48 THE COMPLETE FAKMER 



reducing them to a meal, there is advantage in sometimes 

 boiling them. A little salt given daily is very useful.' 



It would be advancageons to the community of farmers if 

 sometning like the following experiments were made, and 

 their results published. Let a number of cattle of similar or 

 the same breed, age, propensity to fatten, as ascertained by 

 handling, &c., be fattened at the same time. Let one be 

 fed entirely on potatoes raw ; a second on the same root 

 steamed or boiled ; a third made one-half or two-thirds fat on 

 potatoes, and hib fattening completed with Indian corn ; a 

 fourth be fattened on Indian corn, or corn meal ; a fifth be 

 fed wdth a mixture of all these kinds of food, given together 

 in the same mess, or in different messes. The first food in 

 the m.orning, for the last-mentioned bullock, might be a small 

 quantity of potatoes, pumpkins, or turnips ; the second, ruta 

 baga or carrots, mangel-w^urzel, or parsnips. Then, as the 

 last course of the day's feast, give Indian meal, or other food 

 the richest you have. It w^ould be well, likewise, to try the 

 virtues of sweet apples. The most important object of such 

 experiments, however, w^ould be to ascertain whether the 

 beef of cattle fattened on potatoes or other roots, raw or 

 boiled or steanied, is equal iii quality to that w^hich is fattened 

 on Indian corn. If not, whether an ox may not be made 

 nearly fat enough for profit on roots and hay, his fatting 

 completed on corn, and the flesh be as good as if he had been 

 fattened wiiolly on corn. And if an ox partly fattened on 

 roots, and his fattening completed on corn, gives as good beef 

 as one wholly fed on co^n, the question occurs, how long a 

 time wdll it require to give the beef its good qualities arising 

 from the corn ? We know, as respects swine, that farmers 

 make them partly fat on any thing which they will devour, 

 and then feed them for some time before they .are killed with 

 Indian corn or meal, to ' harden the flesh,' as they express it; 

 and perhaps the same process wdll answer for beef caitle. 

 Some farmers say that the red or La Plata potato, given 

 raw to swine, make as good pork as tliat which is corn fed. 

 Others say that any kind of potatoes, if steamed or boiled, 

 will make as good pork as can be made of corn. If this be 

 true of pork, it may be so of beef. 



It is a truth which has been confirmed by repeated ex- 

 periment, that food for swine fermented till it becomes a lit- 

 tle acid will go farther and fatten them faster than unfer- 

 mented food of the same quantity and quality. But it is 

 not, I believe, generally known in this country, that acid food 



