
Georgia for thirteen years.
Joe Robiusou's Spats
Cause Capital Furore
I
If Senator Joseph T. Robinson
(above) wants to wear spats to
keep from getting cold feet he’s
going to keep right on wearing ’em,
he has told dress fanatics at tho
capital.
Bright Hues Adorn
Stylish Sports Mode
This spectator sports suit. ini white
crepe and bright blue, embroidered
■ with blue and white rose designs,
is one of the most popular sports
modes of this season.
North Dakota State Capitol Burns
^ I Ml. ’ . - . L-Ll . .
The seat of government in Bis- ♦
marck, N. D., going up in flames. |
Official records of all depart
ments, daing back to the day* <
before statehood* were destroyed
► with the forty-six-ycar old builds
, ing.
Just By Way of Diversion
Professor Albert Einstein, famed
German scientist, is also master
of the bow. and this art. too. he
■f taught himself. Here's an un
usual view behind the scenes of
* his Dublic iife
French Actress Resigns
But Changes Her Mindly
Mme. Cecffe Sore!, famous Frenck
actress, tendered her resignation
to the Comedie Francaise, Gov m
ment-owned theatre in Paris. Bu|
directors called the star befor^
them a few hours later and per*
suaded her to withdraw it. No ex
planation was given of why Mmn,
Sorel wanted to sever her connec
tions with the company.
Reci’^’d Because
She Loves Nice Things
i . - <■ I
Alexandra Kollontay has lost her
job as Soviet Ambassador to Swe
den. Reds didn’t like the style in
which she lived in Stockholm.
It’s a Big World
By means of this 50-foot Mich- •
lelson-Pease interferometer, Dr.
F. G. Pease (above), of Mt.
> Wilson Observatory, Cal., haa
measured gigantic stars as large
as 400,000,000 miles in diameter.
Type of Prisons Urged for N. Y. State
Architect'd drawing shows new -
type of prison suggested by
apecial commission appointed to
•on* with nroblems caused by
► overcrowding and other condi- <
tions which have led to serious
outbreaks in the past few years i
i in New York State prisons. Pri*
- ?ners who were not of the case
hardened type would be kept
hta-a in rooms instead of in cell*.