Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-01-19
G0lorcestcr Daily Spp,
FOOD OF ANIMALS.

The state and condition of an animal will
regulate the quantity of food necessary to sus-
tain it, The larger the muscles and bones,
the greater will be the daily waste, and conse-
quently the greater the quantity of food neces-
sary to be given to it. If you wish to convert
hay, straw, &C., of your farm into manure,
keep large animals, and feed them generously
in dark stables; this prevents them from being
disturbed and becoming restless anything that
excites or causes an animal to be alarmed
increases the natural waste, and diminshes the
effects of food.
The absence of light, however produced
sOothes and quietS all animals, disposes them
TO rest, and makes less food necessary. Sour
food tattens animals more rapidly than sweet /;
green heritage of all kinds, collected and al
lowed to get sour in water, will fatten pigs
that would not thrive on it before because
Tactic acid, the acid of milk is formed which
fayors the growth of thepig. Brewers grains,
when sour, will tatten cows and other animals
more rapidly than when sweet
Boiled or steamed potatoes, turnips, carrots,
&c, is far more economical food for growing
stock, and even working horses and oxen than
when fed raw. 1t is a curious fact, that the
age of food affects its value in the nourishment
of animals. New oats for example, are not
fit for food for horses until they are seven or
eight months old they affects the heels, legs
and kidneys, and make the horse unfit for work
You may even dry new oats in a kiln, and they
will still be unfit for use. In the time specified
some unknown chemical change takes place in
the interior of the grain.
The potato, on the other hand, by keeping,
loses much of its nutritive value, even before
it begins to sprout turnips, carrots, parsnips,
&C., which have started into flower, add much
less than before to the weight of fattening
stock. The production of manure is an OBJ
Ject of equal importance with the production
of milk, or the fattening of stock. The guam
tity of manure depends upon the quality of
food necessary to sustain the animal; with the
exception of the carbon, which escapes from
the lungs in the shape of carbonic acid nearly
the whole of the food which sustains the
body is supposed to be rejected in the form of
excrement The quality of manure depends
entirely upon the food given to an animal
and the purposes for which it is fed. A full
grown animal which does not increase in
weight returns in its excretions nearly all that
it eats.
With the fattening animals it is different
the food must sustain, and at the same time
form additional fat. As fattening cattle are
fed on corn, oil cake, &C., besides their ordi-
nary food, their manure is much richer than
other stock differently fed. We all know of
certain old pastures, that, time out of mind,
have been celebrated for their fattening quail
ties, and although no manure has been artiic-
tally placed upon them, still they have become
no less valuable. The reason is, that full
grown stock have been turned upon them an
nually, that have already their full supply of
bone, and sufficient quantity of muscle they
consequently only extract fat from the grass
they eat, and return to the soil, phosphate of
lime, saline matter, and nitrogen, and thus
they are only indebted to the land for fat, and
as the atmosphere supplies this matter to the
grass, the land has not been robbed of any
thing, and continues fertile. Suppose you
were to place mich cows upon such pasture,
they would exhaust the food that passes
through their digestive organs, of the phos-
phate of lime, salts, gluten, and starch, and
transform them into milk. The consequence
would be rapid sterility.-Ohio VALLEY Farmer,
Nouember.