32 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



I steam twice a week. I put into my steam-box about four_ 

 teen hundred pounds of good hay, corn stalks or rye straw, and 

 one hundred pounds of wheat bran. That feeds all my stock 

 twice a day for three days and a half. I have forty-two cows 

 and animals that are over one year old ; six horses and ten head 

 of cattle younger than that. They are all fed out of the steam- 

 box, the horses getting a little in addition — bran when they are 

 not at work, meal when they are at work. I find that quite 

 young colts eat it eagerly. In the middle of the day they have 

 about one hundred and fifty pounds of hay. So that about five 

 hundred pounds of good hay and fourteen hundred pounds of 

 steamed fodder last that whole stock three days and a half. 



In putting the fodder into the box, I intend to put in just as 

 much water as I can make it carry, the object being to make it 

 absorb as much water as possible, and reduce the mass to as soft, 

 pulpy state as possible. Of course my apparatus does not admit 

 of much pressure, and I boil as long as possible. 



Professor Agassiz. Do you not lose a good deal of the water 

 which has been mixed with the food ? 



Mr. BiRNiE. Not much. Sometimes there is a little leaks 

 out, and I have arranged to save that. I do not allow that to 

 go to waste. Whatever is not eaten is collected and thrown in 

 again. Sometimes, for a cow that is fresh in milk, I throtr in 

 a little oatmeal ; but I usually intend to feed my milch cows 

 half a bushel of mangold wurzels each a day. 



A Member. How large is your steam-box ? 



Mr. BiRNiE. Six feet square and about seven feet deep. I 

 have cultivated cabbage for a number of years for the purpose 

 of feeding it to my milch cows, and I feed it largely. I know 

 the theory has been that cabbage would taste in the milk, but I 

 have heard no complaint from my customers of that kind. I 

 give my cows as much as they will eat. I have found no green 

 feed that will put flesh on cows like cabbage ; consequently, I 

 cultivate several acres for the purpose of feeding to my cows. 

 After the cabbage is gone I feed mangolds. 



A Member. Do you steam those roots ? 



Mr. Birnie. No, sir. I have, but it requires a great deal of 

 labor, and I was not satisfied that there was sufficient advantage 

 to compensate for it. 



