66 



DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 



[Cbap. I. 



in dairy and stock farming, to appropriate a full amount of land to root- 

 growing. Carrots, Lects, turnips, parsneps, may all be raised with profit 

 wherever stock is to be fed. For horses, carrots are invaluable. For milch 

 cows, they not only furnish a milk of superior flavor, butter of fine color and 

 odor, but, when used as a portion of their food, they guarantee a healthful 

 condition. Tlie power of the jiectic acid of the carrot to gelatinize all veg- 

 etable matter held in solution in the stomach, puts its contents in such a 

 condition that the peristaltic motion of the intestines can manage it. Flat- 

 ulence is prevented, and thorough digestion secured. The dung of the 

 horse fed partly on carrots, never contains the undecomposed shell of the 

 oat, nor large amounts of starcli unappropriated ; and it is for this reason 

 tiiat a bushel of oats and a bushel of carrots will do more for the horse than 

 two bushels of oats ; and not because the carrot contains as much flesh- 

 making material as the oat, but because it causes all the flesh-making ma- 

 terial of the oat to be appropriated, instead of being voided with the excretia. 

 For cows and oxen, other roots may occasionally be substituted with profit, 

 as variety to all animals is pleasing in their food ; and no one root should 

 1)0 so continuous!}- used. Since the introduction of pulping machines, pulped 

 roots mixed with cut hay, cut straw, and other cheap material, add much to 

 the economy of the farm as well as to the health of the cattle. 



89. Feeding Linseed and Cotton-seed Oil-Cake. — Never having had per- 

 sonal experience enough in feeding oil-cake, having always preferred corn- 

 meal, to give an opinion which we would ask others to rely upon, we select 

 the following from a lecture by Prof. Voelcker, before the meeting cf the 

 council of the Eoyal Agricultural Society of England, in June, 1860. It is 

 worthy of attention from all cattle-feeders. He says : 



" It is not my object, in giving a practical turn to the lecture to-day, to 

 record any experiments of my own, or in any way to presume to teach the 

 feeder of stock in what way he may best expend his money in the purchase 

 of food, but I shall endeavor simply to give to the practical man some indi- 

 cations whereby I liope he will be enabled to form for himself a trustworthy 

 opinion respecting the relative value of difl'erent cakes, and likewise what is 

 perhaps of more importance to him, to introduce some remarks which will 

 enable liim to distinguish a good from a bad cake; and in conclusion, shall 

 allude brieily to the various substances with which oil-cakes are at the pres- 

 ent time often largely adulterated. 



90. Fat in Food. — " Let me first point out to you some peculiarities in 

 the composition of oil-cakes. A reference to their composition is necessary 

 to the understanding the remarks which will follow. I would then observe, 

 that what cliaracterizes oil-cakes, distinguishing them from all other articles 

 of food pre-eminently, is the large amount of oil that is left in tlie cakes, 

 obtained by expression of the oil-seeds. If you glance at the diagram (see 

 table on page 71), you will find that they contain a considerable quantity of 

 oil — from 6 to 12 per cent. ; and in some instances, as in the decorticated 

 cotton-cake, even 16 per cent, of oil. I may observe at once that the value 



