MIXING AND STEAMING FOOD. 45 



English hay, meadow hay, cornstalks, shorts or meal, whatever 

 it was, and soaking them. Now common sense teaches us that 

 an animal, in order to thrive, must have the same amount of 

 nourishment to produce a given result. Then the question 

 arose in my mind, " If he feeds so little, how is it that the cattle 

 are in such good condition and he obtains such results in milk ? " 

 I accounted for it in this way. In the first place, by soaking 

 the food, you get a larger bulk. Every gentleman familiar with 

 breeding animals, and who has examined closely their excre- 

 ments, knows that a vast amount passes through cattle and 

 liorses which is not digested, and is therefore lost. Then there 

 is a loss, where the food is fed dry, in the coarse matter which 

 cattle reject. I think soaking the food is preferable to steaming 

 it. If you steam too much it has no resemblance to succulent 

 green grass, the natural food of cattle ; but when it is soaked 

 thoroughly — made to absorb as much water as it will — it is put 

 into its natural state, so that it resembles th3 natural food of 

 cattle in their wild state. Our cattle are fed, six months of the 

 year, in an artificial way. In their wild state they would 

 migrate, as cold weather approached, to a climate where they 

 could get their natural food — green grass or browse. I think 

 the reason that twenty-five or thirty per cent, of hay and grain 

 is saved by feeding them to cattle after they have been soaked, 

 still producing the same result, is because it is brought into the 

 condition of their natural food ; it all assumes a common 

 character and is eaten up clean. 



Then there is another advantage. Men and animals fed on 

 one thing will not thrive. If you watch animals closely, you 

 will find that they take a great variety ; and by mixing this food 

 up, you give them a great variety. At the State Almshouse, in 

 our town, they steam the food for their cattle, and produce the 

 same result mentioned by Mr. Birnie. They not only feed their 

 cattle cheaper, but they get a larger quantity of milk from the 

 same number of cows than is obtained on any. farm in town. 

 And not only so, but they make better butter from their cows 

 in that way. 



I was glad to hear reference made by Mr. Birnie to the speech 

 made at one of our agricultural exhibitions last fall in relation 

 to the Agricultural College, which has not been noticed by the 

 press. It was a very remarkable speech, but it was a very 



