186 



FEEDING CATTLE. 



cidedly for his interest to avoid useless trouble and ex- 

 pense. 



The same remarks will apply to boiling or steaming 

 food for cows, applied to roots or coarse hay and stalks. 

 Is a turnip a natural and proper article of food for a 

 cow, and can it be improved by steaming ? 



There ought to be no backwardness in adopting 

 real improvements, however opposed to previous prac- 

 tice ; but there should and must be great caution. I 

 know farmers who will not read an agricultural journal 

 because they have been led into so ujany errors. 



A Young Farmer. 



Newton, June 25, 1839. 



Our Newton correspondent has entered on a subject 

 that requires much consideration. His inquiries are 

 not to be answered iu a moment. For ourselves we 

 have to say we have not been nuich in the practice of 

 cutting up fodder for cattle ; and we shall answer him 

 as well as we- can from what we have seen in the 

 practice of other farmers and feeders. 



We think there cannot be a doubt that hay, &c. is 

 better relished, and is eat up cleaner, when chopped 

 and put in a clean manger, than when given whole. 

 The great question therefore is, shall we save enough 

 hy the process to pay the labor ? and the answer must 

 depend on various circumstances. 



Stage horses, or such as are driven constantly, have 

 not so much time to masticate their food as others 

 have, while their drivers have more leisure to tend 

 them, and may just as well devote a portion of it to 

 prepare this food for digestion as to let the team do the 

 whole business. When teams are kept principally on 

 grain, straw will answer well to be mixed with it ; and 

 this straw must be chopped up, or it cannot be mixed, 

 and will not be eaten. At the south, therefore, where 

 they cannot raise so good hay as we can, and where 

 they raise grain with more ease, they make a great 



