THE AMERICAN FARMER. 



combination than that of the English. Besides, this small amount of grain with the grass in 

 the warm season will produce a much greater effect in fattening the animal than if fed in 

 cold weather. Grass is good for a basis, but needs the grain in addition to give it staying 

 qualities and so make a complete food combination. 



Upon this point a leading authority in this country says: &quot;Another important considera 

 tion is seen in the fact that the grain renders the flesh more solid containing less water 

 or more dry substance and, in consequence of this condition, steers so fed will lose much 

 less on being taken from pasture for stall feeding in the fall, or for shipment to market. 

 All observing feeders know that steers taken from a good pasture must be fed in stall for 

 some time without much increase in weight, as the sap, or extra water in the carcass is being 

 replaced by fat made from grain, and the steer may be doing well for thirty or more days 

 with but little increase in weight. But when grain is fed with pasture, this shrinkage does 

 not occur on being put up in the fall for stall-feeding. On the same principle, cattle stall-fed 

 through the winter, when taken to good pasture in spring, will increase in weight very 

 rapidly by the addition of sap, or water to the carcass. We have known such steers to 

 gain five pounds per day for fifteen days after being taken to pasture. 



We know that some good feeders are averse to feeding grain with pasture, because they 

 think the steers depend too much upon the grain, and do not eat so much grass. But we 

 think their error has been occasioned by not considering the effects of grain feeding upon 

 the quality of the increase in weight. In the West, where corn is cheap, it appears evident 

 to us that a small grain ration with pasture will pay twenty-five per cent, better for the grain 

 than the same amount fed in cold weather.&quot; 



In out-door fattening, it is a good plan to feed corn in the stalk just as it is cut in the 

 field and stacked. By this means the corn leaves, ears, husks, and stalks are eaten together, 

 forming a more perfect food than corn alone; besides the labor of husking is saved. 



Good hay is excellent food for all stock, being nutritious and producing a healthful 

 distention of the stomach, but no animal can fatten on hay alone. A variety of food is best 

 for animals in all conditions. By consulting the table on a previous page, giving the feeding 

 value of different articles of food, average composition, etc., the comparative fattening value 

 of various kinds of food can be determined. Whatever the rations may be for beef animals, 

 they should be supplied with plenty of pure water at all times. 



Flavor of Beef. That the food consumed by animals affects their flesh, is a fact too 

 well authenticated to be denied. We are all familiar with the fact that chopped onions fed 

 to fowl in sufficient quantities will flavor not only the flesh, but the eggs of the fowl that 

 are produced while being thus fed, or shortly after. Pork will take a peculiar flavor from the 

 food upon which the pigs have been fattened, such as acorns and beech nuts. When 

 butchered while feeding upon these nuts, the pork will be oily and have their flavor. If 

 however, such pigs are put in a pen for a few weeks before being butchered, and fed upon 

 corn or other grain, this peculiar flavor will be exterminated, and that of grain-fed pork 

 remains. Fish scraps, and the refuse of the slaughter-house, when used for fattening, give 

 pork a very disagreeable flavor, unless the fattening process is completed by feeding upon 

 corn or other grain. 



Water fowls fed upon fish have also the flavor of fish. The flesh of the wild deer has a 

 peculiar piquant flavor, relished by epicures, and which comes from the wild, aromatic herbs 

 on which it subsists in a wild state; Dut when the wild deer is domesticated, and fed upon 

 cultivated grasses and other kinds of food, its flesh will lose this peculiar flavor in the second 

 generation. 



M. Monclar, a French agriculturist of note, after experimenting with different 

 combinations of food, states that any flavor desired can be given to the flesh of cattle, sheep, 

 pigs, and poultry. 



