to t/ie Rearing and Feeding of Cattle. 
235 
hay, the economy of force exhibited in cutting the latter is well 
jutlij^ed. 
I am quite aware many farmers entertain the opinion that 
cutting hay is only of use in the facilities which it affords for 
mixing with the hay straw or other inferior fodder. Straw, except 
when new, is not a very nutritious food, for we find a great part 
of it unchanged in the faeces of the animal fed upon it. Its 
principal use is to give a bulk to the food taken. Even in the 
case of turnips, a food of considerable bulk, straw is necessary, 
because they contain nearly 90 per cent, of water, which becomes 
soon separated. Thus it is that cattle fed upon turnips volun- 
tarily take 2 or 3 lbs. of straw daily, or as much as will serve to 
give the necessary bulk to the food. The digestive process of 
herbivorous animals is very complicated. The food is primarily 
taken into the first stomach or rumen, which is analogous to 
the crop in birds. Here it is moistened with a secretion from 
the stomach. The coarse unmasticated food is from thence 
transmitted into the second stomach, or reticulum, where it is 
rolled up into little balls, one of which from time to time is 
returned to the mouth to be further comminuted and insali- 
vated. After this reduction, it is sent into the manyplus or third 
stomach, where it is further reduced to a pulpy mass, and 
in this state enters the fourth stomach, where true digestion 
commences. The object of the three first stomachs being merely 
to obtain a proper comminution of the food, it is necessary to 
have that food of sufficient bulk, otherwise the peristaltic motion 
of the stomach would be impeded. This would appear to be the 
reason forgiving straw with turnips and other kinds of succulent food. 
The expression of the farmer is " that straw corrects their watery 
nature," which means, increases their bulk when their water has 
left them and reduced their volume. Rumination is requisite in 
order to keep an ox in health. A little straw or hay is accord- 
ingly necessary to enable it to chew the cud. We know a case in 
which barley-meal and boiled potatoes were given to cows without 
hay or straw. Constipation resulted, and the cattle nearly pe- 
rished from the ignorance of the feeder. 
From these considerations we are induced to consider that a 
greater return will be made by food partly but not too much 
reduced. The turnip-slicer is known to save food, and this arises 
from the fact that the sheep expend less force in eating sliced than 
whole turnips, and to their being enabled to lie down more con- 
stantly. On similar grounds are we to ascribe the advantage of 
steaming food, or reducing it to the state which the first three 
stomachs would otherwise have to do at a great expenditure of 
force, and consequently of food to produce it. 
I am desirous of explaining to you on rational grounds your 
