THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE, 



75 



it of great advantage. He adopted the plan of the rev. 

 gentleman who had addressed the Club that evening, 

 namely, steaming his turnips and mixing them vfith 

 other materials ; and his pigs did much better by allow- 

 ing the food to remain a sufficient time to ferment, with- 

 out resorting to the process of boiling. The quantity 

 of water naturally contained in turnips must convince 

 any practical man that he could not use them to advan- 

 tage by any steaming process. After the Chelmsford 

 Show he purchased one of Bentall's pulpers, which he 

 used all last winter ; and with its aid he had been en- 

 abled to save 3 lb. of cake per store beast per day. His 

 friend, Mr. Charles Swaine, one of the principal farmers 

 in Lincolnshire, and a thorough practical man, had 

 written him a letter, in which he expressed a decided 

 opinion in favour of the process of pulping ; and he (Mr. 

 Lyall) had found from experience that he could use 

 roots profitably during the cold months of the year. His 

 plan, however, was different from that which was pur- 

 sued by some gentlemen ; for instance, he observed that 

 it would not do to pulp roots more than twenty-four 

 hours in advance, else he could not get the beasts to eat 

 the food. His practice, therefore, was to pulp every 

 morning, and such was the excellence of the machine 

 that he himself had pulped as much as six pecks of man- 

 gel wurzel in two minutes. He must say, he was sur- 

 prised at the remarks of Mr. Baker respecting his own 

 pulper. He was sure that if he had one of Bentall's he 

 would find that he could use it with roots to very 

 great advantage. 



Mr. Baker said that Mr. Lyall must have misunder- 

 stood him, for he himself had introduced the question of 

 pulping to the notice- of the Club two or three years 

 ago. In the remarks he had made he had distinguished 

 between pulping and mincing. The mixing of chaff 

 with roots he had always advocated, as one of the best 

 methods of feeding he had ever seen practised. Bentall's 

 pulper reduced it in very small quantities, and what he 

 contended was, that the system of reducing mangel to a 

 very minute extent and mixing it with chaff was not de- 

 cidedly beneficial, and he thought that Lord Kinnaird's 

 experiments fully proved the truth of that. He meant 

 to say, that when the whole expense of pulping was 

 taken into consideration, whether that of mincing or 

 breaking the roots into small pieces, there was not the 

 advantage which some persons appeared to suppose. 

 Upon this point he might take the liberty of saying that 

 he thought the Royal Agricultural Society was rather to 

 blame ; for although it gave prizes for the best ma- 

 chines, yet amongst those which came into competition 

 year after year might be found many which were cer- 

 tainly of very inferior quality. 



Mr. Nesbit reminded Mr. Lyall that the pulping of 

 roots would enable animals to lie down quicker than 

 otherwise they could do. 



Mr. Mason said that last year he had one man and a 

 boy employed in working one of Bentall's machines, for 

 the supply of 60 bullocks, which never appeared to be 

 dissatisfied with the quantity of food they had. On the 

 contrary, it would seem as if they had rather too much. 

 He found that, without any difficulty whatever, sixty 



bushels a day were produced ; and, so far as economy 

 was concerned, he regarded the process as a very great 

 saving. Much had been said about fermentation, in 

 which he fully agreed. He thought that twenty-four 

 hours was the utmost extent of time during which the 

 food should be permitted to ferment ; and this, he said 

 was the result of his own experience. On the whole, 

 he was of opinion that the system of pulping was most 

 economical and effective. 



Mr. Dunn (of the Avon Club) made some remarks 

 on the quality of roots consumed by cattle, but these he 

 subsequently withdrew. 



Tlie Chairman said, that being ignorant of the 

 pulper he could not take upon himself to speak with re- 

 gard to its properties ; but he thought that the fatten- 

 ing of a bullock or sheep ought always to have reference 

 to the mode of feeding. For instance, he did not think 

 that they should feed a sheep or a bullock in the same 

 manner throughout as they did at the commencement ; 

 nor could he quite agree with his friend, Mr. Fordham, 

 in the plan he had adopted of continuing to feed the 

 animal. His (the chairman's) system, with both sheep 

 and bullocks, was to feed them only three times a day. 

 He used a common slicer, and after the animal had fillep 

 its belly — the mixture of chaff following upon the sliced 

 roots, he was satisfied that it had ample amusement in 

 lying down, and masticating its food in contentment. 

 If the animals did not eat all the food that was placed 

 before them, he at once had them removed, and others 

 followed to clear the troughs. They were then placed in 

 the yard, where they lay down and took rest, but there 

 was no more feeding. (Hear, hear.) He fed his fatting 

 sheep in the same manner that he did his bidlocks in the 

 yard. In the spring of the year he cut his mangold and 

 swedes, and mixed them ; and he always found that the 

 crossbred sheep particularly fed faster in the yards than 

 in the folds. Many persons threw the roots about the 

 folds or the fields ; he seldom did, except for store sheep, 

 and he always put his sheep into the yard, because he 

 had a surplus of straw. On a farm like his, and in fact 

 throughout that district, the cutting up of straw was 

 altogether unnecessary. They had ample hay lo mix 

 with the roots throughout the year, without the addition 

 of straw, and he must say that he had never found straw 

 of any benefit, or that the cattle would eat of it so as to 

 do them any good. As he had before stated, he was 

 ignorant of the pulpingsystem. Mr. Foidham, however, 

 had paid great attention to it ; he had made it his hobby, 

 and he (the Chairman) was sure that his statements were 

 correct. (Hear, hear.) 



Mr. Fordham then replied. 



Mr. John Thomas had understood Mr. James to 

 say that he consumed a large quantity of salt in feeding 

 pigs ; and he should like to be informed if that were a 

 proper course to pursue, inasmuch as he had always 

 been led to believe that if salt were given in large quan- 

 tities it did more harm than good. 



Mr. Nesbit said that, if they gave salt to pigs or any 

 other animals, it had a tendency to prevent them from 

 fattening ; but that in hot weather it certainly prevented 

 disease. When they were not well it would be useful to 



