Feed the Cows.

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 1727, 23 February 1912, Page 2

Feed the Cows.

I Oun dairy farmers will not havo forgotten that at tho beginning of last I milking season tho cows wcro mostly -ni such poor condition that an un , usually largo percentage of them died during the calving period, and , those which survived were so weak that the supply of milk throughout tho district was much lower than tho , average. Tho cause of the trouble was, of course, the dry autumn and , tho hard winter, with a consequent lack of feed. In a word, it was starvation. Fortunately for the , farmers, the butter companies were ( Able to pay out substantially higher ' prices for butter-fat, and the pecuniary loss to the farmer was not, so j great as it would otherwise have been. Presdat climatic conditions i do not indicato a recurrence of last year's severity, but our farmers will bo well advised to prepare liberal • quantities of good feed for the comi ing winter. This course would be justified on-the grounds of humanity j alone; yet the dairyman will naturally be exercised with the financial , aspect of the matter, .and he well | knows that his herd should be in j specially good . condition ,men "coming to profit." The charge is 1 sometimes made that tho farmers j are only, as it were, scratching the j land in this country, and that twice j the wealth could be draivn from the j soil if it were properly cultivated. , Such a charge, however, is not as I literally true aY it used to be, al- ! though there is no doubt that the ground still holds much which it j would give up if properly handled. j Some farmers, for instance, still dej pend on the natural growth of the j grasses to help them through. Others j lay themselves out for scientific cropraising, and they find it pays. The I time for tho sowing of winter oats for green feed and of other green i crops, such" as barley, ryo, vetches, otc, now is near. Tho wise husbandi man is now preparing his fields— j one, at least, is already sowing. As j to tTi'o best varieties of oats to sow, Fcilding's most successful dairymen name "Algerian" as the one which ! gives tho most satisfactory results, there being no danger of it rusting. Whatever the variety, however, now is the time to act. Farmers will put money in their own pockets, and assist the progress and stability of the district, by making preparation for the future. Bo wise in time.' : Think it over to-day, then start in on the task at once.