AS FOOD FOR CATTLE AND SHEEP. 323 



the pasture fields. In following this system, as, indeed, in any 

 method whicli may be pursued, care should be taken to fix the 

 proportion of roots put in the pulp and to adjust the supple- 

 mental foods also so as to avoid the danger and evil of the 

 animal's diet being too dry and heating. A simple and at the 

 same time safe and otherwise good criterion is to judge by the 

 consistency of the animal's dung. Unless this precaution is 

 constantly attended to, pulping, in common with all other 

 methods, is not likely to be satisfactory and successful. 



!Many people who have not tried pulping are deterred from 

 adopting it from an idea that the labour in carrying it out 

 entails so great an expense as to counterbalance any good which 

 may flow from it. Here, as in many things, the outlay on 

 labour looks formidable when looked at from a distance, but when 

 the question is carefully investigated and tried, it is found to be 

 so moderate as to form no sufficient obstacle to the adoption of 

 the system. On very small holdings a hand-pulper answers the 

 purpose admirably for either cattle or sheep ; but on extensive 

 or even moderately -large farms the machinery must be driven 

 by power. Where water is available, both pulper and straw 

 cutter may be attached to the ordinary water-wheel, so that in 

 that case the outlay in fitting up and driving the machines is 

 trifling. Where there is a steam-engine on the farm for driving 

 the threshing-mill it may be used, unless the engine may be of 

 such a character that it would be too expensive to get up steam 

 every day, where, possibly, it could not be employed for other 

 useful purposes. But when there is not already a mill driven 

 by horse-power, gearing can be fitted up suitable for a pulper 

 and straw cutter, to be driven by a single horse, at a cost of 

 about £8 or £9. Thus, where facilities in an economical form 

 do not exist on a farm for carrying out the process, they can be 

 provided at a comparatively small outlay. 



But let us place tliis question of the expense of pulping roots 

 before our readers in a more precise light. Out of a considerable 

 number of cases reported to us we select three representative 

 ones, and we choose them in preference to others because we 

 are personally acquainted with the arrangements in two of 

 tliem, and also, mainly, because they are fair examples of 

 instances where the machinery is driven by water, horse, and 

 steam power respectively. ]Mr Dalziel, Tinwald Shaws, Dum- 

 fries, has pulped all his roots for cattle for seventeen years with 

 the most satisfactory results, and all classes of stock have been 

 kept by him during that time, including dairy cows, feeding and 

 store stock. At the time we write Mr Dal/iel pulps for ninety- 

 four liead of heavy cattle, and, to supply them with roots, the 

 ])ulper is driven by water-power seventy-five minutes every morn- 

 ing, the pulp being mixed with chalf, or when it runs short, with 



