CONCENTRATED FOODS 273 



during their consumption of whole roots), or pulped and mixed 

 with chaff the day before, and left to ferment slightly, to 

 raise the temperature in cold weather. Some feeders think 

 cattle like the mixture best when newly prepared, while 

 others object to the practice except with young store beasts, 

 saying that the quality of flesh in cattle coming into prime 

 condition is reduced in market value by giving pulped roots. 

 This, indeed, is a general impression among Lothian farmers 

 and butchers in Edinburgh. 



The concentrated foods should be chosen according to 

 what is cheapest in the market, those being avoided that contain 

 irritating impurities such as mustard seed, or that are at times 

 poisonous. They may consist of a selection from the following 

 or other suitable food stuffs : Cotton, linseed, or other oil 

 cakes, maize meal, " Indiana " or " Paisley " meal, wheat, oats, 

 barley, beans, peas, gram, lentils, and linseed, ground into a 

 fine state of division, to be more easily digested. Whole 

 grains that have escaped the action of the teeth 1 come 

 through cattle undigested. All the above substances, to 

 which may be added brewers' or distillery grains, may be 

 given dry, spread on the chaff in the feeding-troughs ; the 

 rough and the short food are then consumed together. When 

 the fodder is inferior, as in the case of barley straw in Norfolk, 

 the chaffed straw and the meal may be mixed in a heap on 

 the floor, and boiling water sufficient to wet it, though not to 

 drain away, thrown over it. By covering up the heap and 

 leaving it till next day the whole mass becomes well cooked, 

 palatable, and more digestible. 2 A little locust-bean meal 

 may be added to the mixture to sweeten it : too much causes 

 the animals to neglect the unsweetened food. Treacle is a 

 good fattener, and may be employed, when cheap, as a 

 relish. It is useful in moderate quantities, say i to 2 Ibs. 

 daily to each animal, for maintaining the digestive organs 

 in a healthy state ; and it is quite as effectual, when necessary, 

 in restoring them to a natural condition, if 6 to 8 Ibs. be 



1 In the Western States of America, pigs, two to each bullock, are 

 often kept solely on Indian corn which they pick out of the droppings of 

 cattle. In other cases, when the corn is bruised, they eat the dung. 



2 For full details of the marked success of this system of feeding, see 

 a lecture by the Author, printed in the Journal of the Newcastle Farmers' 

 Clubim 1886. 



