456 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



into spring in better condition than they have ever done 

 on dry feed." He then gives his mode of raising fodder 

 corn, which was to sow two bushels of seed with a drill, all 

 the tubes working, and cut it with a reaper, setting it up 

 in large shocks. He figures his corn at six tons of cured 

 stalks per acre, at a cost of seed, labor, all told, including 

 shocking, at $1.30 per ton. He gives the following state- 

 ment of 



COST OF STEAMING. 



" The stock now being fed requires about three tons of 

 dry feed per day. The cutting is done by a No. 6 

 Cummins cutter, and it is so arranged that the cut feed as 

 it falls from the cutting machine is carried to and placed 

 in the tanks, wet up with the necessary quantity of water, 

 and mixed with bran or meal by machinery so that when 

 the cutting is done the feed is ready for the steam. Three 

 men m an hour and a half can cut the three tons. With 

 the present boiler capacity it takes one man four hours 

 more to steam it. The cost of fuel for cutting, mixing, 

 steaming, pumping water, etc., is about five cents per ton 

 of dry feed. The cut feed is much more easily and rapidly 

 distributed to the animals than long feed. It is shoveled 

 from the tanks down into wagons with side boards, that 

 stand below the bottoms of the tanks, and carried to the 

 s.heep-folds. The racks are made to accommodate twenty 

 sheep, and this number is found to need about two bushels 

 of cut feed. The feeder has two two-bushel baskets. 

 While he is carrying one to the racks the boy fills the 

 other. In this way a man and a boy can feed and care for 

 1,500 sheep. The fodder is eaten up clean, a few joints 

 and soiled pieces only being left, but not one per cent, is 

 wasted. 



"All the advantages claimed for feeding steamed food to 

 cattle and horses the economy of feed, the increased 



