THE GENESEE FARMER. 



43 



is dcriveil, aud it will make the same kiiul of pork 

 that whole corn does. If hard dry corn makes 

 harder pork than boiled corn, or than cooked meal 

 (as it may), the reason is the defective digestion of 

 dry corn, so that its oil is not converted into an emul- 

 sion, or soap, and goes not through the walls of the 

 digestive organs, like oil converted into soap and the 

 soap dissolved in water, to form a part of the blood, 

 but passes on out of the system. A pound of starch 

 is much easier of digestion than a pound of oil, es- 

 pecially if the starch be cooked, as in boiled potatoes. 

 To cook oil in potatoes avails nothing ; for oil can 

 neither be boiled nor baked into solubiHty in water. 

 If our Agricultural Societies were a little more en- 

 ightened, they would investigate the economical value 

 3f all slops, distilled and nndistilled, and of all the 

 irgauized elements in seeds, roots, tubers, apples, and 

 )ther fruits — of grasses, clovers, peas, and other 

 egumes — so that the best proportions of starch, su- 

 ;ar, oil, and protien compounds for feeding, would be 

 mown to every farmer. We have waited patiently 

 hirty years to see the time come when the sciences 

 >f digestion, nutrition, fermentation, and manure- 

 aaking, would receive that public attention which 

 heir iniportance demands. - ' 



Probably one or two hundred million bnsliels of 



orn have been fed to fatting animals in the United 



tates in the last six months; and we have no doubt 



liat full twenty-five per cent, of the nutritive sub- 



tances in this grain have passed out of the bowels 



ith the dung when these substances ought to have 



een digested, and passed directly into the blood ves- 



!ls to form flesh aud fat in the vital economy. In 



le last four years we have sent out about forty 



lousand circular letters from the Patent Office, which 



ave gone into every county and parish in the nation ; 



id in every letter there was an inquiry designed to 



certain, if possible, from practical farmers, what is 



le relation that subsists between the daily food of 



re stock and their growth, or gain in meat, and live 



eight All the facts elicited were not so valuable 



! might be obtained by the judicious expenditure of 



100. Suppose a distiller grinds, ferments and distills 



)00 pounds of corn, and then dries all the slop which 



le corn produces, what will the latter weigh ? Can 



ly man in the United States answer this simple r{ues- 



an correctly? We doubt it; because the line of 



search has been after more alcohol — the " fire wa- 



r " — not after the elements required to produce good 



ilk, butter, cheese, fat and lean meat. Although a 



iend to temperance, we have no prejudices against 



cohol. In kitchen slops, and in beer formed from 



ain, alcohol doubtless aids in the fattening of pigs fed 



1 such food, it being burnt like starch and sugar from 



hich it is formed, to keep their bodies warm. Alco- 



)l can not form fat or muscle, but it can be burnt 



the system. Before vegetable substances form 



negar, they always go through with what is termed 



e vinous fermentation — that is, they form alcohol — 



id it is an inquiry of some moment whether a mash 



better for cattle and swine with no fermentation, 



esl itii the vinous, or with the acetous changes ha^'ing 



Dt iken place in the bruised grain, leaving the .spirit in 



e one case, or the vmegar in the other, in the slop ? 



mi jme will say that alcohol is an injury — others that 



is a benefit ; and similar opinions prevail in re- 





fi*ronce to the value of all slops. Why sour milk 

 and sour feed are sometimes better than sweet milk 

 and unfermented grain, we will endeavor to explain 

 hereafter. 



EXPERIMENTS IX FEEDING SHEEP, AND 

 WITH MANURE. 



At a recent meeting of the Fettercairn Farmers' 

 Club in Scotland, Major McIxroy read a paper giving 

 an account of experiments made by him in feeding 

 slieop in sheds; and in making manure under cover. 

 The results of these experiments were most satisfac- 

 tory, agreeing with and confirming conclusions arrived 

 at in England as to the value of good shelter and 

 dry bedding for sheep, when put up to fatten. They 

 had all the turnips they would eat, and a quarter of a 

 pound of crushed oats, and an eighth of a pound of 

 oil cake, a day. On this feed they gained finely, 

 aud the wool and mutton sold for enough to pay all 

 expenses and leave about a dollar per head profit, 

 beside a good deal of rich manure. As the prices 

 of lambs, grass and hay, turnips, oil cake, oat meal, 

 and mutton, differ so much in Scotland from their 

 value in this country, the details of Major McInroy's 

 experiments are hardly worth to om* readers the 

 space they would occupy in our columns. One fact, 

 however, stated by him is of great importance in farm 

 economy: which is, that the dung of the same ani- 

 mals kept in a covered condition to prevent the es- 

 cape of fertiUzing gases, and under shelter to avoid 

 the washing of rains, is worth about twenty-seven 

 per cent, more than it would be if made in the usual 

 way in an open yard. In the latter case, the farmer 

 has to haul into his fields a great deal of rain water, 

 and spread it in a laborious way over the ground. 

 Valuable as rain water is to cultivated land, it will 

 not pay to carry three tons of it to one ton of genuine 

 manure out into the fields on wagons, carts, or sleds, 

 in the usual way. From four-fifths so nine-tenths of 

 common barn-yard manure hauled out in the spring 

 consists of tvater, and nothing better. Nor is this 

 all the defect inherent in such manure. Its exposure 

 to rains for months dissolves out much of its best 

 ingredients, which either run off on the surface of 

 the ground, or soak into it. AVhat remains is like 

 old tea-leaves, that have been twice or thrice steeped; 

 they, like washed manure, contain the insoluble woody 

 fiber and a Httle coloring matter. There is a good 

 deal of wood in the stems of grasses, which may be 

 seen in the solid excrements of domestic animals. 

 This is the poorest part of dung, and being insoluble, 

 it constitutes the fine wood saturated mth water 

 which by courtesy is called manure, and often used aa 

 such, after the essential elements of fertiUty have de- 

 parted. 



It is far cheaper in the long run to grow rich food 

 for all kinds of stock, and thereby produce fat ani- 

 mals and rich manure, than to raise very lean feed, 

 and consequently have lean cattle, lean sheep, lean 

 horses, and nearly worthless manure to put on lean 

 land. Poor farmers make poor land, poor land 

 yields poor crops, and poor crops make a community 

 and a nation also poor. Hence, agricultural knowledge 

 is of all things the most valuable to the public, yet 

 of all things it is the most neglected by Congress 



