SENECA COUNTY A'A SOCIETY.—ETC. 
15 
If food is to be cooked, on a small scale, boiling 
may be cheapest; if on a large scale, steaming is 
not only cheapest, but infinitely more compact; for 
the former would require a very large, or several 
furnaces, for different sets of kettles, whereas, the 
latter may be done with one small furnace, steamer, 
and pipe, as shown in the cut, with any reasonable 
number of vats or tubs surrounding, in which to 
steam the food. Tn order to do this, the steam pipe 
must be made movable with a screw, flexible, or be 
composed of some material that when the food is 
cooked in one tub, the pipe can be turned and in¬ 
serted into another. We have seen no less than 
five tubs, holding 150 gallons each, surrounding a 
small steamer, all of which could be filled with 
food and cooked within twenty-four hours. Three 
tubs, however, are usually sufficient for a large 
stock, in which the food of the first may be cook¬ 
ing, that in the second cooling, wdiile that in the 
third is being fed out. A single person may be 
able to oversee, and efficiently manage all these 
operations. 
The following table in the Edinburgh Journal of 
Agriculture, shows very nearly the increase of bulk 
of different kinds of grain boiled to bursting. 
of oats increased to 
7 measures. 
“ barley “ 
10 
U 
<£ buckwheat or bran 
14 
(6 
“ maize increased to 
13 
c. 
“ wheat “ “ 
10 
u 
“ rye “ 
15 
cc 
“ beans “ “ 
8 h 
cc 
Boiled food, especially in winter, is much more 
nutritious, if fed as nearly blood warm as possible. 
If quite cold, or, above ail, if in the least degree 
frozen, we doubt whether it is so beneficial as if 
uncooked—grain and meal we are Certain are not; 
for animals will eat the raw, cold, more greedily 
than they will the cooked. Stock fed upon cooked 
food will eat more of it than if uncooked, and lie 
down quicker to rest. Of course all this is better 
for them, as they will thrive faster, look finer, and 
do more work. 
Steaming Apparatus.— Fig. 1. 
The furnace, steamer, and tub, are so plainly 
delineated in the above cut, that they need no ex¬ 
planation. In cooking potatoes and other roots, the 
tub should have a false bottom perforated with 
numerous small holes, and set resting on blocks from 
3 to 4 inches above the true bottom. The steam- 
pipe should enter the tub nearest to the true bottom. 
The steam is thus introduced between the two bot¬ 
toms, quickly rises upward, and is evenly diffused 
through the whole of the food. While the cook¬ 
ing process is going on, the top of the tub should 
be kept down as tight as possible, so as to prevent 
the escape of any steam. In cooking grain or meal, 
the false bottom must be taken out and the tub filled 
with water, as the steam heats the water and brings 
it to a boiling point as readily as a blaze or hot 
coals around a kettle. 
Steaming is said to do its work more thoroughly 
than boiling, as it is so insinuating, it easily enters 
and bursts all the minute globules in the grain and 
vegetables. Be this as it may, certain it is, that 
either process renders the food more digestible, and 
easier assimilated by the absorbing vessels, and 
therefore more economical. 
It is particularly beneficial to 
give hard-working horses or oxen, 
just as much wholesome, cooked 
food, as they can eat, soon after 
coming in at night. Toiling all day 
in the open air, man appreciates 
and knows well the benefit of a 
warm, hearty supper. Let him re¬ 
member, then, that a warm mess and 
abundance of it, is equally bene¬ 
ficial to the animals which a kind 
Providence has given him as effi¬ 
cient aids in his arduous labor. If 
southern planters also would give 
their mules cooked instead of raw 
food, at noon and night, we are 
persuaded it would put an end to 
the colic, so often destructive 
among them. Cooking would also 
considerably economize the food. 
Seneca County Ag. Society. —We are favored 
with the annual proceedings of this Society. It dis¬ 
tributed about $300 in premiums at its last show, and 
has a goodly number of members. The average pro¬ 
duct of wheat in Seneca county, is 15 bushels per 
acre ; barley, 14; oats, 35 ; and corn, 27. The Presi¬ 
dent of the Society, John Delafield, Esq., states in his 
address, that the cost of raising an acre of wheat 
in round numbers, is $13 ; that in order to make the 
crop pay, a larger average must be produced, which 
he demonstrated could be easily done under an im¬ 
proved state of husbandry, as many farms in the 
county still average from 20 to 35 bushels per 
acre. The number of sheep in the county is esti¬ 
mated at 7,000, mostly Merinos. We notice that 
the President of the Society took the first premium 
for the best farm. This speaks highly for Mr. D., 
as it is but a short time since he left this city, and 
commenced the cultivation of mother earth. 
Seidlitz Powders. —Each dose contains 25 
grains of tartaric acid in the white paper, and 30 
grains super-carbonate of soda, mixed with two 
drachms of glauber salts, in the blue. 
