ARTIFICIAL CONDIMENTAL FOODS. 231 
same land has been cut for fourteen years without loss of quantity or 
quality, but after that time it required to be given up and a fresh planta- 
tion made on other land, as the roots became decayed. The plant best 
adapted for the purpose is very common in England, but is called the 
French furze, and it grows well upon an old woodland, stocked up, such 
as is often useless for other purposes ; but it must be dry. Half an acre 
of this land is, on the average, enough to keep a horse twenty weeks ; on 
rich, loamy, dry land a quarter of an acre will serve for the same period, so 
that an acre of land may be made to keep two small cart-horses for more 
than a year, though it is better to give them grass in the summer. On 
the large scale, the mowing, carting, cutting, and bruising cost not quite 
a penny a bushel; but for small stables the expense would of course be 
greater. As, however, this item is generally a part of the groom’s daily 
work, it is seldom taken into the calculation. The quantity of seed. 
required is 20lb. per acre, sown broadcast; but it should be drilled as 
near in the rows as will admit of hand-hoeing for the first year or two, if 
the land is inclined to run to grass. It is not necessary to manure it, 
though in its consumption it creates a great deal. When once sown and 
well rooted, it yields a great quantity of food for cattle, at no other expense 
but the cutting, bruising, &c. In those districts where winter food is 
short, it answers well to mow it as soon as the grass is gone, and then it 
asts till grass comes again. If there is a threatening of snow, it is 
aecessary to mow some quantity beforehand, as it will keep for some days 
unbruised. 
ARTIFICIAL CONDIMENTAL FOODS. 
DUuRING THE LAST FIVE OR SIX YEARS various artificially prepared foods 
have been introduced to the notice of the public, under the names of 
Thorley’s Food for Cattle, Henrv’s Horse and Cattle Food, &c. &c. The 
advertisements of the patentees would lead to the belief that their horse 
and cattle foods contain more real nourishment than the various kinds of 
food which have hitherto been given to horses and cattle; but chemical 
analysis shows the incorrectness of these statements. The following 
observations in The Field of the 18th of February, 1860, put the matter - 
in its true light, and show that, as a mere article of food, these prepara- 
tions are far from economical :— 
“Tt is not surprising, when artificial foods should thus come to be 
adopted as so much fattening power, that various mixtures should be em- 
ployed largely impregnated with stimulating substances. They are thus 
made extremely palatable to the animal, who naturally enough thrives 
upon the good things provided for him. We will not now stop to inquire 
how far this stimulus may be permanently beneficial, even admitting the 
temporary advantage ; our object is simply a cash account. If the price 
of cake,*ranging at about 102. a ton, forms the limit from which any ordi- 
nary return can be expected, how can an article sold at a price realising 
from 300 to 400 per cent. on the cost price of the materials of which it is 
composed, ever bring any return at all? Such savoury condiments, dished 
up at from 40/. to 50/. a ton, have no more fattening powers than the 
ordinary cakes and meal, of which indeed their bulk is principally com- 
posed. Locust-beans, the different oil-cakes, and Indian corn form the 
basis of these cattle foods so often paraded before the public, with which 
sundry stimulants, making a kind of curry-powder concoction, are mixed 
up. ‘This, though it may be highly agreeable, yet at the price above 
stated forms a most costly addition to the ordinary feeding cost, and an 
