STEAMING OF CATTLE FEED. 33 



A Member. About how much hay do you consider enough 

 per day for a common milch cow ? 



Mr. BiRNiE. I do not mean to give them more than two or 

 three pounds of hay, in addition to the steamed food. 



A Member. About how much do you allow each cow, of the 

 steamed foQd ? 



Mr. Birnie. I give them about two bushels each, varying 

 according to size and condition. 



A Member. You do not exceed twenty pounds ? 



Mr. Birnie. Not near so much. I don't think they get 

 fifteen pounds. I find horses grow very finely and colts thrive 

 upon it. They will leave nice English hay to get it. 



Dr. Loring. Some very curious experiments have been 

 made by Mr. Mechi, with regard to steaming food, agreeing 

 very much with Mr. Birnie's statement. He says that his 

 horses were never in better condition than when he fed them 

 on steamed food. The only reason he ever abandoned it was, 

 that his foreman was unwilling to go into the labor of steaming. 

 His testimony is very strongly in favor of steaming. I have 

 tried steaming myself a good deal, and agreewith Mr. Birnie, 

 except in one particular, on which he does not seem to have 

 dwelt, and that is, the expediency of steaming good hay. I 

 have not found that it improved the quality or nutritive prop- 

 erties of English hay, — the best hay, — to subject it to the 

 process of steaming ; I have thought it injured it. But corn 

 fodder, coarse straw, coarse meadow hay, everything of that 

 description, is undoubtedly brought into a better condition, as 

 nutritive substances, by cooking, than without. I have no 

 doubt of it at all. 



With regard to the cooking of roots, the Board will find 

 some very curious experiments recorded in an essay printed in 

 the Secretary's Report of 1861. They were selected by myself 

 from some experiments carefully made in Scotland, to test the 

 comparative value of steamed and raw roots as food for cattle. 

 The testimony there is very strongly against cooking roots for 

 feeding cattle. 



Mr. Birnie. You will find a very good article on this subject 

 of steaming food in the last United States Agricultural Report, 

 by Mr. Stewart, of New York. He goes into the matter very 

 fully, and states that there is a saving of more than thirty per 



5 



