400 THE FARMER AT HOME. 



this way there is a saving in the quantity of the fodder. Also when 

 it is cut cattle will fill themselves much quicker than if it were given 

 to them without being cut. When they have filled themselves they 

 lie down and rest, and digest what they have eaten. The action of the 

 muscles in masticating their food is similar, in its effects on the sys- 

 tem, to that of walking, and to that of oxen and horses in any kind of 

 labor. If any animals are to be fattened, they must be kept compar- 

 atively quiet. If they are all the time exercising it will require 

 double the food to sustain them, and it will be next to impossible to 

 fatten. Will a man grow fat when constantly devoted to arduous 

 muscular toil 'I All know to the contrary. If a man has a tendency 

 to corpulence, he reduces his food in quality or quantity and increases 

 his manual exercise. The idea of keeping animals at work all the 

 time when desirous of increasing their flesh, is contrary to the experi- 

 ence of every farmer, and is absurd. And an incessant action of the 

 masticating organs is much the same, in this respect, as an incessant 

 action of the locomotive organs, in drawing the plough, the harrow, or 

 the wagon. 



Nor is this all. When food is made fine, more nutriment will be 

 derived from it, than if conveyed to the stomach in a coarse state. 

 Is it not universally known, that if the human species swallow their 

 food before it is reduced to a fine pulpy state, it lies heavy in the 

 stomach, fails to refresh and invigorate the system, and often leads to 

 disease ? All know this from their own experience. Why should it 

 not be so with farm animals ? It is so with them, perhaps in a less 

 degree, because they are more able to sustain the evil. It is on this 

 account that cooked or steamed food is more nutritious than that which 

 is not cooked. In the one case all the juices are developed and assim- 

 ilated to the animal tissues ; in the other case, a portion of them is 

 forced off through the alimentary canal, doing as little good as though 

 it had at first been mixed with the compost heap instead of having 

 been carried into the stomach ; as little good as though it had been 

 a corresponding amount of pulverized stones. A little reflection will 

 satisfy any sensible person that this is so. 



Cutting, bruising, grinding, fermenting, and cooking food, all tend 

 much to fit it for easy and rapid digestion, and wherever it can be 

 thus prepared, without too much expenditure of labor, it should be 

 done. By adopting a mixed food, much of the coarser products can 

 be worked up, which are now suffered to be added to the manure 

 heap. Indeed, scarcely any of the vegetable productions of the farm 

 need be suffered to run to waste, till they have first contributed all 

 the nutriment they contain to the support of animal life. By chopping 

 these fine, and properly cooking and seasoning them, they will be 

 eaten with peculiar relish, easily digested, and go twice as far as in 

 the ordinary method of feeding. Such a method of preparing food 

 for farm animals is compared to mincing up the cold remains of a 



