TREACLE ON THE FARM.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXX, Issue 3467, 6 March 1912, Page 7

TREACLE ON THE FARM.

SOLVING THE WINTER KEEP PROBLEM.

An account was given in a recent issue of a Peterborough man who fatted a sow on treacle and sawdust. Farmers and small holders and dairymen in many parts of Britain have been doing much the same thing, and all of them tire a little like Mr and Mrs Squeers at Do-tlie-Boys’ Hall, who invented the brimstone and treacle treatment for young gentlemen. A Berkshire small holder who was questioned on the subject said he hoped to get through the winter principally by the aid of hot water, treacle . and chaff. Of all foods chaff is the cheapest, and as a rule the -easiest to procure. The problem is to deceive the animal into enjoying this rather barren but still wholesome and in bulk not innutritious stuff. For this purpose there is nothing like treacle, o£ which stock are as fond as are any “young gentlemen.”

The most scientific make the treacle go farther by mixing it with hot water —if cold water is used the mixture is hard to make. It is extraordinary how large a measure of the least appetising straw chaff may be reduced with this syrupy fluid, and how greedily stock will eat it; though its equivalent is very like “bread and scrape.” The same sort of method can be used with linseed oil, but there is nothing quite bo good, or. it may be added, quite so deceptive, as treacle. Its uses greatly cheapens and simplifies the feeding problem, which is more acute this winter than it has been for a generation.