Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 March 1876 — Cooking Food for Stock. [ARTICLE]

Cooking Food for Stock.

This subject is very properly attracting more attention from farmers than it ever did before. They are beginning to inquire whether it will pay or not, anil, going further, they are beginning to experiment for themsjelves, and it will not be long before we shall have the popular verdict, which is generally correct in matters of this kind, when sufficient opportunity and facility have been given for testing! Common sense teaches every one that, on the average, food is more palatable and nutritious when cooked than it is in the raw state. The difference is not so considerable when fodder or food is ot the best quality, though even then it is conceded to improve it materially. But in the case of poor, coarse, inferior foods, the improvement which cooking makes is beyond computation, almost. Take corn fodder, for instance: In Ohio and other Western States it is a universal feed. As commonly handled, from onehalf to two-thirds of it is of no account at all, being thrown into the manure pile, where it is a source of annoyance rather than a benefit. Now, these cornstalks which litter the barnyard, and are trampled under foot all winter, contain almost as much nutriment as the best of hay; but it is locked up, so to speAk, in tough, woody fiber, so that stock will not eat it, and if they did it would not benefit them much. , When these stalks are stripped fine and steamed this woody fiber is softened, the nutriment is unlocked, and' the whole is rendered palatable to any kind of stock. The same is true of inferior hay, made of coarse, unpalatable grasses, or when cut too ripe. The advantage in the case of roots, pumpkins and other vegetables is well known to all who have investigated the matter. Hogs will eat cooked potatoes, hot, with avidity and grow fat on them, when they will utterly refuse the raw ones. “ A penny saved is a penny earned.” If it will pay to cook food, it should be done. It is certainly easier to save food than to raise Jt. The decision of all who have thoroughly tried cooking or steaming is that it saves, on the average, one-third of the food. From this it follows that onethird more stock could be kept on the same land if the practice was adopted, and there is no dcUbt that the stock_would be better kept than now. The principal difficulty seems to be the fear of the extra labor involved,i Much of this extra labor is imaginary, and much of this fear has been created by the reports of those who have tried it without proper facilities, or knowledge, or judgment, apd who have abandoned it before acquiring the ex-

perience necessary to make it successful. One who has cooked food for stock, for several years, tells us it has paid him better than any other investment he has made, and that he believes it will pay any man who has half a dozen cattle and horses to feed. Let farmers test the matter for themselves, and then they can reach proper conclusions as to profits in their own particular cases. — Ohio Farmer.