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THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



a-piece. They were not in good store condition. I 

 turned them into a cattle-yard by themselves. On the 

 3rd of December, I placed them with the store cattle 

 upon two bushels of cut oats, straw, and one bushel of 

 pulped swedes ('451bs. weight), pulped twenty-four hours 

 in advance, in order that they might ferment previous 

 to the feeding. I continued this food until the 13th of 

 January, when the animals were put upon the fatting 

 food. They had two bushels of pulped mangold wurzel 

 mixed with one of straw, and in addition 31bs. barley- 

 meal per day, until the 28th of April — fifteen weeks 

 altogether — when they were sold. In the course of the 

 day the fatting beast were well dressed with the dandy 

 brush. This is a most essential thing to the animal's 

 happiness ; it removes dust, circulates the blood, and 

 tends greatly to familiarize the beasts to their attend- 

 ants. Everything is kept particularly clean, the 

 droppings being removed whenever the herdsman enters. 

 Let me now state how these cattle were fed. At six 

 o'clock in the morning they had a mixture of straw, 

 chaff, and pulped roots ; at nine o'clock the mixture; at 

 half-past ek'ven, straw chaff and 31bs. of barley-meal; at 

 one,themi.xture; atfour, the mixture; at five, the mixture; 

 at six, straw, chaff, and clean wheat straw ; after which 

 they were well bedded. The cost of the food which 

 the two North Devons consumed was £^ 9s. 9d., which 

 added to the first cost, namely £^28, made a total outlay 

 of £'34 f)s. 9d. ; and as they were sold for £40, there 

 was a profit of .£'5 10s. 3d. I have four cows, stall-fed 

 Alderneys, all in good condition. They have two bushels 

 of pulped mangel and one of straw. The butter made from 

 this food is very good. I have yearlings in excellent 

 condition, store-fed with the refuse of the stalls from the 

 fatting animals, as they do not consume their allowance 

 when long tied up. I may state that my land being a 

 strong adhesive soil, and all my manure having to be 

 hauled up-hill, I feed my horses upon oats, beans, and 

 hay. Pigs I do not fatten ; but I keep a large number 

 in store : seldom less than fifty, and generally above a 

 hundred. They are fed upon coarse pollard and pulped 

 roots, with the milk and wash of the house, and with 

 such refuse of the trimmings of the roots as they find in 

 the yard. My store-pigs are in excellent condition, and 

 sell, as soon as they are sent to market, at £1 a-piece 

 and upwards. I find that young pigs, under a quarter 

 of a year old, require peas and other generous food. 

 My sows are in good condition. Sheep I cannot say 

 much about. I think, however, that the pulper would 

 be a great improvement in fatting sheep, if some con- 

 trivance could be made for moving the sheep in the 

 field. Owing to the extension and improvement of the 

 cultivation of mangel-wurzel, that root is, as you are all 

 aware, greatly used at present in the feeding of sheep. 



Mr. R. Baker (Writtle) said he had himself used 

 a pulping machine, and he believed he was almost the 

 first person to introduce the subject to the notice of the 

 Club. The principle with which he started was that it 

 was injudicious to feed cattle on roots alone, but that 

 whenever roots were uiven to cattle they should be com- 

 bined with some description of dry food ; and from this 

 he was led to the principle that the mincing of roots 



into very small particles, and then mixing them with 

 dry food, was preferable to pulping. He had tried the 

 pulp with pigs, with sheep, and with cattle ; but the re- 

 sult was not so satisfactory as to justify the continance 

 of it, and consequently he had laid it aside. He still 

 adhered, however, to the principle of mixing every 

 description of roots with dry food, and this he did with 

 regard to forty cows during the whole of the last winter. 

 For feeding stock the mangel wurzel was sliced either 

 with a Gardner's slicer or with a pulpiug-machine, which 

 pulled the mangel in pieces, and which was afterwards 

 mixed with chaff. As regarded the pulping, which 

 had been so much talked of — the pulping of roots 

 into small pieces, and then mixing them with chaff, 

 and afterwards letting them remain till they got 

 into a state of fermentation — he must say that he 

 thought no practical benefit arose from it. Those who 

 had read the results of the experiments made by 

 Lord Kinnaird, during the last winter, with regard to 

 the pulping of roots and the giving them in a fer- 

 mented and in an unfermented state, must, he thought, 

 have been led to the conclusion that, taking into 

 account the question of expense, which would of 

 course always operate in the mind of the farmer, there' 

 was no practical advantage to be gained by the pulping 

 system. The experiments were very elaborate, and 

 were very well carried out ; the results were published 

 in the Mark Lane Express and the other leading 

 agricultural papers, and any gentleman who referred to 

 them would there find a vast amount of information on 

 the subject. He must confess that his own experience 

 was rather small. Mr. Hawkins, of Smallbridge, had 

 pulped for his feeding cattle on a larger scale ; and dur- 

 ing a visit which he paid to him, he told him (Mr. 

 Baker) that he had not found such an amount of benefit 

 as would enable him to speak decidedly on the subject. 

 He said the expense was very considerable, and although 

 the cows gave more milk, still he did not know whether 

 or not the extra quantity was sufficient to meet the addi- 

 tional expense. Any difference in the food must arise 

 from the fermentative process. No doubt that process 

 affected the roots so as to make them more fattening 

 than they otherwise would be ; but, considering the 

 extra expense occasioned by the pulping, the practice 

 did not appear satisfactory as regarded results. He did 

 not know how the fermentative process acted chemically; 

 but he believed that so far as pigs were concerned, the fer- 

 mentation of any description of food was beneficial. 

 Pigs fed on any kind of food which had gone through 

 fermentation with great avidity, and seemed to do very 

 well upon it. 



Mr. W. Bennett (Cambridge) s.ud, Like his friend, 

 Mr. Baker, he had not derived from pulping all the 

 benefit which he had expected. At the same time, he 

 thought it was very important to get the roots into very 

 small pa-<(ticles, where the object wa^ to consume a large 

 quantity of other food besides roots. He began pulping 

 with Phillips's machine : and there was one good result 

 which he soon discovered ; when roots appeared to fall 

 short, pulping made them hold out exceedingly well, 

 and this was the case in his own exprrience. But 



