Proceedixgs of the Farmers' Club. 247 



" whether it is all it is claimed to be, and where I could procure some 

 of the seed." He was informed that " orchard grass grows any- 

 where in the United States." II. W. Severance, Scottsville, N. Y., 

 also wrote in regard to the same subject : " I have a very high opin- 

 ion of ' orchard grass,' formed principally from reading of the same 

 in the Club reports. Now, we are growing a grass quite extensively 

 in this section, which starts early in the spring, makes good pasture, 

 and if well fertilized does well as a meadow. I allude to ' quack.' 

 Duos orchard grass and quack bear any resemblance in point of per- 

 manency ?" 



Hon. George Geddes. — It is difficult and almost impossible to 

 exterminate quack, which is not true of orchard grass. 



Mr. A. S. Fuller — The species is entirely different. 



Cost of Cooking for Cattle. 



Mr. Samuel Chase, Buxton, Me.— I have seen quite a number of 

 statements in the papers of late in regard to the advantages of " cook- 

 ing food for stock;" and as I live in a part of the country where we 

 are considerably behind the times in regard to modern agriculture, as 

 well as almost everything else, I wish to ask the Club what the appar- 

 atus for cooking the fodder for twenty -five or thirty head of cattle 

 will cost, and if it is best to cut the hay with horse-power ? If you, 

 Xew York farmers, can save 33-J per cent by steaming the food, why 

 can't we Maine farmers do the same ? If it won't cost too much I 

 want to be all prepared before another whiter for the business. 



Hon. George Geddes — This is a subject in which, fortunately, the 

 farming public have great interest. I felt this some time ago, and so 

 " interviewed " a neighbor of mine who, I think, has the best and 

 most convenient arrangement I have seen. Like the gentleman in 

 England who wrote a book which was to reform the world, and 

 returning from a provincial tour found that only three copies had 

 been sold, I am a little put out to perceive that no one seems to have 

 read my article. The neighbor I allude to keeps 116 head of cattle, 

 and, by cooking their food, saves $2,000 a year. He is cunning 

 enough to make the same steam run the cutter which steams the hay. 

 He has a little engine costing $400, a cutter, the value of which is 

 probably $75, and a strong box or bin clamped so as to resist about 

 thirty pounds pressure of steam. The man who has one cow may 

 cook enough for her on his kitchen stove. The farmer who keeps 

 twenty or thirty, or more, will find it profitable to have apparatus on 

 purpose for the work, but there is an intermediate class who would 



