Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1853-12-12

COOKING FOOD FOR Hoes. AT the u S. Ag-
ricultural Society, Annual Meeting, j. j. Mapes.
or the Working Farmer stated that " there was
the great fact that Is IL lbs of cooked corn meal
would produce as much meat and muscle as
40 lbs, of uncooked But Farmers would not be-
lieve this without endorsement, from a respectable
source"
Every one must admire the fractional accuracy
of this important statement. Some few, howev-
er, viii be disposed to doubt the fact although
SO confidently stated by the Professor. tits gem
orally admi ted that cooked food is more nutritious
than uncooked. But Wilt pay? That depends
to great extent. on the price of food If co n is
worth Is cents per bushel, it is plain thai it viii
not pay to expend much money either for cooking
or crushing it but where food is high, small
quantity saved, pays for considerable labor, &c,
When conducting some experiments on Sheep
feeding at Rothamstead, we found that crushed
harley, soaked for thirty six hours in cold water
before using, gave more increase of animal than
when not soaked On the other hand, crushed
malt soakedin the sameway, didnot increase the
weight of the sheep so much as that not soaked.
The figures are four sheep, in ten weeks, eat 2S9
pounds crushed barley not STEPPED, and 1857 lbs
of mangel wurtzel, and increased in live weight
81 pounds while four sheep with barley crushed
and stepped, eat $50 lbs, and 1921 lbs mangel
wurtzel, increasing l0l IL lbs. Four sheep with
crushed malt not stepped eat in ten weeks 227 | 2
lbs, and 3, 755 lbs mangel wurtzel, and increas-
ed 81 lbs; while four sheep with malt, crushed
and stepped ate 226 IL lbs of malt, and A. 45S
lbs. mangel wurtzel, and gained only rs lbs In
the process of mailing, the starch of the barley is
converted into sugar, which is much more soluble
than starch; thence the soaking of barley is attend
ed with much benefit, while malt is better dry
We have been led to these remarks by seeing
some experiments in theIriSh Farmers Gazette
on fattening hogs on cooked and uncooked ruta
bagas. Eight hogs were selected and divided in
to two lots, as evenly as could be, and put IN to
tatten on the 18th Nov, 1862. Each lot was fed
regularly three times day, having each l2lbs of
barley meal, the only difference being that one lot
had steamed ruta bagas. The experiment was
continued 80 days the lot having cooked food,
eat 469 lbs BRAN &C., and l0,92Olbs. rutas bagas,
and increased l03 lbs.-while the lot having an
cooked food eat 469 lbs. bran. &C., and only 5460
lbs. of ruta bagas, and gained ITO lbs. 1t will
be seen that the lot with cooked food eat more
than much again ruta bagas as the lot having
uncooked. and at the same time did not gain SO
much iniweight byi8 lbs.
We are afraid to trust these figures in regard
to the amountof ruta bsgas eaten, yet we see no
reason to doubt the fact that the hogs on uneook-
ed food increased more than those fed with cook
ed food. Ruta bagas contain at least SO per cent
OF waters and when animals are fed exclusively
on them, or have a limited amount of other food
as was the case in the above experiments, they
necessarily obliged to take into their systems
more water than is conductive to health or the
accumulation of fat. 1t is probable that the
steamed iuta baga contained the most water and
hence a large quantity of water was taken into
the system, rendering a large amount of carbona.
ceous matter necessary to keep up the animal
heat, Audience the hogs on cooked, cat SO much
more than those on uncooked food. In fatteninp
hogs witkroots of any kind, it is advisable TO give
them neatly as much meal or whatever dry food
IS used az they will eat, letting them obtain the
water they require from the roots. If this had
been done we believe the above experiments
would nothave resulted so much in favor of nm
cooked food.-RuraJ Neso Yorker.