Farmers are afraid of sour apples; if stock have _only_ sour fruit
they are injured; but let both sweet and sour grow in the orchard, and
experience has determined that they will, of themselves, eat the due
proportion of each. Cattle and hogs are as fond of variety in fruit as
men are. In raising potatoes, pumpkins, apples, etc., for animals, it
is frequently supposed that the larger and ranker the growth the
better; that, at any rate, cattle fare as well on coarse-grained
vegetables as on others. But a rank, coarse, watery vegetable is no
better for an ox than for a man. The nutritious principle is the same
to man or beast. A fine-fleshed, highly nutritious apple or potato is
as much better for stock as it is for man. If a variety is not fit for
men, it is not worth while to cultivate it at all. Cattle show
themselves to be of this opinion when left to range; they avoid
coarse, rough herbage, and pick the sweetest and highest flavored. Let
the _best_ sorts of apples be planted for stock. If one has a seedling
orchard which it would be worth while to graft over for human use, let
not its poor, miserable fruit be fed to hogs; let it be grafted over
even if one means to use it for stock.
* * * * *
PULLING OFF POTATO FLOWERS.—The man who makes his potato-ground feed
flowers, prevents it feeding his children. Every ounce of matter
consumed by the flowers is so much taken from the consumption of the
family.
* * * * *
To restore an exhausted, or rather tired field, it should be sown in
grass, and stock fed upon it during the winter months. Hogs fattened
upon tired land enrich it very much.