The Gem state rural. [volume], December 15, 1895, Image 1

About The Gem state rural. [volume] (Caldwell, Idaho) 1895-1910

Image provided by: Idaho State Historical Society

                
THE (JEM STATE RURAL.
VOLUME 1
CALDWELL,
IDAHO, DECEMBER, 1095
NUMBER 4,
Alfalfa the King of all Forage Plants.
Either green, or cured as hay,
the nutritive qualities of alfalfa
are surpassed by few other plants,
red clover not exceeding it in
protein or
ments.
muscle forming ele
Farrn animals of all kinds
relish, and thrive, and, in
instances,
fat, upon dry hay alone, and
kept upon it demonstrate its value
for milk making in both quanity
and quality of product. It is an
admirable crop for soiling pur
poses.— F. C. Coburn Secretary
Kansas State Board of Agricul
tural.
many
actually become quite
cows
As regards its nutritive quali
ties, there are but few plants that
can compare with alfalfa. Red
clover is the best known and most
universal leguminous plant. For
the sake of comparison, I quote
the following analysis of the two
from Wolf's table. The figures
refer to the digestible nutrients
in each case.
KED CLOVER.
Hay, Green.
ALFALFA.
Hay. Green.
12.3
31.4
Qqu lilies.
Crude protein
> Carbohydrate:
1 6
• 8,6
3.2
. 38 2
8 8
8.1
It will be seen that alfalfa,
either as hay or green, contains
more of the most valuable nu
trient (protein) than red clover,
The figures speak for themselves.
Further argument on that point
is unnecessary
As a fertilizer of the soil, alfalfa
has but few equals and, although
it is a perennial crop the farmers
are beo-inim* to learn that it pays
them, on poor soil to plow a crop
of alfalfa under in order to en
rich the soil_Professor C C
t .
Nutritive ratio...
I 7
1.0
0.3
0.4 .
5.0
2.8 3.1
5 .1
Georgeson Kansas State A^ri
cultural College
In this place we insert the re
port of Professor Blount formerly
of Colorado Agricultural College
"Alfalfa stands at the head of
all clover in nearly all respects.
It needs no comment Its feed
in<r value and as a hay crop is
excelled b - no other plant As
hay its value may be seen in the
. , 1 1 f
experiments made last year.
T r j mnnt L
hour steers were fed one monin
red clover
1 *- r c-roin if.ee in
the per cent, ot gam less in
alfalfa months but considerably
The fact may be clearly
experiment
on it, and one on
They consumed each from 133 to
221 pounds more clover hay per
month than alfalfa, and in no case
was
more,
seen in the feeding
illustrated in the following table.
Three
fed four
months on alfalfa, clover, chop
and roots. They consumed in
steers were
Oct. and Dec. Gain. Nov. and Jan.
2805 lbs alfalfa. 270 lbs. 3558 lbs clover.
558 lbs chop.
1275 lbs roots.
"Each steer is credited the
same amount of chop and roots
inasmuch as they were given
limited quantities, but of hay
each had all he would eat.
"Taking the hay as a base, the
alfalfa made a difference in gain
of twenty pounds, and 1,053
pounds less of it was fed, show
ing clearly its superior value for
a feeeding plant."
Gain.
240 lbs.
(175 ibs chop.
1830 lbs roots.
!
Feeding Test with Sheep
The question of the compara
live feeding value of wheat and
corn for sheep is a long way from
being decided. From 1891 to
seventy-five cents per hundred. 1
The partial failure of the corn
crop of 1894 raised the price to
1894 most of the grain fed to
sheep In Colorado was corn, ship
ped in from Nebraska at about
over a cent a P ound, while wheat
cou Id be bought for sixty-five
cents to seventy-five cents per
hundred pounds. Consequently,
wheat was the principal grain fed
f rom November, 1894, to March,
x ^ 95 - Judged by its composition,
wheat is well adapted to making
growth on an animal, and feeders
were well satisfied with the grain
* n weight made by their sheep
during the earlier part of the sea
son - The first shipments showed
that the sheep were not so fat as
they seemed to be. They had
ma de a growth in weight, but
their flesh was soft and watery,
They lacked the hard, solid kidney
^ at that ha.d been a distinguishing
feature of Colorado corn-fed sheep,
The shrinkage of weight in ship
P in S was " ear| y twice as much as
1 ' n previous years on corn feeding,
j So pronounced were these re
su ^ s of exclusive wheat feeding
I that > durin g A P ri! and Md 7 » man 7
carloads of corn were bought, and
;
some feeders claimed that they
■>
could afford to pay $25 a ton for
to finish up their sheep for
Several thousand old
sheep were brought to Fort Col
lins and put on a heavy feed of
r j
wheat to fatten them rapidly for
market. But, instead of fattening,
the combination of wheat and al
corn
market
falfa, both rich in bone and
muscle-forming elements, started
them growing again and delayed
for some weeks their marketing,
The experiences of the past sea
son have shown that, for lambs,
it is probably best to feed wheat
the first third of the winter, then
half wheat and half corn for the
next third, finishing off on clear
In feeding older sheep,
corn.
corn is by far the best grain to
use.—( Colorado Agricultural Ex
periment Station Report.)
Idaho Farmers Head This.
It is and old story now to tell
how systematic dairying has re
deemed farming communities that
were wel1 ni g h ruined b y y ears of
exclusive wheat production. We
doubt whether it has ever been
;
more effectively told than by Hon.
John Lushsinger before the Min
I reside in county in W is
consin where, 25 years ago,
farmers were running a race each
nesota Dairymen's Association as
follows:
[season with the clinch bugs, to
determine which could first har
vest the crop of spring wheat. It
had been as good a wheat country
as yours was, and prehaps yet is,
anc ^ wheat had been for many
! years the main staple crop. But
ah this changed; the bugs, assist
ed by dry seasons and impover
ished soil, reguarly and complete
^7 captured the crop. Not even
content with that, they overflow
e d with their crawling swarms,
the adjoining fiields of other
cr °ps, and stopped only when ruin
was complete. Disastrous conse
quences followed; the young, the
enterprising and hardy, moved
i n ceaseless trains westward to
the virgin prairies of your state
and the Dakotas, to begin anew,
° ur newspapers " ere filled with
notices of sheriffs sales, foreclos
ures, and tax sales. Once in debt,
the wheat farmers struggles to
extr,cate himself, seemed only to
cause him to become more deeply
.
rnired. 1 hen when the outlook
, , , c ^
vvas darkest, our people—a few at
h fs t—betook themselves to dairy
in g- Their partial success caused
others to follow rapidly; we be
came dairymen; became so be
r , ,
cause forced by chinch bugs,
which we then considered a curse
sent hy the Almighty to punish
the wholesale robbery of the soil,
termed "wheat farming;" but now,
in the light of the events follow
ing, we have reason to consider a
blessed means to lead us to better
farming. Green Connty, Wis., is
to-day one of the greatest dairy
counties in the northwest, if not
in the United States; 240 cheese
factories exist in that county, and
nearly half as many more in the
counties adjoining, mostly con
trolled by Green County men.
Over 20,000,000 pounds of cheese
are made annually, bringing a
gross income of about $2,000,000"
So much for Queen Cow!
you wonder that thoughtful men
Do
desire to stop the fraudulent sale
of "oleo," when such results as
this can be rightly credited to the
spread of legitimate dairying?—
Rural New Yorker.
A Monument To A Famous Apple.
The Rumford Historical society
of Woburn, Del., will erect a mon
ument where, one hundred years
a g- 0> was discovered the kind of
app l e s now known as Baldwins,
Samuel Thompson of Woburn,
Mass., while surveying a route for
the Middlesex canal, discovered
this apple. His attention had
been drawn to it by a number of
woodpeckers which gathered
about the trees on account of the
a ppl e s. Mr. Thompson thought
i t a new variety, and as it pleased
his taste he called the attention
of his neighbors to it, and he and
his brother hastened to graft from
it many trees on their own estates
It was first called the "Pecker"
apple, then the "Butters" apple,
f rQ m the owner of the land where
the tree was found. The brothers
Thompson were constant in their
efforts to scatter it far and wide,
and for miles around the people
secured branches of it and grafted
their trees.
The neighbor and friend of the
Thompsons, Col. Loammi Baldwin,
the eminent engineer, showed the
f ru it to his many guests, who
ca me from distant parts of the
,
country, and this did much for the
J
spread of the apples fame, which
a f evv years came to be known
as t h e "Baldwin."
The granite snaft which is to be
erected by the Rumford Histori
,
C al association of Woburn is seven
f e et high and is surmounted by a
representation of a Baldwin apple.