NEAT CATTJ/E. lOrj 



consists very much, if not principally in the quantity of succu- 

 lent food with which they are fed during the winter season, 

 such as turnips, potatoes, beet^, carrots, &c. 



This opinion must derive great influence from the consider- 

 ation, that nearly one half of the year during the cold season, 

 the food with which our cattle are kept, is such as has lost a 

 very large proportion of its most nutritive constituents, by dry- 

 ing* it for preservation. 



On this subject the following remarks from the Massachu- 

 setts Agricultural Repository, are pertinent and interesting : 



"It is observed by Sir John Sinclair, to whom agricultural 

 science is much indebted, that although the mode in which 

 manures operate on soils, is not so obvious to the senses as to 

 be fully understood, there are three ways in which water pro- 

 motes their improvement. Tt preserves a favorable degree of 

 temperature ; feeds by conveying nourishing substances ; and 

 so as a pure element, it is beneficial. To prove that water 

 enters largely into the composition of vegetables, and is thus 

 advantageous, the same writer observes: "That plants, cut 

 green, and afterwards dried, lose by evaporation C6 to 70 parts 

 of 100. The loss of weight by drying, will be found in this 

 country to vary essentially from what takes place in Scotland, 

 especially as it respects difierent plants. But our hay is of 

 necessity made lighter by the heat of our summer, as well as 

 for the purpose of its being stowed in large bodies and tight 

 barns. 



It should be premised, that the time of cutting the several 

 grasses as m the following statement, was the same as is usu- 

 ally practised by husbandmen in New-England. 



bf lOOlba. of vegetables cured in 1822, the product was as 

 follows, viz. 



lUOlbs, of grfen white clover, gave of hay, - 17 1 Slba. 

 lOOlbs. of red do. gave - - - £7 1.21bsv 



100]!)s. of herds grass gave - - - 40 



lOOibs. of frfsh meaciovy gave — _ _ 3H 



lOOU)?. of sal'- grass gave - - - 39 



lOOlbs. of mixed 2d crop or Eng. Rowan - - 18 3-4 

 lOOlbs. of corn-stalks gave - - - £5 



lOOlb?. of do. cut in milk with the ear - - -26 

 It should be observed that the weight will vary from ripeness, 

 and many other causes, such as wetness of season, shade, 

 thickness of growth, &c. 



It appears from the above experiment, that eight hundred 

 pounds of those vegetables on which we usually keep our cattle 

 in the winter, there is a loss of five hundred and sixty-nine 



