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82 



THE ILLINOIS FARMEK. 



Mab. 



Cooking Pood for Stock— Does it Pay ? 



Agriculturists have their hobbies as well as oth- 

 er men, and ride them full as zealously, when once 

 they are mounted ; albeit they are slower — often 

 too slow — in putting their feet into the stirrup. 



Among the more modern theories which have 

 attracted the attention of intelligent farmers, the 

 economy of cooking food for stock has been prom- 

 inent. Somewhat plausible, at first thought, it is 

 natural that the more easily peisuaded of those 

 who are on the qui vive for the best methods should 

 have readily adopted it ; especially as it has, from 

 time to time, received the endorsement of scientific 

 men. Still, the question is not yet so fully estab- 

 lished in the affirmative but that it may be discuss- 

 ed to advantage. 



Men will be found who have made the experi- 

 ment and are perfectly sure that they save full 

 half of their feed by having it cooked ; while oth- 

 ers are equally sure that cooking is not the slight- 

 est advantage, if it does not indeed, damage the 

 quality of the meat. And this diversity of opinion 

 must continue until a series of well-ordered exper- 

 iments shall have been cai-efuUy made, touching 

 every important circumstance bearing upon the 

 question at issue. For the present, then, we can 

 only state the general opinion of those by whom 

 the trial has been most fairly made, and impar- 

 tially examine into the scientific principles in- 

 volved. 



It is agreed among physiologists that the saliva 

 performs an important office in the process of hu- 

 man degestion, and the habits of all ruminating 

 animals may be adduced as evidence that the same 

 importance attaches to its office in the economy of 

 the lower animals. Indeed, an examination of the 

 food eaten by the horse will show that the Avoody 

 and starchy portions have been progressed by the 

 process of insalivation towards the gum and sugar 

 into which they must first be transmuted before 

 being assimilated to the bodily tissues. It would 

 appear reasonable, therefore, that all food not thus 

 insalivated must pass into the stomach in a condi- 

 tion not provided for by nature. But food which 

 is quite dry cannot be swallowed imtil it is first 

 moistened by the saliva, and it may well be argued 

 that the slopping of food with water or steam will 

 have the effect to supercede the action of the sali- 

 va and thus impede the work of digestion. In fact, 

 it is just this course of reasoning which has in- 

 duced physiologists to recommend that but little 

 water, in any form, be taken with the food. Can 

 any reason be shown why the same recommenda- 

 tion should not have application, in some degree, 

 to the feeding of the lower animals ? 



But we are not arguing so much that the cook- 

 ing of food is liable to result in deranged and par- 

 tial digestion, as that the advantages of cooking 

 are probably over-rated by those who imagine that 

 they are very large gainers thereby. It is not 

 enough that cooked food is not injurious : it should 

 also be worth enough more to pay for the cost of 

 apparatus, fuel and the extra labor involved. If 

 it will not do this, it is clearly no gain to cook. On 

 this point we quote the opinions of Mr. J. Burnet 

 Lawes, and Prof. Simmomds, members of the Eoyal 

 Agricultural Society of England, as expressed in 



discussion at a meeting of the weekly Council, 

 while we were in London, and subsequently report- 

 ed in the Journal of the Society. 



Mr. Lawes said : In this question there were two 

 points to be considered. The first was, whether 

 the labor and fuel expended in the cooking were 

 not equivalent to the saving ; and he thought that 

 taking the gross increase, there was a slight saving. 

 The second was, whether the increase in the ani- 

 mal fed on cooked food was as good as that pro- 

 duced by imcooked food. On this point he was 

 disposed to think that the quality of the meat was 

 inferior when the food was cooked. K pigs were 

 always fed on boiled swedes and meal, although 

 they might increase very fast and be very profita- 

 ble to the seller, still, it would be found out by de- 

 grees that the quality of the pork was bad. The 

 butcher would ultimately refuse to buy, and would 

 say that such pork, to use a common expression, 

 " boiled away." All animals as they fattened had 

 a certain amount of water displaced ; that was to 

 say, they contained less and less water ; but if 

 they were fed with boiled swedes and meal, the 

 water would increase, as well as the fat. Some 

 time ago he fed one animal on steeped barley, and 

 another on dry barley, with the view of testing the 

 merits of the two systems of feeding. The ani- 

 mal which was fed on the steeped barley inreased 

 very fast, while the increase of the other was com- 

 paratively slow. They were both killed ; the loins 

 and other parts were cooked in the establishment, 

 and it turned out that there was much more waste 

 in the former case than in the latter. The ques- 

 tion whether the increase from cooked food or from 

 dry food is the most economical, was one of con- 

 siderable nicety, on which at that moment they 

 had not sufficient facts to guide their opinion ; but 

 he would not, himself, expect to find any great 

 difference in the results. Supposing a man saved 

 twenty pounds sterling a year by the use of cook- 

 ed food, and that he spent ten pounds on labor, 

 and ten pounds more for coals in consequence, he 

 would in reality be a loser by the cooking, because 

 there would be less manure. Some years ago Mr. 

 Warne's system of cooking was very extensively 

 adopted, but it did not seem to maintain its 

 ground. 



Prof Simmonds said : Mr. Lawes had spoken of 

 the watery flesh of animals fed on cooked food, 

 and there was scarcely any limit to the quantity of 

 water that might enter the animal organism, if we 

 gave food which contained a large quantity of wa- 

 ter. Speaking as a pathologist, he believed that 

 a great number of diseases among the lower ani- 

 mals arose from the bad state of the blood induced 

 by excess of water and deficiency of nitrogenized 

 — flesh forming — matter in the food. The practi- 

 cal farmer knew that, if in the lambing season, he 

 gave his ewes too many white turnips, or other 

 green food, which had grown rapidly and contain- 

 ed a large amount of water, it would lead to disease 

 and loss ; whereas, if he put them on dry food, con- 

 taining weight for weight, a large portion of nitro- 

 genized matter, a good quality of blood was pro- 

 duced and the health of the animal preserved. Ad- 

 mitting that cooked food had the effect of accumu- 

 lating weight, to say nothing about flesh, in a cer- 

 tain space of time, he was inclined to think that 

 this arose from the facility which it gave for the 

 digestion of food by anticipating a part of the 

 process carried on by the action of the gastric 



