636 FEEDING OF CATTLE. 



tening food, but its character is such that it needs to be administered 

 with something to deprive it of the tendency to a feverish condition 

 of the blood. Oil cake is very available for this purpose. Fodder 

 and grain should be fed at the same time, as they are more certain 

 to be thoroughly masticated and digested. Fodder should be cut, 

 with this object, and corn may be cut stalks and ears together. It 

 is thus economized in feeding, does not put so severe labor on the 

 digestive organs, gives greater time for rest and tends better to lay 

 on fat. Corn cut early in the season, while the stalks are somewhat 

 green, is better than that cut late. 



Why Fodder Should be Cut The object of masticating 

 food is to comminute it, so as to present the greatest surface for a 

 given quantity to the action of the gastric juice and the fluids by 

 which it is assimilated in the stomach The stomach of the cattle 

 used to the succulent food of pasture is accustomed to receive its 

 sustenance in a pulpy mass. The dry, woody fibre of winter fodder 

 must therefore be slower of digestion, for it has to be reduced to 

 the same condition. The cutting of food, the more finely the better, 

 therefore acts as a part of the work of digestion, facilitating the pro- 

 cess to the manifest advantage of the animal, and this aid will be 

 still more and greatly increased if the food is steamed or cooked. 



Mixing Different Qualities of Feed Cutting gives 

 another advantage in enabling poorer qualities of feed to be mixed 

 with the finer, and thus a palatable and nutritious food is formed, 

 consuming qualities of fodder which otherwise would be rejected 

 and go to waste. Experiments have shown that a bushel of cut 

 straw mixed with two quarts of middlings, is equal to the same 

 quantity of cut hay and worth twenty-five per cent more than uncut 

 nay. In this way the breeder can save his hay for a more profit- 

 able market and use up his straw and corn-stalks, attaining with 

 equal efficiency the object of fattening the animal, and also trans- 

 forming what would be otherwise refuse into the most valuable 

 compost for his soil, which is an important point of agricultural 

 economy and should be credited against the cost of fattening the 

 stock. 



Profit of Cutting 1 and Cooking Feed As we have 

 shown, by cutting, all the coarse fodder on the farm can be con- 

 sumed in fattening animals and thus turned into money. Where 

 steaming is practiced this profit may be largely increased. Besides, 

 it enables the feeder to prepare special food for special results. The 

 intelligent feeder may increase the frame and muscle particularly, or 

 he may increase the fat exclusively, or all together. Stewart says: 

 "If he wishes to increase the frame and muscle specially he will give 

 food rich in phosphate of lime and gluten, without having much oil 

 or a large proportion of starch ; and for this purpose pea or bean 

 meal, mixed with his coarse fodder, will produce tne desired result. 

 If he wishes to lay on fat principally he will use corn meal or oil 

 meal. If to produce growth of the animal, frame and muscle, as 



