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WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
ergetic, and have skill in dairy management, California, in my 
opinion, offers some inducements which cannot be readily 
found elsewhere. 
CONCLUSION. 
Cooking Food for Animals .—In conclusion it may not be out 
of place to refer briefly to the cooking of food for animals, as 
it begins to occupy the attention of dairymen. 
Mr. E. W. Stewart, of N. Y., who has experimented and 
written largely on this subject says: “Steaming food is less 
practicable, but even more important than cutting. Cooking 
food for animals is of comparatively recent date. A brief no¬ 
tice of its rationale will demonstrate its importance, as well to 
animals as to man. 
Perina says: “ To render starchy substances digestible, 
they require to be cooked in order to break or crack the 
grains ; for of the different lamina, of which each grain con¬ 
sists, the outer ones are the most cohesive, and present the 
greatest resistance to the digestive po wer of the stomach, while 
the internal ones are the least so.” 
“Starch,” says Raspail, “ is not actually nutritive to man 
until it has been boiled or cooked. The heat of the stomach 
is not sufficient to burst all the grains of the feculent mass 
which is subjected to the rapid action of this organ. 
“ The stomachs of graminiverous animals and birds, seem to 
possess, in this respect, a particular power, for they use fecu¬ 
lent substances in a raw state. Nevertheless, recent experi¬ 
ments prove the advantage that result from boiling the pota¬ 
toes and grain, and partially altered farina, which are given to 
them for food ; for a large proportion, when given whole, in 
the raw state, passes through the intestines as perfectly unaf¬ 
fected as when swallowed.” 
Braconnot found unbroken starch grains in the excrement 
of hot blooded animals fed on raw potatoes ; hence he adds, 
“ The potatoes employed for feeding cattle should be boiled, 
since, independently of the accidents which may arise from the 
use of them in a raw state, a considerable quantity of alimen- 
