338 AMERICAN CATTLE 



mastication than green grass. Our whole effort in cutting and 

 steaming is merely to produce an imitation of nature's green food. 



MIXING DIFFERENT QUALITIES OF FOOD. 



" Here, another advantage not to be overlooked, is, that it ena- 

 bles the feeder to mix different qualities of food together, making 

 it all palatable, and thus saving all. This is a matter of great 

 importance, and alone would vastly more than pay all the expense 

 of cutting. In this manner, poor straw and good hay may be 

 mixed, coarse swale meadow hay with fine hay, corn stalks with 

 hay, and pea or bean straw with hay, when the poorer qualities 

 would not be eaten alone; or, if hay be scarce or of too high 

 price, cut straw may be made equivalent to the best hay, by mix- 

 ing two quarts of fine middlings or bran, or one quart of corn 

 meal with a bushel of straw. 



" The writer of this paper has practiced cutting and steaming 

 fodder, of all kinds, in winter, for a stock numbering from ten to 

 fifty-five neat cattle and horses, during the last ten years. He 

 therefore deems his experience sufficient to enable him to speak 

 with some degree of confidence. He tried a long series of experi- 

 ments, to determine the quantity of middlings or meal necessary 

 to mix with a bushel of straw, to render it equivalent to the best 

 hay. Ten animals of about uniform size, standing in the same 

 stable, were parted five being fed upon hay, and five upon the 

 mixture. At first, four quarts of middlings were mixed with a 

 bushel of straw. The animals were fed for one month five 

 upon this mixture, and five upon the hay. Those fed upon the 

 mixture were found to gain decidedly upon those fed upon the 

 hay alone. 



" The experiment was then reversed, putting those upon the 

 mixture that had fed upon the hay, and vice versa. At the end 

 of the month those fed upon the straw and middlings had gained 

 rapidly, while those fed upon the hay had hardly held their con 





