1871 ] 



XEW ENGLAN^D FAEMER. 



125 



ON" PEEDING STOCK. 



^ HE New England Farmer 

 I, «^- is published to accomplish two 



1^^. prime objects. First to obtain, 

 through industry and economj', a 

 comfortable subsistence for those 

 employed upon it ; and, secondly, 

 to impart to our fellow-men sound 

 and valuable information through 

 its colums, in which correspondents and edi- 

 tors become teachers m turn, and thus good 

 seed IS sown broadcast over the land. It is 

 in this light that we receive the queries and 

 criticisms of our correspondent '■^Maplewood,''^ 

 and find pleasure and instruction in being 

 somewhat more explicit in speaking of the 

 topics which lie introduces, than is usual in 

 the column of Extracts and Replies. He 

 says : — 



I am tempted to offer a few remarks relating to 

 some of the subjects in the last number of the 

 Farmeh, and, 



1. As to what you sa}' in regard to cutting 

 fodder, I still have doubts. I fed thirty cows for 

 two winters on cut feed and then gave it up, and 

 as yet I can see no reason wliy ten or twenty 

 pounds of liay will go any farther when cut, than 

 before. Tlie meal or shoi'ts added may as well be 

 fed dry, or what is perhaps better, uuxcd with 

 water till thin enough to be drank. 



Reply. — Can our correspondent see any 

 reason why ten or twenty bushels of com will 

 go any farther, if ground into meal, than if 

 fed whole ? If he will examine the droppings 

 of the cattle that ate the whole corn, the rea- 

 son will be perfectly obvious. So if he would 

 magnify the droppings of cattle fed on uncut 

 hay, he would probably find similar reasons. 

 But he may rejoin, that it is natural for our 

 stock to feed on long hay. But is it sa? 

 Our cattle are not in a natural position. In a 

 state of nature they roam at large, where the 

 climate is sufiiciently mild to furnish them 

 food spontaneously throughout the year, and 

 yield it to them in a fresh, juicy and tender 

 condition. We have taken them from their 

 native haunts, tied them by the neck, and 

 housed them for a considerable portion of the 

 year. They must now be fed and otherwise 

 treated as exotics ; and in doing this every 

 economical method should be resorted to in 

 order to make their food as near that which 

 they enjoyed in a state of nature as we can ; 

 that is, as near young, short sweet grass, or 

 other herbage. Cattle in pastures nearly al- 

 ways reject the old, long grasses, and graze 

 that less than half an inch long in preference. I 



Much of the hay fed to winter stock is little 

 better — principally by standing too long be- 

 fore it is harvested, and then by over-making — 

 than that rejected by cattle in the pastures. 

 In this view of the case alone, it would seem 

 to be a matter of economy to cut long fodder. 

 But we have never advocated the practice of 

 cutting fodder and feeding it to the stock in a 

 dry state. It may be economical to do so ; 

 but we have not tested it. 



Every Effort Wastes, or Reduces. 



The first fact to which we wish to call atten- 

 tion is, that "every eiFort of mind, every con- 

 traction of muscle, every act of secretion 

 involves the combustion of a certain quantity 

 of food and a loss to the animal economy." 

 A man, making his dinner on dry corn, would 

 become exhausted by the efForts at mastica- 

 tion, long before he had satisfied the demands 

 of his appetite, even if he had plenty of sound 

 teeth. If the corn were boiled, the effort 

 would be less ; if ground into meal, still less. 



But this is not all the advantage of boiling 

 and grinding. Another process must be con- 

 sidered, — that of digestion. It is not the 

 amount eaten that sustains • the animal econ- 

 omy, so much as it is the amount which is 

 digested and becemes available to be used as 

 substances of support. 



The roots of plants do not feed upon coarse 

 materials ; their organization is so delicate 

 that they require it in the form of water. 

 Animals commence the work of reducing their 

 food with their teeth, but the organs of the 

 body whose duty it is to prepare the food to 

 pass into the form of chyle anjd then to blood, 

 could not take it in the form in which it leaves 

 the teeth. Mastication by the teeth reduces 

 the food in some degree, and then it is imme- 

 diately moistened by the saliva, just as we 

 would have you moisten the hay with water 

 which has been cut by the machine. 



Importance of perfect Digestion. 

 But this is not all. The organs referred to 

 could not receive it even in this form. It has 

 still another process to pass through before 

 they can avail themselves of it, — and that is 

 the process of digestion. In order to carry 

 the food still farther towards a condition in 

 which it can be converted into good blood, it 

 passes into the stomach, and is there still fur- 

 ther reduced by the action of the gastric 

 juices. 



