1868. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



49 



was inferior when the food was cooked. We 

 all know that it is a common practice for New 

 England farmers to feed their hogs on corn at 

 least a few weeks before killing "to harden up 

 the pork." Mr. Lawes said : — 



If pigs were always fed on boiled Swedes and 

 meal, although they might increase very fast and 

 be very profitable "to the seller, still it would be 

 found out l>y degrees that the quality of the pork 

 was bad. The butcher would ultimately refuse to 

 buy, and would say that such pork, to use a com- 

 mon expression, "boiled away." All animals as 

 they fattened had a certain amount of water dis- 

 placed ; that was to say. they contained less and 

 less water : but il' they were fed with boiled Swedes 

 and meal, the water would increase as well as the 

 fat. 



Some time ago he had fed one animal on steeped 

 barley and another on dry barley, with a view of 

 testing the merits of the two systems of feeding. 

 The animal which was fed on the steeped barley, 

 increased very fast, while the increase on the other 

 was comparatively slow. They were both killed; 

 the loins and other paits were cooked in the estab- 

 lishment, and it turned out that there was much 

 more waste in the former case than in the latter. 

 But a new phase of the question had been sug- 

 gested, whether natural cooking or fermenting 

 might not be substituted for ariificial heat. It 

 should however be borne in mind, that all fermen- 

 tation meant the loss of a certain quantity of car- 

 bon consequent on decomposition. In all food the 

 most valuable constituent was the carbon. 



If they mixed sugar or saccharine matter with 

 woody fibre, they got a certain amount of heat to- 

 gether which might soften and render the latter 

 more digestible ; Init that was always done at the 

 expense of the sugar, which is one of the most 

 valuable articles they had. An animal always 

 eats till he has enough carbon in his stomach ; he 

 then stops. He might take double the quantity of 

 albumen, but he would not stop until *he had got 

 sutttcient soluble carbon, and the soluble carbon 

 was the first thing to disappear in the process of 

 fermentation. He did not think, therefore, that 

 economy of food was to be arrived at by a process 

 of that kind. 



Mr. Dent had talked with several gentlemen 

 who had cooked food, and most of them were in- 

 clined to give it up ; but he had never yet found 

 them disposed to abandon the system of pulping. 



The third question, related to the effect of 

 cooked feed upon the health of- the animal it- 

 self. Upon this point Professor Simonds, one 

 of the most distinguished veterinarians of Eng- 

 land, spoke at some length. 



The professor said there was scarcely any limit 

 to the quantity of water that might enter the ani- 

 mal organism, if we gave food which contamed a 

 large quantity of water. Speaking as a patholo- 

 gist, he Itelieved that a great number of diseases 

 among the lower animals arose from the bad state 

 of the l)lood induced by excess of water, and defi- 

 ciency of nitrogenized matter in the food. The 

 practical farmer knew that if, in the lambing sea- 

 son, he gave his ewes too many white turnips, or 

 other green food, which had grown rapidly, and 

 contained a large amount of water, it would lead 

 to disease and loss, whereas, if he put them on dry 

 food, containing, weight for weight, a large pro- 

 portion of nitrogenized matter, a good quality of 

 blood was produced, and the health of the animal 

 preserved. Admitting that cooked food had the 

 efFv'ct of accumulating weight, to say nothing about 



flesh, in a certain space of time, he was inclined 

 to think that this arose from the facility which it 

 gave for the digestion of the food by anticipating 

 a part of the process commonly carried on liy the 

 action of the gastric iiiice. 



But it was questionaiile policy giving to an ani- 

 mal, and espcrially a ruminant animal, cooked 

 food, for thus they might to a considerable extent 

 supersede mastication ; if so, they would super- 

 sede insalivation, and thus interfere with one of 

 the chief processes of nature. The action of the 

 saliva was first to convert the amylaceous parts of 

 the food (or starch) into sugar or gummy matter. 

 A further provision was made in the ruminant an- 

 imal for stirring up, if he might so express it, the 

 food ; and a chemical change took place in its 

 character before it passed into the true digestive 

 stomach. There was a re-mastication and a rein- 

 salivation ; and, inasmuch as the secretions com- 

 ing from the rumen were very analogous to those 

 with which the thod were mixeil in the mouth, it 

 not only rem;iined mixed with saliva a much longer 

 time, but was mixed with a much greater quan- 

 tity of that or a like substance. 



If then, Iiy the use of cooked food they dis- 

 pensed with part of the operations of nature, and 

 sent the food quicker into the intestinal canal, 

 they would also dispense with the process of re- 

 mastication and re-insalivation ; and he could 

 easily understand why, although a large increase 

 might take place in bulk, the quality of the ani- 

 mal might become bad. The digestive pi-ocess de- 

 pends materially upon the condition of the food ; 

 it is even possible, by giving cooked food, or food 

 which was physically in the same condition with 

 regard to fineness and moisture, to render animals 

 non-ruminative which were naturally ruminative; 

 that is to say, we may give them food th;vt would 

 be retained for a very short space of time in the 

 rumen, pass quickly into the digestive stomach, 

 and become subject to the action of digestion 

 without first undergoing remastication. We should 

 thus interfere at once with the law of nature ; if 

 we cook food at all, we ought not, before cooking, 

 to yeduce it too fine. If the straw be cut into 

 lengths of four to six inches, a cooking process 

 may be set up so as to convert the amylaceous 

 part into sugar, without interfering with the func- 

 tions of the rumen; but such food should be re- 

 masticated. 



He would advise that if food is pulped and 

 mixed it should not lie too long, to undergo the 

 process of fermentation, but be given prettj' soon 

 after it is mixed. Straw might, doubtless., be 

 converted into palatable food, and animals induced 

 to eat a larger quantity of inferior provender cut 

 into chafi', by simply throwing over it a small 

 quantity of oil cake dissolved in water. This was 

 a common practice among farmers in Lincolnshire 

 in feeding their horses, especially during the win- 

 ter. 



Upon the whole, he was certainly not in favor of 

 the so-called system of cooking food, cither for 

 the preservation of the health of the animal, or 

 for the promotion of the process of digestion, and 

 was inclined to think that, by the physical altera- 

 tions they might make in character and condi- 

 tion by cutting straw, pulping roots, and mix- 

 ing a solution of oil cake with them, they would 

 gain the point at a lower expenditure, and with 

 much more advantage to the animal economy. 



— For the last eight years I have practiced haul- 

 ing hickoiy wood on my farm every year, and 

 placing it where it would attract the borer moth, 

 and then burning it with the worm in it, before the 

 end of two years. I think I have thus kept the 

 worm in subjection. 



