The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1871-01-14
FARM AND ITO TSEHOLD.
Cutting and Cooking Food for Stock.

In many sections of our country it is 4
question: I" How can we keep our stock to
the greatest advantage during our long
winters We cannot provide the necessary
hay, grain, and fodder to keep the amount
of stock we would be glad to keep, to pro-
vide the necessary animal manure requisite
to keep, our farms improving, or hardly to
hold their own Therefore we must try
and find some way by which we can increase
our capacity for feeding more stock, and at
the same time make more and better
manure. In no way can this be accom-
plished except by cutting and steaming
their food.
Cutting fodder does not add any more
nutriment, we admit, but it changes its
mechanical condition and enables stock to
consume it in less time. and thus have more
time for digestion.
Wherever digestion can be helped, a
point is gained, and if less amount of
food cut will so farther, another point is
gained. If better digestion secures more
nutriment from the food administered, and
a less amount is wasted in excrement, Il
less amount of food will be required. BY
steaming we get 4 still farther increase of
nutriment. Professor Agassiz, the illus
trious naturalist, shows in the following
clear, plain and unmstakable language,
the reason why food for domestic animals
should be prepared, it being promised that
the food we give our stock is not that which
nature provides ut first hands, but is dried
and mechanically altered in several ways.
Soaking or steaming restores hay to its
wonted bulk and succulence; and as Prof.
Agassiz said of this mode of preparing food
in general 1t must save the secretion of
saliva to an enormous extent, and therefore
relieve the animal from a physiological
labor which is very manifest. | lave no
doubt that must be the chief source of
relief to the cattle, because dry food must
be softened in order to be digested; and it
must be done by the secretions of the
mouth-by the Secretory surfaces Of the
allmentary canal-and, in fact, to all the
secretory surfaces of the digestive appar-
atus. Now, where does that come from ?
From the blood; and if you supply the
food so far softeued that the animal is
relieved from that physiological labor, you
place your animal in much better
condition for its work. ] have no doubt
that there is the explanation of your
results-that your steam performs a
part of the operation which your animal
has to do itself by its secretions." We
have already alluded to the Importance OF
thorough mastication, i'll regard to diges-
ton, and that one of the most prolific
sources of indigestion, and diseases which
almost invariably follow it, is the prescnta-
ton of impcrfectly masticated food to the
action of the gastric juices of the stomach.
1t is well known that the teeth of the horse
are adapted to the grinding of grain, but it
ought to be as well understood, that the
wants of the horses system demand that
he shall cat rapidly; he consequently per-
forms the masticating process impertectly.
Now the structure of the horses stomach
is such, that the digestion of partially
broken, or even whole grain, is better
secured than in some other animals But
as every farmer knows is passed wholly
undgested. For dairy cows we have
found that cutting and steaming food pays
largely.
A Saxon proverb says, "The softer the
fodder, the more milk and this is true.
Warm, soft food tends to produce milk.
The same amount OF grain fed in a warm,
thin Cruel, will give much more milk than
if fed dry. Warmth is great requisite in
cold weather, and is one Of the advantages
of steaming. Every dairyman knows how
exposure to a cold storm will make his
cows fall off in milk. 1t is important that
they should have water in the barn, and if
possible that it should not be too cold
Cows giving milk drink much more than
fattening animals, or than they will them
selves do when dry. Fat is made from the
heat-giving food, and n portion Of food by
no means uncomfortable goes to keep up
the warmth of the animal, and large guam
titles of icc-cold water taken at once must
subtract much from the animal heat. AS
a confirmation of the soundness of these
views, regarding the superiority of boiled,
over raw food for dairy cows, and tattenins
of cattle and hogs, we have only to consider
for moment what actually takes place
every day in the case of man. We here
see how greatly substances which have
been submitted to the action of the heat.
such as bread, meat, soups. broths and
other articles, surpass those used in their
natural state. a small quantity of wheat,
maize, barley or rice, well boiled. and eaten
warm with a little milk, gains in nutritive
matter an immense superiority to the same
quantity of these substances. eaten without
this preparation. The same remark is
applied to all kinds of grain.