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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Feb. 



STEAMING OR BOILING- FOOD FOR STOCK. 



Many experiments have been made in various 

 parts of New England, to ascertain whether the 

 food fed to stock could be steamed or boiled, so as 

 to increase its value sufficiently to make the oper- 

 ation a profitable one. The experiments — so far 

 as they have come to our knowledge — have been 

 made under several disadvantages, the principal 

 of which has been the want of a proper apparatus 

 with which to do the work. Some have attempt- 

 ed it in the use of the common boiler or cauldron, 

 others have made large troughs and turned boiling 

 water upon the feed, and two persons, with whose 

 experiments we are acquainted, have constructed 

 large boxes and supplied them with steam by the 

 use of somewhat expensive boilers. Under these 

 circumstances, the results which have been at- 

 tained do not agree, but have all tended to show 

 that where the arrangements are judicious, a very 

 decided advantage, or economy, may be found in 

 cooking, or partially cooking, the food of our ani- 

 mals. One gentleman, who went through the 

 winter with twelve cows and fed them on hay tea, 

 has sent us the following account : 



Friend Brown : — In accordance with your re- 

 quest, I will give you a short sketch of my trial 

 with the hay tea. I first procured a portable boiler, 

 holding two barrels, which I placed in a shed 

 adjoining the barn, the boiler being so situated 

 that by means of troughs, I could pump directly 

 into it. After filling the boiler nearly full of wa- 

 tef, I pressed into it as much hay, unchopped, as 



it would conveniently hold. Upon bringing it up 

 to the boiling point, I let it steep a few minutes, 

 and then clipped it out into troughs to cool. It 

 ought to steep longer, but could not on account 

 of the smallness of the boiler. The hay I gave to 

 the cows to eat, the tea for drink, not giving them 

 any other drink, but as much dry hay as they 

 would eat. I gave the tea as Marm as they would 

 drink it, using in it what would be equal to about 

 three quarts of coarse shorts a day, to each cow ; 

 the grain was of different kinds during the winter. 

 As I have told you before, I kept no strict account, 

 so that I cannot enter into particulars, and can 

 give only the general result. According to my 

 own observation, and that of my neighbors, the 

 balance was decidedly in favor of my cows, both as 

 to their condition, and the quantity of milk they 

 gave, although they consumed a much larger 

 amount of hay and grain. In many winters' ex- 

 perience of raising milk on high feed of grain, 

 roots and hay, taking the summer and Avinter cows 

 together, I found the average to be about six 

 quarts daily to each cow, and I have found upon 

 inquiry among my neighbors, that is as high as 

 theirs would average. My cows, fed with the hay 

 tea, and the same proportion of summer and win- 

 ter ones, averaged about ten quarts each day, 

 showing so decidedly in favor of the tea, as to sat- 

 isfy me that it is the way to raise milk. I think 

 where the farmer has a good manure cellar, (and 

 no good firmer will be long without one,) and ma- 

 terial to put into it, he will find this manner of 

 feeding a great help to the compost heap. 



Another gentleman, who is entirely reliable, be- 

 ing a man of facts and figures, states that he kept 



