Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1867-12-27
Selection and Preparation of Win.
Ter Food for AnimRIs.-NO. III.
Vror, 4bo Purag Nam Vorker
DOES 1T PAY To COOK FOOD ?

NOuu AoE
From the Rural New Yorker.
DOES 1T PAY To COOK FOOD?
This question is the all important one;
for il it does not pay balance over the
expense, then no profit can accrue from its
practice. We have endeavored TO bring
this question TO the test Of accurate expe-
riments, and have found that sixteen
pounds Of hay cut and steamed is equal to
twenty-four pounds Of the same hay I'M
cooked. The animals fed upon the steamed
hay improve, while those fed upon the
unsteamed barely held their own. We
have stated that halFRhay and half straw
mixed and cooked is equal to hay I'M
cooked. But we think our experiments
will warrant the statement that on~fourth
TO one-third hay and two-thirds to three
fourths straw, well steamed, is equal to the
same quantity of hay uncooked. While
fattening cattle we tried an experiment
with ten head, feeding them for two weeks
with uncooked meal. The ten head were
given three bushels Of meal upon steamed
hay per day, which they easily consumed.
Then we took bushe and half of meal,
made into a thin pudding, stirred in six
bushels of short cut hay, cooked IL all
thoroughly in a large kettle, and fed this
amount daily to the same ten steers, with
whatever hay they would eat, for two
weeks. This seemed TO satisfy them even
better than the three bushels uncooked,
and they appeared TO gain faster. This
same amount was cooked and fed them af-
forwards for three months, when they were
ready for the butcher, and were pronounced
as well fattened as some other animals
which we learned had been fed eight
months on larger quantities of uncooked
meal.
Mr.. Geo. Geddes, who has fed pork ex-
tensively, says cooked meal is worth double
for feeding hogs. Geo. A. Moore, who has
experimental with sheep and cows, says;
81 think cutting and steaming combined
insure gain tothe feeder of at least thirty
three per cent" Mr.. Mason, of New Jer-
sey, found that pork fed upon raw corn
cost i2t cents per pound, and that from
cooked corn 44 cents. James buckingham,
as detailed in the Prairie Farmer, found
that hog fed one and bushels
Of raw meal gained nineteen pounds, and
another fed one bushel Of cooked meal
gained twenty-five pounds. Mr.. VIM.
Birnie, of Massachusetts,, who has cooked
the feed for a milk dairy Of some fifty cows
for years, regards the gain by cooking as
more than thirty-three per cent Prof
Horsfall, Of England, who has kept COWS
for milk, and experimental on different
methods of preparation, says, 81 cooked
or steamed food for several years, and my
experience of its benefits is such that if /
were deprived of it could not continue
10 feed with satisfaction"
And thus, all who have given cooking a
fair trial, put the gain at from thirty three
10 one hundred per cent. The testimony is
uniform, and must carry conviction to the
unpreiudiced mind.
COST OF COOKING.
Next, let us see what it costs TO cook
food, that the reader may determine
whether il pays. When cooking for forty
eight head of cattle and six horses, we
found that il took two men and n boy, on
the average, two and a half hours per day
20 cut, mix and steam the food for them
We estimated the labor, including the feed.
ing, as equal TO ten hours per day for one
man. After the food is cooked the labor
of feeding is less than in the ordinary way
1t took ten cords Of two feet, or five cords
Nl lhul ltNk ANAAANAh NbOA ~ aAfAlA III AAlt
season, worth about $50. We regarded the
extra expense of labor, over common feed
ing, at 500, added TO the wood makes $50
rs the whole extra expense. The amount
saved could not have been less that $40 per
head, or $40. The saving in amount Of
food alone would equal this, besides being
able TO use much coarse fodder, thst would
otherwise have been wasted.
APPARATUS FoR COOKING.
We promised in our last TO describe. in
this the proper apparatus. Our space is
limited, but we will do something TO assist
our readers in this matter. A brought
iron hollow cylinder, one.eighth of an inch
thick, thirty inches in diameter, four to six
feet long, with quarter-inch iron heads,
hand hole in front end 20 clean il out, Sc
cured by iron stopper with rubber pack
ing also a stop.cock in this end from
which 10 draw hot water; a one inch steam
pipe coupled 10 the opof the boiler, reach
ing over the brick arch down 10 the bottom
Of the steam box, entering the side near the
center; also, short pipe on top with a
stop>ccck through which 10 ell the boiler
with a tunnel. Ii should be filed about
two-thirds full Of water. The boiler must
be set in a brick arch, raised above the
CRATE, walls sixteen inches apart. The FIRE
is conducted under the length Of the boil
er, raised some at back end, then carried
along each side 10 near front end in flue
and back in another hue above this to the
chimney. This leaves the front end Of the
boiler exposed. There should be three
sixteenth iron front 90 receive the end Of
the boiler, extending from bottom Of ash
Dit 10 top Of boiler, in which are the door:
for fuel and ash pit. The six feet boiler
will have a capacity 10 cook food for any
number of animals mp TO two hundred, and
will cost, including 'front.' CRATE, steam pipe
all complete, 500. A steam Dor should be
made With two-inch slaves and hooped
with strong band iron. Of such size that il
will hold one, and better, two days feed
for stock, with a close-htiing cover, held
down by shore. We Ese one OF these
boilers.
CHEAP STEAMER.
For small stock, cheap arrangement
may be got up, by setting caldron kettle