Farm and Garden.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 47, 16 December 1871, Page 9

Farm and Garden.

NUTRITION OF THE RUNIMA.NTS

The following extract is from Dr Spencer Cobbold's first lecture before the Society of Arts on the Bovine Uuninants, especially in relation to the operations of parasites : I must now say .a few words respecting the manner in which this highly distinctive ruminating function is accomplished. An ox grazes with it 3 head swinging as it were, easily, and crops the grass with each motion; the sheep grazing in the same way. The head of an ox is supported in this swinging action by a large ligament attached to the vertebral processes, and also totheocciput, enabling the animal to move its head without the slightest strain or effort. Not having any incisor teeth in the upper jaw, nor any canines, their phice is supplied by a very firm callous pad. You would think it inconvenient perhaps to have to crop grass without any upper teeth; but their place being supplied by a hard pad, and the incisor teeth being at the same time arranged in a continuous and even series, whilst the canines are also pushed forward in such a way as to increase the breadth of that cutting surface, the act of grazing is thus carried on with the utmost ease and the least possible expenditure of muscular energy. Ihe grass, therefore, is not bitten off, as it would be by other animals, rodends for instance, but it is simply pressed against the pad, and, the weight of the head being carried forward, the grass is merely nipped off, so to speak. This food, being thus received into the mouth in the raw condition, is rapidly carried down, in the form of pellets or boluseß, until it arrives at the lower part of the oesophagus. When it ha 3 arrived there, it next passes into the great paunch or maceratin» tub, where it remains for a considerable time. It is acted upon by the secretions from the interior lining of this large cavity, and after it has become pretty well distended, the animal drinks part of the water passing into the second stomachal cavity. The remainder enters this great macerating tub, and by and by, when the animal is resting, and generally lying down, successive portions of this raw material are transferred to the reticulum or water bag; and there, being rendered much more moist, these portions are, by what we call a reversed peristaltic action, carried upwards along the gullet until they again arrive at the mouth. Here they undergo the process of remastication. This is technically termed, as you know, chewing the cud. Now, animals do not all chew the cud exactly after the same fashion ; ordiuary runimauta moving the jaw from right to left, or from left to right, and that goes on continuously for a time, perhaps for the whole day. Which ever way the motion is originally transmitted, it remains for a considerable time in that direction. But some of the animals, instead of chewing the cud in this continuous way, alteraate the action of the jaws making a single movement first in "one direction and then in another. This method occurs in the camel tribe. When the bolus has been remasticated, and is nicely soft, it goes down again ; but this time, instead of going into the stomach, there is an excitojnotary agent, so to speak (acting like an intelligent person), placed at the common opening of the stomachs, to direct it where it should go, and instead of passing into the first or second stomach, it takes a turn in the other direction, and is transferred to the third stomach. How does it perform this feat? There is a most beautiful mechanism expressly constructed for that purpose ; yet not arbitrarily formed, but differentiated or evolved by a process of development. There is, in short, a little canal, which is half closed and half open ; and this so-called demi-canal, instructed, as it were, by certain reflex sensations, acts in such a manner as to ensure the passage of the bolus into the third stomach. In other words, it closes the lips of the orifices leading into the first and second stomachs. That is, I repeat, a most beautiful illustration of adaptation to a useful purpose. When the bolus has gained access to the third cavity, it is further acted upon by certain juices there secreted, and eventually passes into the fourth stomach, where, by the secretion of the ordinary gasric juice (and by the aid of other remarkable arrangements, into which we cannot now enter) it is finally reduced to such a condition as to be allowed to pass into the alimentary canal. Here the food is assimilated, being taken up by the lacteals, whence it passes to nourish the animal; and eventually, it may be added, to nourish ourselves. However, in this legitimate desire on our part to nourish ourselves at the expense of the ox we have formidable competitors, in the shape of those little animals called entozoa, which are also on the look out to get hold of the nourishment that we think we alone ought to have. In concluding this portion of my subject, let me remark that there are many other structural features of great importance ; but I do not propose to trouble you

at further length with such details as belong rather to zoology or comparative anatomy than to the special object proposed in the delivery of these lectures. I ask you to bear in mind the enormous length of the alimentary canal in the runimants. It is twelve times the length of the animal itself in the camel and in the deer tribe ; it is 22 times the length of the ox, and 28 times the length of the sheep. _lt is over 130 feet long in the giraffe. Having dissected three of these animals, I can speak with some confidence as to their remarkable anatomical peculiarities. During several years past, says the " Leader," it has been a practice with a farmer near Melbourne we are acquainted with, to cook and prepare the food given to his cattle and pigs in the winter, but without the use of fire. The process adopted is that of fermentation, whereby food containing starch or sugar has been made to cook and prepare itself by developing the latent heat contained in it. The process is exceedingly simple and inexpensive. In dealing with mangels or sugar beet for instance, all tha': is necessary is to pulp the roots by means of a pulping machine, mix the pulp with half or two-thirds quantity of chaffed straw or hay, lay the mixed mass in a heap cover the heap with bags, and in less than twenty-four hour3the cooking is complete. This process of preparing food for animals is now beginning to find much favor in England as well as on the continent, and willnodoubt, in the course of time, come into general use. Iu France scientific! men have lately been devoting attention to the preparation of food for stock by the fermenting process, and MM. Raspail and Biot as the result of their experiments have arrived at the conclusion that it is by far the best plan of preparing food—vastly superior to cooking by means of fire heat, and in point of fact the most economical plan that can be adopted. The globules containing flour or starch found in grain and roots it would appear contribute nothing towards the sustenance of animals until they are brokon. Fermentation is pronounced the best means of breaking the shells of those globules, and at the same time it renders it soluble and more readily digestible. What ia here explained by science has found to be the fact in practice Fermenting pluped roots in the manner pointed out, with the addition of either bran or pollard, will be found the most aconomical mode of using them for horses, cattle and pigs. Used in this way they become an invaluable article of feed for stock, and the only charge ever made against them—that of being cold and watery —is completely neutralised. The value of malting or fermentation of barley has long been recognised for feeding purposes by British farmers, and is one of the strongest arguments used in favor of repealing the malt tax. Here we have nothing to prevent the free use of malted grain ; and when we come, as we must do, to pay more attention to the feeling of animals, the fermentation of both grain and roots will be found the most economical and mo.-t efficient mode of preparing the food. This process, in addition to being tha most economical, has the advantage of being natural. It is in fact the first step in the natural process of digestion. In a long communication to the " Grermantown Telegraph," upon the subject of poultry, Mr E. Dwight of Hudson Michigan, considers the question, " How to get plenty of good flavored fresh eggs with little trouble" and thinks if there is any secret in it he has discovered it and makes the same public for the benefit of all interested. He says : — ct Once, thirty years aao, I was troubled just as my neighbor now is. I fed my hens with plenty of corn and got but few eggs. I reasoned upon the matter, and happened to think that the constituent parts of milk and the white of eggs wei'e much alike. Now, it has long been known to milkmen that wheat middlings and bran are about the best of any feed to make a cow give milk ; why not, then, the best to make hens lay eggs ? I tried it, and since then have had no trouble. My mode of preparing the feed is to mix about five parts of bran with one of middlings. In the morning I wet up with water about four quarts of the mixture in a large tin pan, taking paias to have it rather dry, though all damp. This I' set in a warm, sunny spot, south of their shed, and they walk up, take a few dips, don't seen to fancy it like corn, and start off on a short hunt for something better, but always coming round in a short time for a few more from the dish of bran. There is little time during the whole day but what one or more are standing by the pan, and likewise helping themselves. lam careful to mix for them just as much as they will consume during the day. At night, just before they repair to roost. I usually throw them about a pint of shelled corn, well scattered, so that each one can get a few kernels. If your hens don't incline to eat this feed at first, sprinkle on a litttle Indian meal on the top. I would Uko all who complain of not getting eggs to try my plan, and I think they will he never sorry," .