FOOD AND FEEDINrr. 395 



the milk was not improved. Experience here would compel us to 

 set down the 3} lbs. of cake consumed as nil ; yet it is positively 

 ascertained that the article is one of the most substantial known. 



The hard and husky grain which is given to cattle frequently 

 escapes digestion, because it has escaped the teeth — a circumstance 

 which leads to the formation of an estimate of its nutritious quali- 

 ties inferior to those it actually possesses. To prevent this loss, 

 oats are now often bruised, as are beans and peas also ; or they are 

 mi.xed with chopped hay or straw, which the animals are compelled 

 to chew thoroughly before they can swallow it ; or the corn is 

 steamed or steeped in boiling water before it is put into the manger. 

 Some experiments that were instituted by order of the French vete- 

 rinary commission, however, seemed to show, that the loss of corn 

 from passing through the stomach and bowels unchanged was really 

 xo trifling, that it might be safely left out of the account. 



Tubers and roots are invaluable fodder for horned cattle, and in 

 the course of the winter, come instead of hay to a considerable 

 extent. Our experience at Bechelbronn also enables us to say, that 

 horses are readily brought to a regimen of the same description, 

 which, judiciously instituted, becomes the means of great economy 

 in the maintenance of these animals. 



Roots, turnips, and mangel-wurzel, are frequently thrown down 

 whole before the animals. It is vastly better ; nay, it is so much 

 better that it ought to be made an invariable rule never to give them 

 save cut into slices and mixed with cut straw or chaff. There is 

 always a great advantage in combining any very soft and watery 

 article of food with one that is dry and hard, to say nothing of the 

 chaff absorbing and rendering useful the juices that would escape 

 and be lost. 



Mangel-wurzel, turnips, carrots, and Jerusalem potatoes, are 

 always given raw. The potato is frequently steamed or boiled first ; 

 yet 1 can say positively that horned cattle do extremely well upon 

 raw potatoes ; and at Bechelbronn, our cows never have them other- 

 wise than raw : they are never boiled, save for horses and hogs. 

 The best mode of dealing with them is to steam them ; they need 

 never be thoroughly boiled as when they are to serve for the food 

 of man. The steamed or boiled potatoes are crushed between two 

 rollers, or simply broken with a wooden spade or dolly, and mixed 

 with cut hay or straw or chaff before being served out. It may not 

 he unnecessary to observe, that by steaming, potatoes lose no weight ; 

 whence we conclude that the nutritive equivalent for the boiled is 

 the same as that for the raw tuber. Nevertheless, it is possible that 

 the amylaceous principle is rendered more readily assimilable by 

 boiling, and that by this means the tubers actually become more 

 nutritious. Some have proposed to roast potatoes in the oven ; and 

 there can be little question but that, treated in this way, they answer 

 admirably for fastening hogs or even oxen. Done in the oven, pota- 

 toes may be brought into a state in which they may perfectly supply 

 the place of corn in the foddering of horses and other cattle. 

 There is but the expense of the firing to be taken into the account. 



