Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1871-01-12
Cutting and Cooking Food for Stock

In many sections Of the country it is a
question, slow can we keep our stock to
the greatest advantage during our long
wintersg We cannot provide the neces-
sary hay, grain and fodder to keep the
amount of stock we would be glad to keep,
to provide 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
accomplished except by cutting and steam
ing their food.
Cutting fodder does not add any more
nutriment, we admit, but 1t 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 go farther, another point is gained
If better digestion secures more nutriment
from the food administered, and less
amount is wasted in excrement, less
amount of food will be required. by
steaming we get still farther increase of
nutriment Professor Agassiz, the illus
clear, plain and unmistakable language,
the reason why food for domestic animals
should be prepared, 1t being promised that
the food we give our stock is not that which
nature provides at first hands, but is dried
and mechanically altered in many 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 Ii must save the secretion OF
saliva TO an enormous extent, and there
fore relieve the animal from a phSsiologi-
cal labor which Is very manifest have
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 alimentary canal-and, in fact, TO all
the secretory surfaces of the digestive APP
paratus. Now, where does that come
from From the blood; and if you sup.
ply the food SO far softened 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 re.
sults--that your steam performs q part OF
the operation which your animal has to do
itself by its secretions." We have already
alluded to the importance Of thorough
mastication, in regard to digestion, and
that one of the most prolific sources of in
digestion, and diseases which almost inva-
riably follow it, is the presentation OF i'm
perfectly masticatcd 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 we'll understood that the
wants of the horses system demand that
he shall eat rapidly; he consequently per-
forms the masticating process imperfectly.
Now the structure of the horses stomach
is such that the digestion Of partially
broken, or even whole grain, is better Sc
cured than in some other animals. But as
every farmer knows much of the grain is
passed wholly undIgested. For dairy cows
we have found that cutting and steaming
food pays largely. q
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 warm,
thin cruel, will give much more milk than
n fed dry. Warmth Is great requisite In
cold weather, and is one of the advantages
of SCANNING. Every dairyman knows how
exposure to q cold storm will make his
cows fan Of in milk. It Is important that
they should have water In the barn, and Il
possible that il should not DO too cold
Cows giving milk drink much more than
fhttening animals, or than they win them