340 AMERICAN CATTLE. 



animal in frame and muscle, as well as fat, let him mix the dif- 

 ferent kinds of food together. Thus he may produce such results 

 as he pleases, and, at the same time, use what would otherwise 

 be refuse and waste. 



"It is shown, by accurate observation, that hay, straw, or 

 other coarse fodder, when well cut, is more uniformly digested by 

 both neat cattle, horses, and sheep, than uncut. In England, 

 large feeders have estimated the gain in nutriment and saving of 

 waste in hay to be equal to twenty-five per cent. Some experi- 

 menters in this country have estimated the gain even higher, and 

 certainly the gain is more in cutting coarse fodder than on hay. 



WHAT IS GAINED IN CUTTING FOR A SMALL STOCK. 



"An experiment will illustrate the profit of cutting. "When 

 keeping a small stock, which would consume thirty tons of hay 

 in a winter, seven tons of hay were sold, and seven tons of mid- 

 dlings bought and used upon cut straw, (two quarts upon a 

 bushel,) and the stock wintered in fine condition. The straw 

 was thus turned into twenty-three tons of hay, worth, that year, 

 $18 per ton in barn, or $405; (generally it is worth $12 per 

 ton.) Hay, in most localities, is worth as much per ton as mid- 

 dUngs, and half to three-fourths as much as corn meal; therefore 

 the avails of one-fourth the quantity of hay requisite to winter a 

 stock of animals, will purchase the middlings or meal necessary 

 to use upon the straw, and the hay (or its value) be saved to the 

 farmer. Indeed, from long practice, the economy of the straw 

 cutter is as well established with the writer of this article as that 

 of the mowing machine. 



" But it is sometimes said that it may pay on a smaU scale, and 

 accordingly many small hand machines are found by which far- 

 mers cut for a few cows, or a pair of horses, still feeding the prin- 

 cipal part of their stock uncut food. In this idea the ordinary 

 rule of manufacturers is reversed, viz.: that what will pay upon 



