w^-- 



3 



THE GENESEE FARMEE, 



'dV 



to use a horse-power for cutting both dry and gi-een feed, such as roots and straw. Wo 

 have cut the' feed of fifty cows in that manner, and thought we reaUzed a profit in the 

 operation; but we usually poured boiling hot water, drawn from a heater, over 100 bu. 

 of cut cornstalks, hay, or straw, in a water-tight box, and let it remain till cold and eaten. 

 This mass of hot water greatly promoteis the extraction of all the nutriment there may 

 be in stalks, leaves, and shucks or husks, by the organs of digestion. Meal, bran, or 

 shorts, are mixed with the cut feed before the water is ap})lied ; but in feeding cut carrots, 

 (of which we have fed a good many,) they were given raw and separate. One hundred 

 pounds of carrots ought to yield at least fifty of milk, in good cows. The production of 

 milk, however, is an operation of which we shall speak at another time. How to make 

 flesh and fat to the best advantage, are points of some interest to those who keep animals 

 and prepare them for the butcher. Our own observation leads to the conclusion that it 

 is better economy to boil corn, peas, and barley, for fatting hogs and cattle, M'ithout 

 grinding, if one has to pay from 8 to 16 per cent, of the grain to the miller. Cooking 

 food, like "homony," renders all its nutriment available, and grinding can do no more, 

 and one loses the toll, whatever that may be. Nature maintains animal heat for chemi- 

 cal purposes, or, to aid in transforming vegetable into animal tissues. Cooking food 

 is a step in the same direction, for it effects important chemical changes in the sub- 

 stances cooked. How far hot water may be economically used in preparing forage, seeds, 

 roots, tubers, apples, and pumpkins, for the consumption of fatting cattle, must bo 

 decided by future experiments. Whatever feed domestic animals receive, it should be 

 given them at stated periods of the day ; and all that is left, should be promptly removed, 

 that the animal be not allowed to breathe upon it and taint it with the foid exhalations 

 from the body. One. of the most common errors in wintering stock, is the notion that 

 they should not gain as much in weight when kept up, or fed in a yard, as when running 

 in a good pasture in summer and autumn. Every day that a pig, heifer, steer, lamb, or 

 colt, lives without growing, involves the owner in expense and probable loss. The art 

 of stunting young animals is more practiced than studied ; and the principles of making 

 Shetland ponies, and such wee-bits of oxen, cows, and hogs, as one meets with in some 

 States, ought to be known to all. Nature kindly contracts the body to meet the limited 

 supply of food, by bringing the system prematurely to ripeness, till some of the adult 

 horses weigh considerably less than the largest sheep. To add weight in muscle and 

 fat, over and above the daily loss by necessary absorption, the keeper of young animals 

 must give them more than barely enough to maintain life; and yet this is the rule of 

 many a farmer in wintering his stock — hogs, cattle, and sheep. What an animal 

 requires according to the weight of its body, to make good the wear and tear of ever- 

 consuming life, in the hourly removal of the elements of bone, tendon, nerve, cellular 

 and vascular tissue, faj;, &c., is not known. When an adult animal neither gains nor 

 loses weight, if we subtract from its food all that is voided by the bowels and kidneys, 

 and in respiration, the excess is mostly appropriated to repair the waste in solids, which 

 is constantly in progress. But the eftete matter (dissolved solids) pass out of the 

 system mingled with the residuum of food daily eaten, and we have no means of 

 separating the carbon from the brain or muscles, in the carbonic acid that escapes from 

 the lungs, from the carbon in the blood derived directly from food. 



Although we cannot say that such a per cent, of aliment goes to repair the bones, such 

 a per cent, to Aake muscles, or nerves, or fat ; yet it is easy to determine by experi- 

 ments, what kind of food, in what condition, and how much, one should feed to obtain 

 the highest profit. As a general proposition, it may be truly said that about one-third 

 more animals are kept than the food to keep them on will warrant. Life is supported, 

 but 7neat is greatly decreased in quantity and value. The corn that will keep a hoo- six 

 months without gaining a single pound in flesh, will make 75 lbs. of good pork or bacoa 

 if skillfully fed. The same rule applies to all domestic animals. Instead of using the 



^-- 



'"^A 



