OF AGRICULTURE 175 



his stock will consume, and wishes to use the excess 

 as litter to absorb liquid manure, lie may not find 

 any economy in cutting the food. And even in the 

 case of feeding hay, if the supply is abundant and 

 price low, as is frequently the case in grass-growing 

 regions, it may be more economical to feed it whole, 

 even with considerable waste, than to expend upon it 

 the necessary labor to cut it up. In sections of 

 country where such provender is scarce, or where 

 there is a sufficient demand for it, to keep up the 

 price good, " cutters" will be among the most econom- 

 ical implements on the farm. And they are no less 

 so in towns and cities when horses and cows arc fed . 

 at considerable cost. 



Grinding sustains very much the same relation to 

 grain that cutting docs to long forage ; but, as grain 

 is more readily transported than other products of 

 the farm, economy in its use becomes more highly 

 important. Grinding is thought by many experienced 

 farmers to add from twenty to thirty per cent, to 

 the nutritive value of grain when fed to hogs or 

 horses, and from forty to fifty per cent, when fed to 

 cows. The cow masticates grain much less com- 

 pletely than either the hog or the horse. In 

 autumn, before corn has become hard, there 

 is but little advantage in grinding it for hogs. 

 Mixing may be added to cutting and grinding with 

 marked advantage. When horses or cattle are fed on 

 any kind of long forage (hay, straw, fodder or 

 shucks), together with meal or bran, the former 

 should be finely cut, and the latter mixed with it 

 w^ater enough being added to make the meal or bran 

 adhere. There will then a double advantage arise j 



