AND RURAL ECONOmST. 53 



nearly thirteen wine quarts for 320 days. The cows were 

 never sufTered to be turned out ; and to prevent their being 

 lame, their hoofs were properly pared, and they stood with their 

 fore feet on clay. One great advantage attending this method 

 was, that most if not all the milch cows were in such a con- 

 dition, that with a few weeks' feeding, after they were dry, 

 they became fit for the shambles, with very little loss from 

 the first cost. As a substitute for chaff and oil cake, Mr. 

 Curwin recommends cut hay ; which, when steamed, would 

 make very superior food, and he entertains no doubt would 

 greatly anient the milk as well as the health of the ani- 

 mals.' 



An apparatus for steaming food for cattle should be con- 

 sidered a necessary appendage of every arable and dairy 

 farm of a moderate size. The advantage of preparing dif- 

 ferent sorts of roots, as well as even grain, chaff, and hay, 

 by means of steaming apparatus, for the nourishment of cat- 

 tle, begins now to be generally understood. It has bf.en long 

 known that many sorts of roots, and pr.rticularly the potato, 

 become much more valuable by undergoing this sort of pre- 

 paration. And it is equally well knovrn that when thus pre- 

 pared they have been employed alone as a substitute for grain, 

 with cut chaff' for hay and grain, in the feeding of horses 

 as well as other animals. To a farmer who keeps horses or 

 cattle, or even swine or poultry, the practice of bol-iiig their 

 food in steam is so great a saving and advantage, thai it ae- 

 serves the most particular attention. Though potatoes have 

 often been given raw both to horses and caule, they are 

 found to be greatly preferable when cooked by steam, as they 

 are thereby rendered much drier and more nutritive, and bet- 

 ter than when boiled in water ; this has been long smce 

 shown by the experiments of Wakefield, cf Liverpool, who, 

 in order to ascertain it, fed some of his horses on steamed 

 and some on raw potatoes, and soon found the horses fed on 

 the steanied potatoes had greatly the advantage in every re- 

 spect. Those fed on steamed potatoes looked perfectly 

 smooth and sleek, while the others were quite rough. 



A steaming machine on a simple and economical plan con- 

 sists of a boiler, and a wooden chest or box, placed over or 

 near it. The box may be of any size, and so pkc.ed as to 

 be supplied and emptied by wheel o'* hand barrows in the 

 easiest manner, either by the end or top, or both, being made 

 to open. If the box is made eight feet by five, md three feet 

 deep, it will hold as many potatoes as will feed fifty cow3 

 5# 



