Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1876-06-09
Cooking Food for Cattle.

Mr. Cheever of the New England Farmer
gives description of visit to the barns OF
Hon. b. j. Stone of Westboro aud his meth.
cd of cooking food for stock, together with his
reflections thereon, of such practical value
that we copy it in full.
At Mr.. Stones barn, we saw the thirty
Ayrshires of all ages, from ten years or more
down to as many weeks, take their evening
meal of steamed feed, which had been cook
ing several hours in 4 large, wooden box,
mounted on wheels for convenience in trans
porting the contents from the boiler to all
parts Of the barn floor. This box is the
largest one we have ever seen used for this
purpose 1t is about eight feet long by four
feet wide and three feet high, and holds
sixty bushels. This is filled as full as it can
be crowded, once day, with cut hay, corn
stalks, corn meal and shorts intimately min
gled and then steamed thoroughly till the
ibers Of the hay and stalks are soft, and un-
til the grain is converted into pudding rather
than dough. A few grains Of corn which we
found among the husks were nearly as soft
and easily crushed between the fingers as
hulled corn when it comes to our dining
room tables ... 3D.. ......... ....
The grain ration is made up of shorts, fine
feed and cob meal in equal proportions by
measure. The sixty bushels Of steamed food
are given to the thirty animals at two meals,
night and morning, allowing each a bu,hel
at feeding. After the mixed fodder is con-
sumed, forty pounds of shorts are poured into
the box to absorb the hay tea which accumu-
lates from the steam which is condensed un-
der the hay. This is given to the cows in
milk, and to young calves before they are
old enough to live entirely on the coarser food
About FIVE pounds Of dry hay are fed to each
animal at noon, and seven pounds per day Of
steamed fodder, making only twelve pounds
OF hay and other coarse fodder, which Mr.
Stone values at $50 per ton on the average.
The grain costs 1925 per day and the hay
800 which makes the cost of keeping each
animal about nineteen cents, not reckoning
all the young animals which live largely up
on milk.
Mr.. Stone has very large tubular boiler
set in basement room, free from danger by
FIRE, and from this room, which il connected
with and opens to the barn floor, the warm
air rises and communicates gentle warmth
through the whole building The barn is
one OF the most convenient and economically
arranged structures we have ever seen, being
100 feet long by 52 wide, with cellar under
the whole, and ample sheds on either side OF
the yard. The sheds are used for poultry,
swine, carriage room aud water trough for
cattle.
| The water is excellent, and is distributed
at convenient points through all the buildings,
being warmed at the stable by pipe from
the steam boiler, when the weather makes i
desirable to do 70. The present owner wai
fortunate in buying place which had re
Gently been fitted up after the most approved
pattern as a milk aud dairy farm. The fam
lily kitchen, with its hot and cold water al.
ways at hand, and fitted up in the most con
venient style, would naturally excite littl'
envy in the heart of many a tired, oyer
worked farmers wife MIR. Stone make
the raising Of Ayrshire stock speciality anC
has been successful 10 obtaining high price
for some Of his animals during the past few
years. As tho increase Of healthy stock j
more of an object than immediate returns a
the pail, Mr.. Stone does not, probably, crow'
the feed TO his COWS as do some of our mill
farmers who feed especially for milk.
The impression VIC gOined by our visit b
this herd. was that warm barn, tight bu
well.ventilated stable, and kind treatment 0
all the animals kept in it, have much to d
in making the business of stock raising
success. MIR. Stone certainly loves his ami
mails, and they also love him, aud it annoy
him exceedingly TO SEQ animals i'll treated 0
: poorly cared ioT by others. ...........
) We have visited barns where steaI
was used, and have found the floor aoOde
by water from leaky steam pipes, or wors
yet, by hay tea from the steam box, an
where the covering boards aud rafters weI
all coated with frost from the oondense
, steam that leaked from some portions Of tn
apparatus. And we have seen COWS fed Q
: steamed food in stables so loose ami open
the wintry weather. that the feed would a
most freeze before the cattle had time to eI
8 it. Feeding steamed food under such ci
8 oumstanOes seems like beginning job at Il
A wrong end-like saving at the spigot au
= aud wasting at the buOg
= The conclusion we are inclined to adop
< after all our investigations Of this subject,
a that, If one has considerable quantities