314 AMERICAN AGRICULTURE. 



where there is much grain to thresh, or straw, hay or corn- 

 stalks to cut. With the aid of this, some of the portable 

 mills may crush and grind much of the grain required for 

 feeding. Even the water may be pumped by it into large 

 troughs for the use of cattle, the fuel sawed, and various 

 other operations performed, which may add much to the con- 

 venience of the farmer and save more expensive labor. 



A STEAMING APPARATUS. 



Where there are many swine to fatten, or grain is to be 

 fed to cattle or horses, this is at all times an economical ap- 

 pendage to the farm. It has been shown from several ex- 

 periments, that cattle and sheep will generally thrive as well 

 on raw as on cooked roots ; but horses do better on the lat- 

 ter, and swine will not fatten on any other. For all animals 

 excepting store sheep, and perhaps even they may be ex- 

 cepted, grain or meal is better when cooked. Food must be 

 broken up before the various animal organs can appropriate 

 it to nutrition ; and whatever is done towards effecting this 

 object before it is fed to the stock, diminishes the necessity 

 for the expenditure of vital force in accomplishing it, and 

 thereby enables the animal to thrive more rapidly and do 

 more labor, on a given amount. For this reason, I appre- 

 hend, there may have been' some errors undetected in the 

 experiments in feeding sheep and cattle with raw and cooked 

 roots, which result in placing them apparently on a par as to 

 their value for this purpose. 



The crushing or grinding of the grain insures more perfect 

 mastication, and is performed by machinery at much less 

 expense, than by the animals consuming it. The steaming 

 or boiling is the final step towards its easy and profitable 

 assimilation in the animal economy. With a capacious 

 steaming-box for the reception of the food, the roots and 

 meal, and even cut-hay, straw and stalks may be thrown in 

 together, and all will thus be most effectually prepared for 

 nourishment. There is another advantage derivable from 

 this practice. The food may at all times be given at the 

 temperature of the animal system, (about 98 of Farenheit), 

 and the animal heat expended in warming the cold and 

 sometimes frozen food, would be avoided. 



The steaming apparatus is variously constructed. I have 

 used one consisting of a circular boiler five and a half feet 

 long by twenty inches diameter, made of boiler iron and laid 

 lengthwise on a brick arch. The fire IB placed underneath 



