Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-11-30
Cooking the Fodder for Dairy Stock.

a CORRESPONDENT writes us that he has
been advised to adopt the practice OF
cooking food for his dairy stock the com
ing winter. He. desires to know . if there
are any objections that have been urged
against the practice, and if so, what they
are" sE H. *.-t1-..r b. ag-.. ...
While the cooking of food for stock
has been warmly urged by various writers
in this country for number of years
past, the practice does not seem to be re-
ceived with especial favor by farmers, or
at least it has not spread to the extent
that we should naturally suppose it would
if all the advantages claimed for such
feeding can be relied upon. What seems
most remarkable in connection with this
practice is that it has never found general
favor in England, where cattle foods are
comparatively dear, and where the
economy of feeding is made study by
scientific and practical minds. The En-
glish feeder prefers to cut his straw and
coarse fodder into chaff, mingling with it
pulped ,turnips and allowing the mass to
slightly ferment before feeding 1t is
stated by English authorities that cooked
food is liable to induce various diseases in
young stock, heifers being attacked with
backlog, blaek-quarter, speed, ETC.,
while Older cattle suffer from splenetic
apopleXy, sheep from broxy, and horses
from albuminouss nephrites, particularly
when cooked food has been given. These
states Of fatal disease arise from the
amount absorbed, which constitutes blood
poison. 1t is said g that in no place dc
we find these conditions so common as
where cooked food is given and collateral
states of neglect and mismanagement
occur. The chief argument against the
employment Of cooked food as an exclu
sive diet may be presented as follows:
i" Thorough masticatiOn of food isrecOm-
mended and generally admitted as all-im-
portant to the we'll being of stock. But
cooked food rarely calls forth the neces.
sary process, and no amount of cooking
will add more nutrition to the food
Mastication is essential for two purposes
to break down the food and saturate il
with an important fluid, the saliva, that
fluid etfecting important changes in the
nutritive elementsito fit them to undergo
subsequent actions by other juices of the
digestive organs. 1t is not possible to
supplant these secretions by any process
of preparation, by cooking or the addition
of. fluids. Nature has supplied vegetable
food for every season, and only requires
iarities of each and give the benefits to
animals as far as possible. Again, says
one English authority, it is decided mis-
take to cook the food of animals when it
is sound and sweet The mistake, So
called, of supplying the dry food in win
ter is more apparent than real. The ex-
ercise of common sense is called for in
order to regulate the practice with suitable
roots and proper shelter and warmth, more
than is usually done. e 5Te .s.ryI. 81
Among working horses the effects of
cooked food are something marvellous.
Collie and indigestion generally, with dis
ease of the liver and kidneys, is of com
mon and fatal occurrence. 1t may be
more easily understood to say that such
preparations are quite unnatural, as the
digestive organs are constituted to act
upon the most nutritiVe z grains.
It is also commonly believed that
animals, especially horses, pass much
away blythe bowels that ought to be di-
gested and appropriated to the system.
This question requires more philosOphi-
cal research before it can be definitely and
accurately settled; but we can go so far
as to say that when the masticatory organs
are in good order and digestion perfect, a
proper allowance of food is thoroughly
assimilated. Apparently tchole grains may
be found in the exeFement, but upon close
examination they will turn out to be the
shells only, which, by the action of the di-
gestive juices, have been Invested of their
internal nutrient parts. Some persons
look upon digestion as a process in which
everything must beutilized for the build
ing up of tissue They forget that it is
quite as essential that ether substances
should be present-these non-nutritious
in themselves, but by their constitution
and presence giving G. bulk-to the rest and
assisting in their general reduction IN the
stomach Of Che higher animals, exactly as
sand and pebbleslact in the crops of birds.
''Tbe success of feeding our domestic
animals does not lie in the way of cook
ing food and in the administration OF con-
diments. but in a iudiciousf management
generally, in which the:peeuliar features
of organization, physiology, geology, me-
teorology and hygrometrics play their re.
spective parts and agricultural success will