36g BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



sumed by the animal body, from one-fourth to one-sixth of it is 

 taken as a solid, and is dissolved by water after it enters the 

 stomach. The difference in the preparation of food for the inmates 

 of the '" two kingdoms," is, that nature masticates the food for the 

 vegetable world, while man compensates for his teeth in the chew- 

 ing of his own food, unless he adopts the Americanized method of 

 saving time by bolting it anaconda fashion The juices of some 

 plants are so impregnated with certain substances, as to be re- 

 tained in the secretions. Turnips fed to cows, before milking, 

 impart a disagreeable odor to the milk. Porgie chum, when fed 

 to grass lands, poultry, swine or sheep, if putrefaction has set in, 

 gives a fishy taste to the hay, eggs, or meat. 



When ruminating animals are fed on dry hay, which contains 

 but from 14 to 17 per cent, of water, from 70 to To per cent, more 

 must be supplied to satisfy their cravings. If this supplied amount 

 be from impure fountains, the impurities injuriously aflfect the di- 

 gestion, growth and health, yet a majority of farmers are as care- 

 ful to keep roots, containing wholesome water, from their cattle as 

 they are to keep salt from their hens. That water acts an im- 

 portant part as an element of food, is indicated by the fact that 

 animals when obtaining food naturally, as when at pastime, con- 

 sume in the grasses a greater quantity than when subsisting on 

 winter forage. It may be that a diluted food is required in summer 

 to reduce the heat of the body as it is demanded in winter to in- 

 crease the warmth of the same. Those not having the fear of the 

 " Maine Law," say of the " extract of rye," that it keeps out the 

 heat in summer and the cold in winter. This pure water can do, 

 whether whiskey can or not. 



View this subject from whichever side we may, the conclusion 

 becomes inevitable, that vegetable water, whether in fruit, root, or 

 tuber, is an indispensable constituent of winter forage. Just how 

 it propels the machinery of animated nature, or promotes the 

 growth, or adds to the structure of the body, or prepares tlie food, 

 or preserves the health, may not be clearly obvious, bnt its im- 

 portance no one will deny. 



Gray, in speaking of the agency of water, says, "it maybe 

 studied under its solvent properties, chemical agency, mechanical 

 agency, and as aflbrding food. It dissolves and holds in solution 

 a great variety of substances, mineral, vegetable, and animal, and 

 is the great solvent in all nature's operations ; when it passes 

 through the soil it dissolves its soluble salts, such as lime, nitre, 



