Year: 1877

Joshua Forsyth, farmer, of Pember-
ton, N. j., wrote the American farmers
club asking if it pays to cut fodder, such
as cornstalks. wheat straw, hay, ETC., to
be mixed with wheat, bran, corn meal
and similar materials, and steam the
mixture for mich COWS. Also, does
steaming and thoroughly cooking hog
feed pay for fatteDing hogs ,-. -,


A New Jersey farmer of experience
said that cutting and steaming feed for
domestic animals is an economical process
except when the work is done no an ex-
ceedingly small scale. Itrequires as much
fuel and as many Cutters and steamlng
appliances to cut and steam feed for two
cows as for ten, and takes man as long
to make fire and steam box of feed
for only one COW and one horse as for
half score of animals. Therefore, if a
&rmer has only three or four cows and a
horse or two, the expense incident to
procuring steaming appliances and the
labor of cooking the feed would more
than cancel the gain or saving in conse-
quence OF cooking the feed. No ele-
ments of nutrition are added by cooking.
The process simply renders the crude
and otherwise unavailable atoms OF nu-
triment assinilable by the digestive
organs. It would not pay to put grass
through fodder cutter and afterward
steam it before the food was dis
tributed to live stock, for the reason
that all the elements of nutrition IN good
grass are available to live stock without
having been steamed. 1t will not pay
to steam hay of prime quality, for. the
reason that live stock will extract all the
nourishment there is in the succulent
leaves and stems without having been
steamed. But when hay is made OF
dead ripe grass the leaves and stems
are often so hard that the nourishment is
not available sitter it has been eaten.
Many of the sheaths, leaves and the
husks of the stalks of Indian corn are 30
hard and rough that live stock cannot
avail themselves of the nutriment such
fodder will yield unless it is cut and
steamed. Clean and. bright straw con-
tains large percentage Of gum, starch
and oil which will make milk and fatten
neat cattle OF sheep, provided the rough.
ness, the coarseness and the solidlty OF
the leaves and stems can be broken down,
so that when the animals eat the mass
their digestive powers may obtain the
no1rishment that exists in the rough
material. When whole grain is fed to
neat cattle large percentage OF what Is
eaten will pass undigested. This farmer
has tried the experiment so often OF feed
iag whole grain against the practice OF
feeding cooked food that hezis satisfied
there is saving of fully one-third OF
all sorts of grain by firstngrindlng and
steaming the mass before it is fed out.
In preparing for steaming food care must
be taken not to expend, too much for
the steaming apparatus. The speak
er made a cheap steam boiler, which,
placed on a kitchen stove, is suth-
Gent with one scuttle, of stove coal to
cook the breakfast for the family and to
steam five hundred swine. This little
boiler consists of two cast iron cylinder
heads about sixteen inches in diameter,
aud the circumference is galvanized
boiler iron, extending from one head to
the other. Twenty-one inch-and-a-aaf
iron tubes extend from one head to the
other, the ends passing through the
heads and rivited on the outside to rem
der the boiler water tight. The smoke
and flame from the fire pass. through the
tubes and heat the water in tie boiler in
a short time. The steam is driven out
through a small pipe in Che upper cylln-
der head, and is conducted through gas
pipe to the steam box in which cnt fod-
der and meal are placed preparatory to
being steamed. Such boiler could be
placed on cheap stove in the kitchen or
in the cellar and steam sent In pipes
two hundred feet distant TO the barn
or piggery to cook food. By this arrange
ment all danger incident to having fire
about out buildings would be avoided.
When one has such cheap and conven-
lent apparatus the gain by way of cooking
feed will far exceed the cost over and
above the small expense of feeding rough
and uncooked feed. .-..
Domestic Recipes.


To PREPARE MUTTON CHoPs.-Take
eight or more fat covered mutton chops,
pare well, season with salt, pepper and
grated nutmeg; put them i'll a saucepan
with four ounces of hot clarified butter;
cook rare, drain in dish, especially of
the butter; pour a pint of Espagnole
sauce over the chops; let cool; mean
while have as many sheets of large, thick
note paper as there are chops, cut them
in heart shape and oil them, spread them
on the table, put two very thin slices Of
cooked ham or beef tongue on each
paper. one on each side, then place the
chop with its sauce ON the right side,
hold the paper over, and with the fore
finger and thumb Of the right hand
twist the edges of the paper over in very
close, tight folds repeat the same opera
ton for every chop; fifteen minutes be-
fore serving put the whole in a large Hat
baking pan, and bake light brown color
in moderately hot oven dish them IN
a circle and send bowl of brown Italian
sauce along with them.


To MAKE MERINGUED APPLES
Peel and skin dozen apples and take
out the cores cook them Eip a saucepan
with butter, sugar and the, rind OF q
lemon chopped fine; reduce to thick
consistency; dish up in pyramid in the
center.of dish an hour before serving
cover the. pyramid with a layer of mer-
ingue; make up sheet Of strong paper
in the form Of long funnel with hole
the size of large pencil at the point ;
fasten the top with pin; fill it with a
sufficient quantity of meringue; close
the large end by folding the paper, and