CUTTING AND COOKING FOOD. 363 



the machinery for cooking cattle food, are sensible, and a part, 

 if not all of his details, may be safely adopted. The same may 

 be said of Mr. Birnie's. 



We consider steam, or at least horse power, indispensable to 

 the economical prosecution of the work, where any considerable 

 number of cattle or cows are kept. To the remarks of the above 

 named gentlemen, we will add, that the machinery should be 

 placed in a compact position, in a central building — of, at least, 

 two stories for the storage of the food and its manipulation. 

 From the main building, wing stables of one, or two, stories 

 may stretch o£f on either, or both sides, with double rowa of 

 stalls, and a six-foot passage, for a tram railway, between 

 them — the heads of the cows to the passage — for distributing 

 the food. Over them, hay, or other forage may be stored for 

 use, as wanted. Wells, cisterns, or other water supphes, should 

 be made in close proximity, and other conveniences added, that 

 the best economy of labor, and expenditure of forage may 

 demand. 



We may as well say here, as anywhere, that the best develop- 

 ment of the productions of our cattle, either in flesh, or dairy, 

 require thought and investigation, as well as moneyed capital. 

 Tliese pursuits are most mistakenly considered, by many aspiring 

 people engaged in the more active, and speculative, yet uncertain 

 branches of industry, to be of a vulgar order, fitted only for 

 uneducated minds. We deny the fact altogether. Large for- 

 tunes may not be so rapidly accumulated in these pursuits as in 

 some others; nor are they so readily lost. They are just as 

 honorable, and just as respectable as any others; and it is because 

 the same amount of brain and investigation have not been exer- 

 cised in them, as in some other branches of business, that they 

 are not so considered; and when it is demonstrated that the 

 proper application of knowledge and skill, wiU add to the profit 

 of their productions, there can be no good reason why these 



