FEEDING OF STOCK. 37 



to lie twenty-four hours, and then given to the cattle. I have 

 tried that experiment, in contrast with the experiment of feed- 

 ing long hay and long fodder, and mixing English hay and the 

 poor qualities, and without any accurate experiments, such as 

 weighing or measuring, (which I have not gone into, except in 

 one instance, where I weighed the food given to my horses,) it 

 seems to me that even that cheap and simple process saves about 

 one-quarter of the fodder ; and the cattle appear better, even, 

 than they would if the other kind of food was fed out. I have 

 been through that experiment so many times, that I have come 

 to the conclusion that that is the result of that process. I was 

 led to try it by the difficulty of getting hay. Fearing that I 

 should run short one winter, I went to one of my neighbors to 

 purchase some, and he asked such an exorbitant price that I 

 ordered a ton of oats and corn and had them ground together 

 and sent up to me. I then took all my fodder and mixed this 

 meal with it ; and instead of falling short of hay, I had a ton 

 or two left, after carrying my stock through completely, and 

 they never did better. I have no doubt that I saved by that 

 operation, after the commencement of the month of February, 

 two or three tons of good hay. We can all do that. We can 

 all purchase a hay-cutter, and can occupy the stormy days of the 

 winter in cutting iip the fodder, and carry through our stock for 

 twenty-five per cent, less than in the ordinary way. 



Professor Agassiz. May I ask the gentlemen whether, 

 instead of giving their cattle water, they do not sometimes give 

 them a warm infusion of hay as a beverage ? We do not 

 always drink clear water when we are thirsty, but occasionally 

 take a glass of wine — when we like it, or approve of it, or we 

 take tea ; and that tea helps the constitution, acts as a tonic on 

 the digestion ; and I suppose that kind of tea given to cows, 

 instead of clear water, would improve them too. 



Mr. Brown. Your question reminds me that I raise all my 

 calves on hay-tea. The calves are taken off after they liave 

 sucked two or three times, and as I make butter all the time, 

 summer and winter, the calves are fed with skimmed milk, 

 (what there is to spare,) mixed very largely with tea made of 

 English hay, just as some old women make tea in the teapot. 

 At first, perhaps, there is a pint of milk taken from the cow, 

 put in with the hay-tea, and the man teaches the calves to suck 



