1867. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



505 



be made to eke out a few more years of useful- 

 ness by a little help in preparing the food. 

 Boiling water poured upon meal or hay in a 

 barrel or miniature steam box, and covered 

 quickly and tightly, and kept warm a few hours, 

 will produce a partial cooking. Could corn 

 stalks and straw be thoroughly steamed, they 

 would attord a far larger per cent, of nutri- 

 ment. But I have tried steaming meadow 

 hay and found it brought out the sour, strong 

 meadow sm dl and taste so fully that the dry 

 was preferred to the steamed, even after it 

 was sprinkled with meal. Of course where 

 steaming is practiced the hay cutter is neces- 

 sary to reduce the fodder to a fine state. 



Generally speaking, the field is the best 

 place to prepare food. By cutting all grasses 

 and grain intended for fodder whde the stalk 

 is tender and full of sweet juices, and care- 

 fully curing and saving them, our animals will 

 be saved much hard and useless grinding. 

 The stalks and leaves of grain and the grasses 

 are merely to support and produce seed, that 

 it may in turn reproduce itself, when the seed 

 is fully developed little remains in the stalks 

 except tough, woody fiber. Where only fod- 

 der is desired, it is plain its quality will de- 

 pend upon the time of cutting. It is easy, by 

 cutting early, to have tender, nutritious hay 

 that will keep animals as slick, plump and 

 healthy, as when fed upon grass. There is no 

 economy in raising poor fodder year after 

 year upon land which admits of improvement. 



If tiie time and expense required to work 

 up poor hay into palatable food were spent in 

 reclaiming the land that produces it, tenfold 

 better results would be obtained. Hay of in- 

 ferior quality occupies as much ground, re- 

 quires as much labor to harvest and feed, and 

 frequently more, while its nutritive value falls 

 far below that of first quality. 



How often shall Stock be Fed P 

 Upon this point, also, there is a wide differ- 

 ence of practice. 1 have been upon farms 

 where cattle were fed seven and eight times a 

 day, and upon plantations at the South where 

 only one meal per day was given to mules, 

 altliough at hard work. Here are extreme 

 cases. In one, the plan of frequent feeding is 

 adopted to tempt the stock to eat poor fodder ; 

 in the other, the convenience of man was con- 

 sulted, rather than the strength and health of his 

 dumb beast. What is the proper mean ? What 

 shall be the guide? Domestic animals are 

 subject to the same physical laws as man, and 

 the same code by which he regulates his own 

 diet will furnish a safe guide for theirs. Dry, 

 solid food requires a different management 

 from tender, succulent herbage. Sufficient 

 for one meal should be given at one time, and 

 no more until that is digested ; for the stom- 

 ach needs its periods of rest. It likewise par- 

 takes of the strength or weakness of the 

 body ; nor can it perform its office well while 

 the whole system is under violent exercise ; 



therefore, it is an error to give it a heavy task 

 when great exertions are required of the body, 

 or at night after it has been exhausted by ex- 

 tra hard work. 



There is a wide scope for the exercise of 

 sound judgment in feeding. Many little things 

 daily occur that must be taken into account. To 

 feed well, and yet economically, is a nice point 

 to determine. Americans are justly called ex- 

 travagantly wasteful in their own food, and 

 would it be strange if they were found so m feed- 

 ing their stock. Give a working animal all he 

 will eat ; cram one fattening all you can, are 

 common rules. Would it not be better to say — 

 only what they can digest? for the feted 

 breath and strong, unnatural odors that are 

 often noticed in stables, disclose the fact that 

 the stomach is over-loaded, and food is pass- 

 ing through them undigested. The excess of 

 food thus fed is worse than wasted, for it weak- 

 ens the tone of the digestive organs and pre- 

 vents perfect work, when only a proper quan- 

 tity of food Is given. 



The subject might be further pursued, but 

 enough has been said to show that the art of 

 feeding is of vital Importance. Oftentimes 

 the profit or loss of a farm turns upon its suc- 

 cessfiil practice. The crops may be most 

 bountiful, yet If there is no economy in feed- 

 ing them out where shall the profit be ? 



Lawrence, Mass., Oct., 1867. n. s. t. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 OXFORD COUNTY, MAINE. 



I have just returned from the fair at Paris. 

 For fear of mystifying my readers, perhaps I 

 had better say that the fair was at South Paris, 

 Me., being the twenty-fifth of the Oxford 

 County Agricultural Society. "Every body and 

 his wife" were there, — many of the good wives 

 wrapped in furs, ready to defy the cold weather 

 that Monday's rough snow-storm threatened to 

 send immediately. 



In the upper exhibition hall, commodious 

 and comfortably supplied with seats, we found 

 the usual assortment of knit coverlets and 

 tidies, "rising-sun" and patchwork quilts, lamp 

 mats and pincushions, slippers and worsted 

 work, pictures and vases, — mostly all of home 

 manufacture, — lor a county fair, is, of course, 

 for the benefit of home exhibitors. The flan- 

 nels, f'rocking and carpeting were excellent In 

 quality and make. Some of the hand-made 

 rugs were very beautiful, — two so perfect as 

 almost to mock the beauty of a Brussells mat. 

 The display of fruit was very fine. The vari- 

 ous specimens were of "every day" glory, — 

 nothing uncommonly large or rare, — but lus- 

 cious and fair, as if the grower had taken pains 

 to provide his family with the choicest kinds, 

 in the lower hall the display of agricultural Im- 

 plements was small. Mr. Merrill of South 

 Paris presented a Pettengill's Cultivator, an 

 implement capable of various transformations, 

 and much liked by the farmers about here. 



