584 HANDT-BOOK OF HUSBANDRY. 



As to the profit of steaming, I am not prepared by definite 

 figures to assert that the usual estimate is correct, that one-third 

 of the food is saved, though, after two seasons' careful observa- 

 tion, I fully believe it. This I am sure of: that corn-stalks that 

 have moulded in the stack, musty oats which have been cut 

 green and badly cured, and smoky hay, — nearly the whole of 

 which would be rejected if fed uncooked, — are eaten with avidity 

 and with evident benefit to the stock. 



On the score of health and condition, this system is all that 

 could be desired. In only two or three instances have cases of 

 " scouring " occurred, and these were immediately remedied by 

 the substitution of long hay for a few days. I question whether 

 there is any advantage in cooking roots. There is a freshness 

 about these in their raw state that is perhaps beneficial, — and is 

 surely very acceptable to stock. 



It would be an easy (and a pleasant) task to write a book as 

 large as this one on the single subject of this chapter. To enter 

 with any thing like fullness into details in this limited space, 

 would be impossible, and I have preferred to devote the i^v^ pages 

 that could be spared for the purpose rather to general principles 

 than to minute instructions. What I have chiefly tried to accom- 

 plish has been to so state a few of the leading points, that my read- 

 ers should be induced to seek fuller information in works devoted 

 especially to physiological questions, and to the economy of the 

 stable. 



