176 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



by us in our former article, it is too coarse and 

 heavy to adhere to the wet hay or straw to be 

 swallowed with it. And when fed unmixed in 

 this form, or when ground into fine meal and fed 

 either dry or in water in the form of slop, it is 

 not of the mechanical consistence which will cause 

 it to open the passage into the first stomach, but 

 passes directly along to the fourth or true stom- 

 ach unprepared for the final act of digestion and 

 assimilation, just as the milk does in the case 

 of the calf, which comes from the mother al- 

 ready prepared for the final action of the stom- 

 ach. What are the circumstances which deter- 

 mine the direction of the food ? Dr. Carpenter, 

 (Princp. Physiol. Gen. and Comp.) thus describes 

 them : " When the food is first swallowed, it has 

 undergone but very little mastication, it Is conse- 

 quently firm in its consistence, and is brought 

 down to the termination of the esophagus in dry, 

 bulky masses. These separate the lips of the 

 groove or demi-canal and pass into the first or 

 second stomachs. After they have been macera- 

 ted in the fluids of these cavities, they are re- 

 turned to the mouth by a reverse peristalic action, 

 the food being shaped into globular pellets by 

 compression within a sort of mould formed by 

 the ends of the demi-canal, drawn together. Af- 

 ter its second mastication, it is again swallowed 

 in a pulpy semi-fluid state ; and it now passes 

 along the groove which forms the continuation of 

 the esophagus, without opening its lips, and is 

 thus conveyed into the third stomach, whence it 

 passes into the fourth. Now that the condition of 

 the food, as to bulk and solidity, is the circumstance 

 which determines the opening or closure of the 

 lips of the groove, and which consequently regu- 

 lates its passage into the first and second stomachs, 

 or into the third and fourth, appears from the ex- 

 periments of Flourens, who found that when the 

 food, the first time of being swallowed, was artifi- 

 cially reduced to a soft and pxdx>y condition, it 

 passed for the most part along the demi-canal into 

 the third stomach, as if it had been ruminated — 

 only a small portion finding its way into the first 

 and second stomachs." 



Now, as we have before intimated, if the amy- 

 laceous food passes without mastication into the 

 true stomach, it lacks, not only the condition, but 

 an important element necessary to its digestion, 

 the saliva, and consequently the digestive pro- 

 cess cannot be so perfect. In all probability, the 

 fluids secreted by the paunch, which permeate 

 th$ alimentary mass, also takes some part in the 

 changes requisite to its assimilation. That there 

 is a necessity in the case of the cow and other 

 ruminants, for the food being temporarily lodged 

 in this great receptacle, is sufficiently proved by 

 the fact that the provision for it exists. The calf 

 requires no such provision, because its food being 

 of a different character, is digested by the gas- 

 tric juice, and not by the saliva. 



Our friend further asks : " If the corn is ground 

 into fine meal can it be chewed any finer ? If 

 not, why the necessity of mixing it with cut and 

 moistened hay?" We think in what we have al- 

 ready said, these questions are, or should be very 

 satisfactorily answered. But we will give a 



further reason : The finer the grain is ground the 

 greater surface is presented to the immediate ac- 

 tion of the fluids of the digestive apparatus. Any 

 soluble substance is more readily acted on when 

 finely pulverized, than when in a solid mass. 

 We have now given our authority for the state- 

 ments made in our former article, and have an- 

 swered, we think, satisfactorily, the question why 

 it is necessary to mix "fine meal with cut and 

 moistened hay." No doubt some portion of the 

 corn when fed in the ear will pass into the first 

 stomach for the same reason that other coarse 

 food does. An error of our friend of the Journal 

 has led us to detect an inadvertence in our ac- 

 count of the digestive organs of the ruminants. 

 The office of the "second stomach," is not, as he 

 states, to force the food back "into the gullet." 

 but to hold the water necessary to macerate the 

 food. " The liquid swallowed," says Dr. Car- 

 penter, " seems to be specially directed into the 

 second cavity, the reticulum. It is here that the 

 peculiar provision of 'water cells' is found, for 

 which the camel, has long been so celebrated, but 

 which exists in a greater or less degree in all ru- 

 minants. These cells are bounded by muscular 

 fasciculi, by the contraction of one set of which 

 their orifices may be closed and their contents 

 retained ; whilst by that of another set, the fluid 

 they contain may be expelled into the general 

 cavity of the stomach." 



It is said that "necessity is the mother of in- 

 vention." We happen to know that Mr. Straub 

 run for a long time, a corn and cob crusher by 

 the steam power use,.d in his establishment, the 

 meal was fed to cattle and horses, but it was as- 

 certained that the irritation and disease to which 

 we referred, became quite common among the 

 animals fed upon it. He then run the crushed 

 corn and cob through the burr mill, and reduced 

 it to " fine meal ;" but this required extra labor, 

 to save which, Mr. Straub directed his inventive 

 powers and produced the mill which does the 

 work at one operation ; and as our friend of the 

 Journal desires light on this subject, we will 

 briefly state that there are two heavy circular 

 plates of steel, encased within an iron covering, 

 around the spindle ; one plate is stationary and 

 the other revolves with the spindle ; they are so' 

 adjusted that they act like a pair of shears and 

 cut and break the cob into short pieces as the 

 ears are passed into an opening like that of an 

 ordinary corn sheller, these pieces fall directly 

 between the stones and are ground fine. 



In the May number of the Michigan Farmer 

 for 1855, we learn that one of the editors of that 

 paper, after feeding corn and cob meal for two* 

 months to his cattle and horses, discovered the 

 irritating effects of the food upon one of his 

 horses, and writes to Dr. Dadd, and alludes to 

 the case as follows : 



" For the purpose of testing by actual trial, 

 the value of corn and cob meal, after removing 

 upon our farm, we procured a supply at once. 

 Commenced with a full feeding the first of Jan- 

 uary last, and continued two months, giving to 

 horses and cattle. After a month's feeding, feb- 

 rile symptoms were occasionally observed in one 



