I860.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
331 
Economy of Food in Stall Feeding. 
HoW to fatten cheapest ? that is the question. 
Fitting an animal for the butcher, is an art that 
can only be learned by study and practice. Fif¬ 
teen, twenty, twenty live per cent in the value 
of food may be saved by the mstn who knows 
how. The question of economical fattening 
includes several others: the quantity of food to 
be given at a time; variety Of food; regularity of 
feeding; cooking food; warmth and quiet of the 
stalls, and other items. Multitudes who have 
animals to fatten, have never conducted any ex¬ 
periments to satisfy themselves upon these points, 
and have no access to reliable information. So 
each man feeds what is most convenient, and 
in the manner most convenient, and never can 
tell whether he has gained or lost by the ani¬ 
mal he sells to the butcher. To answer several 
inquiries we offer some hints upon these topics. 
The preparation of food is a matter of very great 
importance. Stalks, hay, roots, grain, etc. r do 
not impart all their nutritive qualities unless 
they are artificially prepared. Much is fouled 
so that the animal will not eat it, and much 
more is imperfectly masticated so that it is not 
digested and assimilated. It should be so pre¬ 
oared that the animal can have all the nourish¬ 
ment with the least expenditure of muscular 
energy. The less trouble fattening animals 
have, the better for their thrift. The ox, in a 
poor pastime, will not thrive as in a stall upon 
green, cut grass, though he consume, in each 
case, the same quantity of food. The sheep will 
not thrive upon whole roots and grain, as when 
they are cut and ground. The pig does better 
upon meal, than upon corn, and better still if 
the meal be softened and swelled by cooking. 
All food should be given to fattening animals 
in such a state that they may fill their stomachs 
and give themselves up to rest, and rumination, 
if they belong to the ruminants. If a farmer is 
lo fatten animals, it will pay him abundantly to 
invest in cutting machines for hay, stalks, and 
wots, and in a boiler, and steam box. 
Stalks and rough corn fodder are generally 
more than half wasted, as usually fed. Run 
them through a cutter,and steam them an hour or 
two, with a little meal, and they will be eaten up 
clean. Straw, roots, and meal are muclwbetter 
after steaming, and more highly relished. 
Fall feeding is another item of great importance 
in fattening. The object is not to get labor or 
milk, but the greatest amount of flesh and fat 
possible for the quantity of food consumed. 
The animal, therefore, should have all the food 
he will cat up clean, and be stimulated to eat at 
frequent intervals, from three to five times a day, 
according to circumstances. The bullock that 
is stuffed one day and starved the next, may 
have the desired streak of fat and lean, but he 
will be a very expensive animal. 
A variety of food is essential to keep up the ap¬ 
petite under full feeding. Even the pig will tike 
of but one thing. In fattening, we want both 
bulk and aliment in the fodder. If there be' 
stalks, straw, and hay, there should also be meal. 
If we have roots, we should also have both hay 
and meal. Perhaps there is nothing better 
than roots to keep up the appetite. They as¬ 
sist digestion, and keep the bowels open. The 
beef and mutton of England are very largely 
made of turnips, beets, and mangel wurzels. A 
change in some one of the items of food should 
be made as often as once a week. If we have 
steamed stalks and meal with sliced turnips one 
week, change the turnips to carrots or beets the 
next. The meal and roots being the same, the 
stalks may be changed for hay, or the hay and 
roots being the same, Indian meal may be 
changed for linseed oil meal, or for any kind of 
grain meal convenient to feed. 
Regular hours of feeding is another element of 
success in fattening stock. This may seem a 
small matter, but really more depends upon it 
than on almost any thing else. The most econom¬ 
ical pork maker we ever knew, was a black¬ 
smith who always fed his pigs at meal time, 
and his meals were regulated by the clock. 
Every body admired his knack at making fat 
pigs, but every body did not know his secret— 
feeding by the clock. It is surprising to see how 
readily an animal forms regular habits. The 
bullock, the pig, the sheep, looks for the stated 
allowance as regularly as the clock strikes, and 
if his wants are sj-stematically met, an improve¬ 
ment in condition is soon manifest. If fed irreg¬ 
ularly, they may consume the same amount of 
food, but they become restless and uneasy. The 
animal of regular habits, rests or ruminates im¬ 
mediately after eating, and the food is perfectly 
digested, and turned to flesh and fat. 
Quiet should be secured so far as possible, es¬ 
pecially during feeding hours. For this reason, 
stall feeding, where each animal is confined to 
a small enclosure, is much better than pasturage, 
or large open yards, where cattle worry each 
other, and may be intruded upon at any time, 
by dogs or noisy men and boys. All animais 
fatten better in the dark than in the open light, 
a fact difficult to account for, except that they 
are more quiet in a dark, secluded place. 
With these preliminary hints as to the man¬ 
ner of giving food, we come now r to the food it¬ 
self. What shall be given so that the butcher 
may not be cheated, and we get our pay for the 
fodder consumed ? A farmer must not expect 
to get the market price for what he feeds to the 
fatling. If he gets seventy five per cent, he will 
make money by the manure , if he know how to 
save it. This is the great advantage of stall 
feeding cattle for the butcher, and if a man has 
not a use for the manure upon his own land, we' 
doubt if the business can be made to pay. It is 
considered more than an average thrift, if an 
ox gains two pounds a day, worth not to exceed 
sixteen cents. The feed must be less in value 
than this per day, or the farmer will lose his 
time and make nothing by the operation. An 
ox will eat from twenty to thirty pounds of hay, 
worth half as many cents, or its equivalent in 
other kinds of provender. An ox would read¬ 
ily eat eight quarts of meal a day, and this alone, 
in the old States, would be worth the two pounds 
of beef. It is quite manifest, then, that the ma¬ 
nure making is the only thing that will make 
stall feeding pay in the North and East. 
Our climate and soil are so genial, that we 
have a large list of feeding stuffs which can be 
grown upon every farm. At the head of these 
we place Indian com for fattening purples. 
Then we have oats, buckwheat, and rye, the 
several grasses, apples among the fruits, cab¬ 
bage, turnips, parsneps, carrots, beets and pota¬ 
toes. Then if we purchase, we have linseed 
and cotton seed oil cake, ground into meal— 
both excellent articles. The following table 
shows the amount of nutritive matters contained 
in 1000 parts of several vegetable substances ex¬ 
amined in the green state. Wheat 955, Barley 
920, Oats 748, Rye 792, Beaus 570, Potatoes 260 
to 200, Linseed cake 151, Red beet 148, White 
beet 136, Parsneps 99, Carrots 99, Cabbage 73, 
Swedish turnip 64, common turnip 42. 
This list places potatoes at the head of the 
roots for feeding purposes, but it is only where 
potatoes have no ready market as human food, 
that a farmer can afford to feed them to stock. 
They will hardly pay for this purpose, at a high¬ 
er price than twenty cents a bushel. The oilier 
roots can be raised at a cost (it from six to 
twelve cents a bushel, and at this price it will 
do to feed them. It is quite manifest from these 
hints that stall feeding is a science as well as an 
art. No recipe can be given for fattening an ox 
or cow. The feeder must rely upon his own 
judgment and then, quite likely, it will be years 
before he will make money by stall feeding. 
An English Feeding Stable. 
The Country Gentleman thus describes the 
feeding stable of Mr. Horsfall, a celebrated dairy 
farmer in Yorkshire, England : The inside 
length is 42 feet; outside width 14 ft. 10 in.; 
back wall of brick, 71 ft. high ; the end walla 
also of brick, with doors. The front of the 
building, towards which the roof slopes, is about 
6 ft. high, and is composed of six; pairs of doors, 
so that the whole side can be thrown open, if 
necessary. The roof is of slate, and thatched 
underneath—a very simple English method of 
maintaining a more even temperature, and 
worthy of adoption here. The spaces between 
the roof timbers are filled with straw, lielcl in 
place by light strips «f wood. 
-4-—«rsj IBiii -» ^ - ' ■ ■ 
Comforts for Cows. 
Now that the cold season is setting in, let the 
cows, especially the milk-givers, have all need¬ 
ful attention. They should be well housed and 
well fed. The stables should be just moderate¬ 
ly warm, well ventilated, clean, and provided 
with suitable bedding. Aside from the mere 
matter of food and drink, the animals should be 
kept comfortable. This matter can hardly be 
over-estimated. 
Then, as to fodder: part of this, of course, 
should be straw and hay and corn-stalks; but 
to expect cows to give much milk on such lean 
fare, is folly. Favor them with messes of chop¬ 
ped roots, of cut straw, or stalks mixed with 
meal of some kind. A favorite ‘ mess’ for cattle, 
with a friend of ours is this: Cut up hay, or 
straw, or stalks, in pieces not more than an inch, 
or inch and a half long; jtut the provender in a 
tub or tight box, and pour boiling water upon 
it; then sprinkle on a little salt; and ceWer the 
whole with a little bran or meal to keep the 
steam in. When cold, feed it in messes of a 
bushel at a time. Good as this is, it should be 
varied from time to time, for cows like variety, 
as well as men. Cows should be saited two 
or three times a week. In mild weather they 
should range by day in a commodious yard, 
protected on two sides, at least, by covered 
sheds. And this yard should have a pen-stock 
of running water, or a trough kept full from a 
good pump: the first is the best. 
-<M- n --- 
Sorghum Sugar Wanted. —Some idea may 
be formed of the saving that can be effected, 
when sorghum sugar becomes a staple, by the 
following item communicated by Hon. Amos M. 
Roberts, of Bangor, Me. He states that he has 
from a West India merchant in Boston, one or¬ 
der amounting to twenty five thousand dollars, 
for lumber to be sawed for sugar boxes, which 
are to be shipped to Havana, and then brought 
back filled with sugar. 
