268 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



to breathe. It is so with a very fat hog, and all other animals ; 

 all need a pure cold air in proportion to their amount of fat. 

 Such being the fact, fat cattle should have separate apartments 

 from other animals, where the cold air can be admitted by 

 degrees, as the fat is taken on. All animals should be made 

 very fat, as all the profit in fattening is in putting on the last 

 hundreds, when the animal eats but half as much and fattens 

 twice as fast. 



Chables Brigham, Chairman. 



FEEDING STOCK. 



ESSEX. 



Report of the Cotmniitee on the Comparative Value of Crops as 

 Food for Cattle. 



No experiments or tests illustrating this subject have been 

 submitted for premium, and the committee regret that it is so,- 

 having earnestly hoped that upon a subject so important to all 

 concerned many such experiments would be made and thereby 

 much light thrown upon the question, and each article of 

 fodder have its appropriate value in the feeding of stock perma- 

 nently established as far as possible. Scientific men have 

 experimented carefully upon this question, though perhaps none 

 in our own country, and we believe few farmers fail to satisfy 

 their minds to some extent in regard to it, but such is the 

 difference in the subjects of the experiments, in the period and 

 manner of making them, in the object desired to be obtained, 

 in the condition and character of the food used, (though the 

 latter may be of the same variety even in all cases,) that a 

 noticeable difference exists in the results and they are conflicting 

 and contradictory. 



Though upon a subject so broad, and influenced by such a 

 variety of circumstances, it is difficult to obtain strictly correct 

 conclusions, yet by numerous experiments, carefully made and 

 detailed, the comparative value of various articles of fodder 

 can be sufficiently established to be of much advantage to the 

 feeder ; and to this end it is desirable that those who are 

 employed in this branch of farming, record their experiments 



