Hints on Dairying

by T. D. Curtis

It is almost pure in the albumens; both vegetable and animal. It is nearly pure in the white of egg. Hence, nitrogenous foods are quite commonly called albuminoids. It exists abundantly in all the proteins—as cheese or caseine, fibrin or lean meat, albumen, etc. Nitrogen, in its free state, appears to be an innocuous gas, diluting the oxygen and preventing it from rapidly oxydizing or burning up everything. As before said, it constitutes four-fifths of our atmosphere, but does not appear to be directly appropriated by either vegetables or animals. As food for either, it must be in combination with other elements—especially carbon—and yet it is very difficult to make it unite with other elements, and hard to maintain the union when it is once formed. Its disposition is to break these unions and seek an idle state of freedom. Hence it is that, when held in durance, its constant tendency to free itself makes it the motor force in all animal organisms, and the terrible energy in all explosives. It is secured in the form of ammonia in rain, by a process called nitrification it unites with the soil, and it exists in all decayed animal and vegetable matter in a form suitable for plant food. Men and animals get it by eating vegetables or by eating one another. It is a very abundant and important element, yet very difficult to obtain in an available form for plant and animal food. Fortunately, but comparatively little of it is needed.

COMPOUNDING RATIONS.

By referring to the feed tables furnished by the analysts of this country and Europe, the farmer can learn the constituents of foods. Then, knowing the ration required, he can take different foods and compound in the right proportions aimed at in feeding, whether for work, for growth, for fat, for bare maintenance, or for milk. We give the German standards for feeding animals:

Per Day and Per 1,000 lbs. Live Weight.
			Nutritive digestible sub.
	ANIMALS.	Total organic dry substance.	Albumi-noids.	Carbo-hydrates.	Fat.	Total Nu-tritive sub.	Nutritive ratio.
		lbs.	lbs.	lbs.	lbs.	lbs.	lbs.
1.	Oxen at rest in stall	17.5	0.7	8.0	0.15	8.85	1:12
2.	Oxen moderately worked	24.0	1.6	11.3	0.30	13.20	1:7.5
3.	Oxen heavily worked	26.0	2.4	13.2	0.50	16.10	1:6.0
4.	Oxen fattening, 1st period	27.0	2.5	15.0	0.50	18.00	1:6.5
	Oxen fattening, 2d period	26.0	3.0	14.8	0.70	18.50	1:5.5
	Oxen fattening, 3d period	25.0	2.7	14.8	0.60	18.10	1:6.0
5.	Cows in milk	24.0	2.5	12.5	0.40	15.40	1:5.4
Growing Cattle—Per Day and Per Head.
	Age.	Average live weight
	Months.	per head.
	2 to 3	150 pounds	3.3	0.6	2.1	0.30	3.00	1:4.7
	3 to 6	300 pounds	7.0	1.0	4.1	0.30	5.40	1:5.0
	6 to 12	500 pounds	12.0	1.3	6.8	0.30	8.40	1:6.0
	12 to 18	700 pounds	16.8	1.4	9.1	0.28	10.78	1:7.0
	18 to 24	850 pounds	20.4	1.4	19.3	0.26	11.96	1:8.0

SAMPLE RATIONS.

Dr. Wolf gives an illustration of the standard for a milch cow, by saying that 30 lbs. of young clover hay will keep a cow in good milk; and that this contains of dry organic substance, 23 lbs., of which is digestible—albuminoids 3.21, carbohydrates 11.28, and fat 0.63. This is .71 lb. albuminoids more, and .22 lb. of carbohydrates less, with .13 lb. of fat more, than the standard. Then he takes the richest and best meadow hay, of which 30 lbs. contains of organic substance 23.2 lbs., having digestible—albuminoids 2.49 lbs., carbohydrates 12.75 lbs., and fat 42 lb. This is almost exactly the feeding standard.

As will have been seen by what has preceded, the German standard ration for a milch cow is 24 lbs. of dry organic substance, containing 2.50 lbs. nitrogenous food, and 12.90 lbs. of carbonaceous food. To secure this, Dr. Wolff recommends for every 1,000 lbs. of live weight:

12	lbs.	average meadow hay.
6	"	oat straw.
20	"	mangolds.
25	"	brewers' grain.
2	"	cotton seed cake.