PREPARING FOODS FOR FEEDING 359 



called for. When this amount is not very large, wind power 

 will probably prove the cheapest. The old-fashioned 

 tread-mill, as a source of power, is perhaps not sufficiently 

 prized. There is also a place, however, for motor, for gas- 

 oline and for steam power, under certain conditions. 



Pulping and slicing roots. Pulping roots means put- 

 ting them through a machine, known as a root pulper. It is 

 run by hand or by other power as desired and reduces them 

 to a pulpy or finely comminuted condition. Slicing, in the true 

 sense of the term, means cutting them into thin slices by put- 

 ting them through a machine known as a root slicer, and run 

 as in pulping, by hand or other power. In the absence of a 

 slicer, they are frequently thrown into a box and chopped in- 

 to pieces with a spade. Under some circumstances they are 

 fed without either pulping or slicing. Whether to feed 

 them thus, or to slice or pulp them, must be determined by 

 the conditions present. Whether roots or tubers may be 

 fed whole is determined by the kind and size of the variety, 

 the class of animals to which they are to be fed, the age of 

 these, and the degree of the temperature at the time of 

 feeding. Carrots are about the only class of field roots 

 which it is practicable to feed to all or nearly all kinds of 

 farm stock without first cutting or slicing them. Arti- 

 chokes, owing to their shape, and peanuts, owing to their 

 small size, may be similarly fed. The danger is present in 

 some degree, that when medium-sized potatoes are fed to 

 cattle, they may choke upon them. The aim should be to 

 avoid feeding all kinds of roots and tubers to cattle and 

 even to horses in the unprepared form, notwithstanding 

 that both will feed upon them in the natural state, but not 

 with the same ease. Sheep will feed upon all kinds of uncut 

 roots, but not so readily as when they are sliced, and the 

 same is true of swine, but it is scarcely necessary to slice 

 roots for swine well grown or for brood sows. They should 

 be sliced or pulped for all kinds of young animals. When 

 fed to animals exposed to low temperatures, they should be 



