AS FOOD FOR CATTLE AND SHEEP. 321 



lbs. If farmers would estimate the feeding and manurial worth 

 of clover-hay at its proper value, less of it would be sold off the 

 farm, and a greater quantity would be used in helping to econo- 

 mise roots in the feecUng of sheep as well as of cattle. 



Merits of System of Pidping Roots. 



Many of our correspondents pulp the roots given to cattle and 

 also in some instances to sheep, and, without exception, they 

 express their complete satisfaction with it. We are aware that 

 a prejudice, more or less strong, against the system exists in the 

 minds of many feeders of live stock. The more we have 

 reflected on the nature of the process in itself, and the more we 

 have heard and seen of its practical operation, we are the more 

 enamoured with it, being satisfied that there is no other known 

 system equal to it for using the roots and dry fodder on a farm 

 to the best advantage. Our limits will not permit us to enter 

 at desirable length into all its merits and recommendations ; 

 but any treatment of the subject of this paper which does not at 

 least point out its advantages in a general way would be very 

 incomplete. Its first obvious recommendation is that it enables 

 the animal's food to be given in a mixed form, and this remark 

 applies not only to the turnips and fodder, but also to the dry 

 concentrated food, which, when ground into meal as it is found 

 advantageous to do, can without difticulty be thoroughly incor- 

 porated with the pulped mixture. Abstract considerations and 

 experience alike testify to the food being more readily as well 

 as more completely digested when so mixed together than when 

 each is given separately. The act of mastication is made as 

 short and simple as possible, and tlius the animal's belly beinof 

 filled in a much shorter time than when the turnips are sliced 

 or whole, and the fodder has to be eaten in a long form, there is 

 more time for rest, which is a condition highly favourable for 

 the laying on of fat. Not a movement of a limb can be made, 

 and not a breath can be drawn that is not compensated for in 

 food. Hence, especially in the case of animals being forced 

 forward for the fat market, the less exertion they put forth in 

 any form, consistent with the maintenance of their general 

 health, the more rapidly will they lay on fat. One of the 

 gi'eatest recommendations of the mixture of pul}»ed roots and 

 cliall', or cut straw or hay, is that when taken into the stomach 

 it does not reduce the temperature of the animal's body nearly 

 so much as a large meal of sliced turnips does ; and as lieat is 

 equivalent to food, the fattening ])rocess is promoted more 

 rapidly by thti former process than by the latter. This holds 

 good in a limited degree even when only a moderate allowance 

 of roots is being given to live stock, for, whatever the (juantity 



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