FEEDING ROOTS. 



ot 



hoe and plowing a furrow on one side of the row of roots, when 

 they may be pulled from the ground with the hoe or by drawing 

 a dull harrow over the field. The crop is saved by keeping the 

 roots in cellars or pits. Pits are simply conical heaps covered 

 with straw and earth sufficient to keep out the frost, a foot of 

 straw and a few inches of earth being sufficient protection, (see 

 fig. 1). Roots should be sliced or pulped when fed, as they are 

 more readily eaten, 

 and there is no dan- 

 ger of the sheep 

 choking by swallow- 

 ing too large pieces. 

 A simple cutting ma- 

 chine is shown in fig. 

 2. It consists of a 

 wooden wheel fur- 

 nished with long 

 knives set at an angle 

 similar to the irons 

 in a plane, which cut 

 the roots into thin 

 slices. Fig. 3 is a 

 pulper in which, in- 

 stead of knives, there 

 are 144 sharp chisel Fi - 3. BOOT PULPER. 



points made of quarter-inch steel, (see a), by which the roots are 

 torn into shreds and reduced to pulp. 



When crops are fed upon the ground, a special arrangement of 

 temporary fences is used. These are constructed of hurdles, of 

 which there are several kinds. One of the most readily con- 

 structed hurdles is made of light stakes pointed at the ends and 

 fastened together with bars of split or sawed saplings or laths, such 

 as are shown at fig. 4. These are made in panels about nine feet 

 long, with stakes five and a half feet high. A line of these hurdles 

 is set across the field, enclosing a plot in which the sheep are con- 

 fined, until the crop on the ground is consumed. The shepherd 

 takes a light pointed iron bar with which he makes holes in the 

 ground to receive the pointed lower ends of the stakes, and drives 

 them down firmly by striking the tops with a wooden mallet. As 

 the crop is eaten, the line of hurdles is moved along the field until 

 the whole is consumed. Much economy in labor of setting the 

 hurdles may be exercised by laying out the plots in a certain man- 

 ner. For instance, if a square field of ten acres is to be fed off, the 



