DIGESTION AND WINTER FEEDING. 59 



I cannot feed cabbages to my cows. I sell milk. I have fed 

 cotton-seed meal very extensively, — probably as much or 

 more than any man in the hall ; I have fed three or four 

 quarts a day for the last twenty years to my stock of cows, 

 using fourteen to twenty-five tons a year, and I have never 

 had any complaint about the milk. I believe that where the 

 cream will average fifteen per cent on milk from cabbages 

 it will average twenty or twenty-two per cent upon cotton- 

 seed meal, either combined with sprouts or shorts. 



Mr. Haktshoen (of Worcester). I think if cabbage-leaves 

 or cauliflower-leaves lie in the heap long enough to heat in 

 the slightest degree before feeding them, there will be no 

 flavor in the milk. But I have fed, as Mr. Hadwen has, a 

 herd of fifteen or eighteen cows for years upon cabbages, all 

 through the latter part of fall and fore part of winter, with- 

 out having the least trouble. I supply a class of customers 

 who are very particular about the quality of their milk, and 

 I never hear any complaint from them. Cabbage makes a 

 very excellent quality of milk, and, with meal added, makes 

 good cream. 



In regard to onions tainting meat, I will state one little 

 incident that happened to me. One fall I had two fat hogs ; 

 and after gathering my onion-crop, some of the waste tops 

 and scullions were swept down into the pen where the fat 

 hogs were. One of those hogs was killed in a few dsLjs ; and 

 the moment he was cut open, a very strong onion smell was 

 perceived ; and, when some of the meat was cooked, the 

 house was filled with a second onion smell. Neither the 

 hams nor any part of the meat could be eaten by me or any 

 of my friends, and I gave it all away. The other fat hog, 

 which was in the same pen, was kept for about three weeks ; 

 and, when he was killed, that meat was sweet. 



Mr. Grin NELL. This discussion hitherto has been con- 

 fined entirely to feeding neat-stock. I want to ask one ques- 

 tion on a subject which I think will interest the farmers 

 present, and more especially those from the western part of 

 the State. Dr. Bowen suggests to us in the feeding of hogs or 

 pigs, whose stomachs are not so large as the stomachs of the 

 ruminants, to feed three or four times a day. I think that 

 that is not in accord with the practice of the farmers in the 

 Connecticut Valley, where they have made, for years, the 



