328 THE FARMER' 



They consume daily— 



£ 8. a. 



216 gallons cut wheat straw 



6 do. rane-cake 2 6 



3 do. malt-combs 4.V 



Sdo.bran 5 



Moistened by 

 20 gallons of hot water (bean straw requires twice 

 the quantity) 



300 Iba. of mangel-wurzel 1 4 



In round numbers, they cost at the rate of 3s. 6d. per week 

 independent of the wheat-straw. If I valued the wheat-straw 

 at 40s. per ton, it would add 2s. 6d. to their weekly cost. The 

 roots I value at lOs. per ton. The animals are in a fattening 

 and growing condition, and evidently are advancing remune- 

 ratively. This we can judge of by their appearance, as I have 

 not, like Mr. Horsfall, a weighing-machine for cattle. No- 

 thing tests the value or force of food so soon as milking cows. 

 I strictly adhere to Mr. Horsfall's proportions of food for 

 mine ; and the result is an ample supply of milk, and an in- 

 crease in condition. 



The food for each cow is as follows, daily :— 20 lbs. straw 

 chafif; 8 lbs. of hay; 5 lbs. rape-cake; 2 lbs. bean meal; 

 J lbs. bran ; i| lbs. malt-combs ; 35 lbs. mangel or Swedes. 

 Cost (without straw), 7s. 7d. per week. 



The whole question may be said to hinge upon the condi- 

 tion in which the food is administered. It must be jnoist any 

 ivarm ; and the animals must have proper warmth and shelter. 

 As a general rule, this is not the case throughout the king- 

 dom : hence much food is wasted or misapplied. Were I to 

 give my bullocks the same quantity of cut straw in a dry 

 state, they would not eat one-half of it ; and, besides, the 

 would be restless and dissatisfied. This I know from expe- 

 rience. 



I will now describe my mode of preparation, and then cal- 

 culate the cost. 



I do not use the ordinary close steaming apparatus, but a 

 number of cast-iron pans, or coppers, each capable of con- 

 taining 250 gallons. These are set in brick-work, with a 4- 

 inch space around them, each space connected with the adjoin- 

 ing one by a 6-inch earthen pipe. 



Into these spaces, and around these coppers, circulates a 

 portion of the ivaste sleayn from the engine, after having 

 passed through the cylinder. 



I should state that a close vessel of water, connected with 

 the supply tank, is kept in a nearly boiling state by the waste 

 steam before it passes around the coppers, and a vertical four- 

 inch pipe takes away the steam after it has passed around the 

 coppers ; so that so long as the steam engine is at work, the 

 steam flows around the coppers, after heating the close vessel 

 of water, and then passes into the atmosphere. 



The coppers are all sunk into the earth, so as to stand level 

 with the floor. By this means, when an extra supply of food 

 is required, it may be piled up in a mound, and kept hot for 

 two or three days. 



The straw chaff, cut fine and sifted, is thrown dry into the 

 copper, twenty-seven gallons at a time, and then the proportion 

 of malt combs, bran, and rapccake strewed over it ; then a pail 

 of hot water (drawn from the hot water vessel close at hand) 

 is thrown over it, and it is all incorporated by mixing with a 

 steel fork, and well trodden down; then another twenty-seven 

 gallons of chaff, with the other materials and hot water; 

 another mixing and another treading down, until the copper is 

 full and solid ; and if extra quantities are required, it may be 

 continued in the same way above and around the coppers, but 

 it must be moitt and solid (if too wet the animals will not eat 

 it;. The larger the mass, the longer it remains hot. 



S MAGAZINE. 



Practically, we find we can in winter manage if onr engine 

 only goes twice a week ; but as a general rule we work it for 

 grinding, irrigating, thrashing, &c., more often than that. The 

 mass of subterranean brick-work absorbs the heat from the 

 waste steam, and holds it for several days. 



The heat so obtained costs you nothing, for it would be 

 wasted in the atmosphere. 



I think the time will come when farmers will turn it to 

 several useful purposes. 



Animals will eat rapecake abundantly when so mixed and 

 dissolved, but not when dry. 



This is an admirable food for all sorts of farm animals, and 

 it should be administered, more or less, through the whole 

 year. 



I should say that our roots are cut either by a Gardner or 

 Bentall, and mixed in the manger with the warm steamed 

 chaff. There will be no blowing, griping, or scouring with 

 food so prepared, and the animals eat it as hot as they can 

 bear it. 



In my earlier career I reared first forty and then fifty calves, 

 and sold them as fat bullocks, so treated, never having been olT 

 the boarded floors for two and a-half years, and never having 

 had straw under them. 



The ten bullocks I am now feeding are on sparred floors. 



The cost of cutting a ton of straw into chaff, one-fourth of 

 an inch long, may be taken at 3s. to 49. The trials of chaff- 

 cutters, as reported by the judges in the Royal Agricultural 

 Society's Journal, show that 112 lbs. or more of hay could be 

 cut in three minutes by steam power. It would be well, 

 however, to double that time or cost, because we know on such 

 occasions that everything is in " competing order," which 

 could not be expected on a farm. Therefore, 2s. a ton for hay, 

 or 48. per ton for straw, would be a liberal cutting-up allow- 

 ance by steam power. 



If we are to consume all our bean, barley, wheat, and oat 

 straw, we must keep our animals on sparred floors, or on 

 burned clay, and we must invest more capital in animals, and 

 shall make much more meat per acre. If a ton of straw will 

 make 40 lbs, of meat, and if two tons of straw are grown per 

 acre on our cereal and pulse crops, it would be four score of 

 meat per acre over the whole of the cereals and pulse. 



Oh ! but where is your manure to come from, if you eat your 

 straw ? 



Why your animal, by this mode of feeding, consumes 

 560 lbs. of rapecake with every ton of straw. This is better 

 than littering the yards by cart loads in wet weather, to sop 

 up the water, and save some of the liquid manure which would 

 otherwise be washed away by rain from untroughed roofs. 



But what feeding property is their straw? 



A good deal of hilarity was excited at our London Farmers' 

 Club the other day, by my stating that every 100 lbs. of wheat 

 straw, contained the equivalent of 15 lbs. of oil. Since then, 

 I find I have understated the case, and that really each 100 lbs. 

 of straw contains— see Morton's admirable Cyclopajdia, vol. ii, 

 page 1153 (Voelcker's analysis) — seventy-two per cent.! of 

 muscle fnl and heat-producing substances, of which twenty- 

 seven per cent, are soluble in potash, and thirty-five per cent, 

 insoluble. 



The 8olir)!e fattening substances are equal to ISilbs. of oil 

 in each 10 J lbs, of straw. 



In conclusion, I would recommend every feeder of stock to 

 study Mr. Morsfairs papers in vol. xvii. page 260, and vol. xviii. 

 page 150 of the Royal Agricultural Society's Journal. They 

 will enlighten his mind, dispel his prejudices, and increase his 

 profit. 



