THE DAIRY.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 981, 11 June 1879, Page 4 (Supplement)

THE DAIRY.

PARSNIPS FOR MILCH COWS.

Recent articles in the Tribune favoring 1 the parsnip as food for cows and other ' farm stock, prompt me to give your many readers an account of an experiment I made last spring. Having some hundreds of bushels, for which there seemed to be no sale at any paying price, I concluded to try feeding them to my milch cows. I ff.ive them about one bushel each per day, with a little wheat middlings put over them, and what hay they would cat. They all did well. They gave a good quantity of milk, and it made butter of good quality. In April I selected a full blooded Avrsliire cow, four years old, for a still closer test. She had come in the Ist of Februarv preceding. I had purchased both hay and middlings, and these were both charged to her at their actual cash cost. Her milk was kept separate from the others, and churned, and the butter worked and weighed by itself. We were then selling at from 20 to 25 cents per pound in our home market. The result was : After paying for her feed and hay, we had as many cents per bushel for the parsnip 3 a3 the butter was worth per pound ; that is, if the butter was worth 25 cents per pound the parsnips brought ns 25 cents per bushel. Or, to put it in another form, one bushel of parsnips made | one pound of butter. In this case _ the hay cost Bdol per ton, and the middlings 12tlol 50 cents per ton, delivered in the barn. • No account was made of the mule or the manure; these were set against the labor of caring for the cow and the milk. That is pretty big pay, and I should be glad to have 500 cows to care for at the : same price. The cow is an extra good ; one, and will make during the year at 1 least 350 pounds of butter, and I think 1 more than that unless some accident befalls her. Now the question comes, ■ can we afford to raise parsnips for feed, 1 supposing this to be a fair test 1 When we were digging the piece where thi3 crop grew, I measured off twenty rods, or onei eighth of an acre, as near the average as • I could judge. The yield was 107 bushels, ■ or at the rate of 856 bushels per acre. ' The cost of their cultivation was so mixed ! up with that of other crops that it is impossible for me to give the exact figures. ; friend who watches my cultivation i closely say 3 that I would get a profit on them if I sold them at 10 cents per bushel. I doubt this, still I believe that 12i cents i will pav the entire cost of putting them into heaps or pits for winter. I generally dig them about the last thing before the : "touad freezes up and put them into pits • and cover them with eight to twelve : inches of earth, and then I can break open ! the pit and get at them whenever they are wanted, whether for sale or feed. Of i course they freeze hard in the pits. 1 I would not feed them in a frozen state, but ' put them in my cellar and let them thaw '■ out first. I believe that there is money in them for feed, and I have 400 to 500 ' bushels of them now on hand, and unless ' there is a sale for them at a moderately > fair price, I propose making further cx- ' perimeuts next spring.—J. M. Smith, i Brown Co., Wi3.

TREATMENT FOR GARGET. (Xorth British Agriculturist.) As to treatment, the first matter is to empty the udder of every particle of milk that can be withdrawn. If the teat is too tender, or is blocked with knots of curd, a syphon must be used, and milking rerepeated at intervals of two or three * tt' . ■ _l . 1 ? . . I >y poultices of spent hop 3 or of bran afford much relief, should be frequently repeated, and applied suspended on a web passed round the loins on a'Tshaped piece running backwards and upwards between the hind limbs and secured to the web passing over the loins. Such poultices and bandages, softening and mechanically supporting the inflamed organ, remove congestion and pain, and generally hasten recovery. Extract or ointment of belladonna, rubbed daily ovpr the tender udder, not only abate tension and pain, but also lesson the troublesome secretion of milk. Clots of curd accumulating in the teats must be gently broken down, and got away either by the hand or by the teat syphon. In chronic cases the hard swelling should be rubbed twice daily with a stimulating dressing, which may consist of equal parts of watery solution of iodine, tincture of opium, and soap ointment. Abscesses mnst be opened and dressed with antiseptics. Constipation and febrile symptoms should be combated by oil and treacle, and a daily dose of 4oz. of Epsom salt and an ounce of nitrate will relieve fever and lessen milk secretion. Unless the cow is reduced the diet for some da3 r s should be sparing, and not succulent.