American citizen. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1864-1890, 1872-04-20
Cooking Food for Stock.

NOTICING in the Rural Neto Yorker a
lengthy article upon the cooking of food
for stock, in answer to an inquiry from a
dairyman, whether it will pay, l take the
liberty of giving my views and expert
ence upon the subject. Location, which
fixes the value of food to be fed, is of the
most importance in arriving at a conclu-
sion ; next, the quantity of stock to be
fed. A farmer living in a district remote
from market, where fodder is only worth
fifty per cent. of the values near market,
and feeding less than forty head, in my
judgment will find it will not pay to make
the necessary outlay. But in case a like
or larger amount are fed, near market,
where fodder is comparatively high, there
is no better investment.
AS to my own experience, I am cooking
feed. This is the second winter. | have
a careful, observing farmer in his judg-
ment we saved forty per cent. of food
last winter, and the stock wintered in
much better condition than in the old
way. This winter, with improved quar-
tiers for them, the result is more satisfac-
tory their condition improved from the
day they were put up, and no objections
appear, as your English authority sug-
gests. The process is, perhaps, more sat
isfactory to dairymen than any other !;
for cows will, with this process of feed
3
they will from dry food.
Now as to the economy. If you visit
the farmer who feeds dry or natural
food, you will find, first, that in the fall
he spreads out in his yard his crop of
cornstalks; his stock will eat the leaves
and tips, if well cured; but the stalk, con-
tanning seventy-five per cent. of the nu
triment, is left to be trampled in the mud
or snow, and lost; for if you depend upon
results from manure, before it has decom-
posed for such use, seventy-tive per cent.
of the manure is washed away or passed
off in evaporation. So put it down
as seventy-tive per cent. of corn fodder
lost.
Next comes the imperfectly made straw
stacks back of the barn. Set up as a tar
get, it becomes the objective point of the
hungry herd. This is to furnish shelter
as well as food, and its sides are soon
made into holes for shelter from the
storms. Next comes the winds, and the
tall stack topples over, and it becomes
trodden under foot, and again we have
fifty to seventy-five per cent. loss. Hay,
in many cases, receives like treatment
But in most cases it is husbanded and fed
in barns.
Now, the cooking process saves all this
loss. You cannot find in my yard a
pound of straw or corn fodder; all is cut
by steam power, mixed with water and
shorts, and cooked by steam, and every
ounce eaten up by the stock, and the
manure always ready, for use, cared for.
can safely say am saving fully forty
per cent. of food, and my stock is in
much finer condition than by the old
way. During the extreme cold weather,
early in the month, our water pipes, con
veying water to the boiler, froZe up, and
the cooking process was stopped about
two weeks. Our stock became mourners,
and hung their heads when dry food was
offered them, and positively lost, with
our best efforts to prevent, ten per cent.
in condition, while eating forty per cent.
more fodder. This statement may APP
pear questionable to many of your read
ers; but only ask a trial, as evidence of
its truth. And while l do not wish to in
fiuence any one into its use by my own
experience or views, can be but an adj
vocate of its utility where circumstances
! demand economy; and l would advise,
to all iuquiring minds. personal investi-
cation, if possible.-Syracuse (N. ~ Cor,
Rurdl Nen Yorker