256 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



and good condition ; and for this purpose I feed shorts, corn- 

 meal, three or four times a week Swedis^ turnips or man- 

 gold-wurzels, for the .purpose of preserving the tone and 

 health of their stomachs. I am sure that if you pursue this 

 course, you can keep a cow in good condition as long as na- 

 ture intended she should last. 



I have been using recently, as food for my milch cows, 

 large amounts of dried Hungarian grass, and I recommend it 

 highly to all dairymen. I believe I can make more milk with 

 this grass, cut and mixed with corn-meal and shorts, than I 

 can with the best timothy hay, cut and mixed in the same 

 manner ; and I am not alone in this belief. And when you 

 rememl)er that you can raise on ordinary land, by sowing 

 tjfche seed of Hungarian grass late in June, from two and a 

 half to three and a half tons of good fodder to the acre, 

 and that this crop can be sown after we have ascertained 

 whether we are going to have a good hay-crop or not, you 

 will see the value of this grass. I have such a high opinion 

 of it, that on my own farm, I have this year and last year 

 raised from seventy-five to one hundred tons of it for the pur- 

 pose of feeding to my milch cows during the winter season. 

 If, moreover, you sow it at the proper time, you will have a 

 good green crop in the dry months, — a crop which is a great 

 deal better than some other articles which we have been in 

 the habit of feeding. I am happy to know that Mr. Lewis 

 agrees with me in my estimate of this kind of food, both for 

 summer and winter use. 



Question. What is your opinion of steamed food? 



I am sorry to say that I am still an unljeliever in steamed 

 food. I do not mean to condemn it entirely, but I am sat- 

 isfied that it is enervating ; I think it produces an unhealthy 

 condition of the stomach. I have no doubt it makes an an- 

 imal dyspeptic. I have no doubt that it produces certain 

 disturbances in the alimentary canal. I am perfectly sure 

 that young cattle, fed upon steamed food, do not thrive as 

 well as those that are fed upon more natural 'food ; and that 

 cattle that have been long fed upon it show the eflects in va- 

 rious ways, in the milk-pail, in the stall, and at work. I am 

 aware that steam or hot water applied to corn-stalks has a 

 very beneficial efiect upon these as a nutritious article of 



