192 WORCESTER SOCIETY. 



was refused until hunger induced to the consumption of it. 

 Another objection — the term of each separate trial was too 

 short; if the whole trial was to have continued but eight 

 weeks, it would have been better to have divided it into two 

 periods of four weeks each, than into four periods of two 

 weeks each. There was a loss at each time of changing the 

 food, by a part of the cattle not eating it so freely. It is now 

 become manifest that the cutter can be profitably employed in 

 chaffing hay, whether the whole be good, or a portion of in- 

 ferior quality, straw, cornstalks and buts. Of the latter, 

 cornstalks and buts, they are believed to be intrinsically of 

 more value, than they have usually been estimated; when 

 properly cured, they afford very nutritious food, of which cattle 

 are fond, and if passed through a cutter, very little will be 

 rejected. If the stalks and buts be not of a good quality, 

 it will still be expedient to cut thein, the cattle will eat a 

 larger proportion, and what is refused by them will be more 

 readily decomposed. Those who have been compelled, with 

 much hard tugging and pulling, to shovel over manure in which 

 uncut cornstalks and buts have been mixed, will readily admit 

 that the use of the cutting machine would have saved them 

 much hard work, so much so as well to pay for the labor of 

 cutting the stalks and buts. 



It is understood that a man with a fair hand cutting machine 

 can easily cut, during any of the short days of winter, a ton 

 of hay, and not have a hard day's work at that. 



Those who have large stocks of cattle, will find it profitable 

 to make use of some animal power (horse or ox), to aid in 

 cutting their food for them. The same power may be used in 

 cutting vegetables, sawing wood, &c. The quantity of food 

 required for the support of cattle, as established by these experi- 

 ments, although no greater than is stated in some agricultural 

 publications, is believed to be considerably larger than has been 

 usually estimated by the farmers in this vicinity. The steers of 

 Mr. Dodge requiring but little for additional growth, beyond their 

 support in good condition, consumed in hay, or its equivalent, 

 daily, not less than two per cent, of their live weight ; the dry 

 cows of Mr. Demond, for their own support and for the support 

 of the calves with which they were pregnant, demanded for 

 their food an amount of hay, or its equivalent, equal to two 



