Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-04-28
WHOLE NO. Ills.
Cooking Food for Animals.

The subject of cooking food for ami
mails is one which incites frequent In
quiries and one to which We have nec-
essarily frequently referred. Like most
ether questions it has two sides and
those who have had experience have
somewhat different opinions upon it,
some of them being very set on either
| side. 1t is a matter, however, Of such
Importance to swine breeders especial
ly rs to make it worthy of profound do
liberation. We have no doubt what
ever of the general utility of cooking
food for hogs, although it is not wholly
without disadvantages. Whom corn II
cheap these disadvantages will out
weigh the advantages, and we should
feed the raw material; but when corn is
dear, it will be to the feeders interest
to cook the feed. As we remember to
have remarked in these columns once
or twice, the effect of cooked food Is
not established by feeding a great deal
of stuff which is said to be cooked but
is not. Food that is simply warmed
through is not cooked, but It goes under
that name. There may be advantages
even in that. but we are not discussing
that subject. All that we wish to say
upon it in this connection is that it is in
no sense cooked, and consequently does
not and cannot represent in its results
the results of feeding cooked food.
To appreciate the utility of cooking
food. and to know what food to cook,
the process of digestion must be under
stood, at least so far rs the office of tho
stomach is concerned. We need only
make the suggestion that the functions
OF that organ will be the more easily
performed if what is taken into it is rem
dered easily operated upon by the gas
trio juice. If for instance . stone il
taken into the stomach, or the pit of
cherry. or anything of that nature, the
gastric juice cannot effect its dissolu-
ton. and it will pess away as it was
taken in. Whatever therefore is hard
is difficult to dissolve, and the difficulty
IL Just in proportion to the hardness OF
the material to be operated upon. The
hog, it is true. OvercOmes this difficulty,
by most thorough mastication. But
corn swallowed whole is a pretty hard
material, and more difficult of digestion
than even when the smooth hard sur
face is broken by grinding. Corn meal
wifi digest much more readily than
whole corn. But all the time that is
wasted-if we may be allowed to use
the term-in digesting whole corn is in
q manner lost. The functions of the
stomach being performed with the max.
imum of difficulty, the work. is in the
nature OF being exhaustive to that Or
gan. and the system is not being sup
piled as rapidly with material for fat
making as it might be; and besides this.
as will easily be seen, it will require
m2Ff nsF faoah TT ofRshns hb IL" the reason for
cooking corn when the price of corn is
high.
The results of experimental feeding
are greatly in favor of cooking, and al
though we have from time to time given
some of them, it will do no harm to
give others, or to repeat those already
given in this place. The main object in
cooking corn, as will be inferred from
what we have already said, is to soften
it; and, therefore, what may be said in
favor Of cooking would be largely true,
at least. of any process that would
soften the hard grain. We have soaked
corn in the ear for pigs, with the most
RCSutt5s Stuu otC6luluE WOulO
answer like purpose. At seasons when
hogs can have free access to grass, soak
ing the corn will certainly do all that
cooking it will do. Winter is the time
for cooking, if at all.
But let us give the results of expert
ments. Two Chester whites were fed
as follows, they being of the same litter
and Ne. weighing 292 pounds and No.
2 weighing 2SO pounds. No. was fed
for seventeen days on cooked unground
corn. She consumed two bushels and
twenty-one quarts and gained thirty-six
pounds. No. 2 was fed for the same
length Of time on whole corn raw and
gained thirty pounds upon three BUSH
els and thirteen quarts. We believe
that that would be very fair represen.
tation of the result of the two systems.
In another experiment with four pigs
of one litter and four of another, the
first fed on raw corn and the other four
fed on cooked corn, the raw-corn hogs
gained ten pounds to the bushel, and
the cooked-corn hogs fifteen to the
bnsheL
Perhaps it is unnecessary to give fur
ther details, as those given very fairly
represent the advantages of cooked
feed. 1t may be that the results stated
cannot always be obtained; probably
not. But the odds are considerably in
favor of cooking. Yet the conditions
must be taken into consideration. In
the great corn-growing districts when
corn is cheap. we should not, as al
ready intimated, cook food for swine.
A II, all 9TH IS E. L. fl
ment be exercised. and above all things
it must not be expected that food
cooker will enable us to make fortune
on one hog or hundred hogs. That
cooking is affirmed to be good thing
does not mean that it is bonanza
Western Rurdi.