THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



71 



year, and he would not have rccommeuded them if he hud not 

 had full confidence iu them. Not only had reaping macbiues 

 been broHRht to bear, but the stcaiu-plougli was coming into 

 use ; and he hoped that before long fanners would be able to re- 

 duce the expense of their horses' keep. The present Speaker 

 of the House of Commons, not many years ago, proposed thst 

 the Royal Agricultural Society should give a prize for a steam- 

 plough. This had been done ; a machine had been brought to 

 bear, and he had seen acres better plouglied by it than he had 

 ever seen them ploughed by horses. This being so, he thought 

 the man who had accomplished this result ought to have had 

 the prize. The prize had, however, not yet been awarded ; 

 the work must be done to the satisfaction of the Council, who, 

 he must aay, were rather slow in giving away their money. 

 Having appealed to those present who were not at presftut 

 members of the. Royal Agricultural Society to become so at 

 once, assuring them that the Journal alone was well worth 

 the subscription, Mr. Hudson referred to the introduction by 

 Lord Townshend's ancestor of the turnip, which he called the 



sheet-anchor of Norfolk. His late noble landlord, if he did 

 not introduce mangel wurzel, was the great cause of its being 

 grown to a great extent ; and he (Mr. Hudson) had no doubt 

 that if it was cultivated upon a large scale it would tend to 

 produce food for the increasing population of this kingdom as 

 fast as Providonce might pleaae to increase our race. 



The rest of the proceedings may be summed up in a few 

 words. I^Ir. Brampton Gurdoii, M.P., in responding to the 

 toast of the County Members, paid a feeling tribute to tiie 

 memory of the late Sir Edward Buxtou. Lord Raynham, 

 M.P., gave the Yeomanry, to which Mr. Seppinga replied. 

 Mr. Stephen Leeds proposed the health of Lord SufKeld, Mas- 

 ter of the Norfolk Foxhounds, and, iu replying, his Lordship 

 spoke encouragingly of the prospects of the next season, stat- 

 ing that, although Lord Towushend was about to let Rayn- 

 ham, the tenant would preserve foxes. To the toast cf the 

 Acting Secretary, received with merited cordiality, Mr. E, C. 

 Bailey responded ; and the meeting broke up with the parting 

 sentiment of " Our next merry meeting." 



LONDON, OR CENTRAL FARMERS' CLUB. 

 THE PULPING OR MINCING OF ROOTS. 



The usual monthly meeting, the concluding one be- 

 fore the adjournment to November, was held on Monday, 

 June 7, at the Club-house, Blackfriars. Mr. Owen, 

 of Clapton, presided ; supported by Messrs. Robert 

 Baker, W. Bennett. J. Tyler, J. C. Nesbit, C. T. 

 James, John Thomas, J. G. King, Spencer Skelton, 

 T. B. Chapman, J. Russell, G. Fidler, J. Cressingham, 

 J. Wood (Croydon), J. Appleford, C. Asplin, R. Marsh, 

 J. T. Davy, Ibbott Mason, C. J. Brickwell, T. Lyall, 

 G. Smythies, F. Dyball, J. Hooker, — Paul, jun., J. 

 Dunn, &c., &c. 



The subject of discussion, introduced by Mr. T. 

 Fordham, of Snelsmore Hill, Newbury, was " The 

 Benefit of Pulping or Mincing Roots for Cattle, Pigs, 

 and Sheep." 



The Chairman, in his opening remarks, said they 

 all knew that the growth of turnips was a very expen- 

 sive process. It was, however, one of great interest to 

 the farmer ; and no one could doubt that the discovery 

 of the best method of consuming roots must be very 

 advantageous to all of them. He hoped, therefore, that 

 Mr. Fordham and other gentlemen would be enabled to 

 throw some light on the subject. 



Mr. Fordham said : Having the pleasure to intro- 

 duce to your notice for discussion this evening the ad- 

 vantage of the pulping and mincing of food for cattle, 

 pigs, and other doaiestic animals, over the old system of 

 the turnip slicer, I beg to observe that I do not pre- 

 sume to teach, much less to dictate ; my object being 

 chiefly to explain the system, in order that my brother- 

 members may be assisted in judging of its merits. One 

 of the many advantages gained, is the getting rid of the 

 dangerous risk of choking, and, as far as I can ascertain 

 through my friends, of hoove, or hoving. There is also 

 great economy in the consumption of roots with straw- 

 chaff, and this in some cases enables twice as many 

 aninaals to be kept upon the same acreage. Oxen when 

 turned into a fresh pasture feed with great avidity, and 

 they take their food in pellets, which after about 40 or 

 ■15 minutes they prepare for rumination. I do not 



intend to enter minutely into the anatomy of the ox, 

 knowing that a gentleman versed in veterinary science 

 would be more fitted to discuss the various wonders of 

 the digestive organs. We all know that the ox has four 

 stomachs — the rumen, the reticulum, the manyplus, and 

 the abomasum. I find, on examination, through the 

 kindness of a respectable purveyor, that the rumen, or 

 first stomach, has a number of pillars or flaps. The 

 late Mr. Youatt, in page 425 of his work on Cattle, pub- 

 lished by Baldwin and Cradock, says : " These flaps 

 are in constant motion ; the food is perpetually revolving 

 through its different compartments, and undergoing 

 important preparation for future digestion. The muscles 

 are the mechanical agents by which this is effected; 

 and by running in these different directions, they are 

 enabled to act upon all the differently formed cells of 

 this enormous viscus." Professor Jas. B. Simonds, in 

 a lecture at the Royal Veterinary College, published in 

 the Farmer's Magazine, vol. i., p. 245, says : " The 

 reticulum supplies the third stomach with aliment suited 

 for digestion. This it receives from the rumen by 

 the ordinary peristaltic action that is continually 

 going on in that viscus." Here, then, we have 

 nature's pulper. Surely, by aiding in this work by 

 means of a clever invention, we greatly assist the animal 

 in preparing its food for digestion, the roots being 

 intimately commixed with cut hay or straw, and thus 

 may we account for the shortness of the time required 

 to bring animals into a ripe and wholesome fatness fot 

 human food. What ure the circumstances that regulate 

 the tendencies of cattle to fatten, is yet unknown. The 

 fact is, cattle consume very different quantities in differ- 

 erent states of condition, consuoaing more when lean 

 than when fat. I have here a pamphlet containing the 

 names of sixty-four highly respectable persons, all well- 

 known as impi'overs of the system of agriculture, and 

 all signifying their approval of the pulping and mincing 

 of food for animals. la order to test this method 

 accurately, I purchased, last autumn, two three-year-old 

 North Devons, at a fair in my neighbourhood, for £\4i 



