THE EXCELSIOR ROOT-CUTTER. 



299 



store pigs can be kept well on raw mangolds alone from Novem- 

 ber to March. The amount of manure which the root crop is 

 capable, under judicious management, of returning to the soil, 

 is quite remarkable. 



But every farmer who has fed fruit or vegetables of any kind 

 to stock, understands the importance of reducing them to small 

 pieces before feeding them to animals, except, perhaps, horses, 

 or such as have front teeth in both jaws, by means of which 

 they can nip and reduce their food. Cattle and sheep, in eating 

 pumpkins, carrots, turnips, potatoes, &c., must receive them of 

 a size which they can readily take between the double teeth, or 

 else they are liable to choke. Besides, many an animal's teeth 

 are poor, and it is a great exertion in such cases to break down 

 coarse roots into small pieces. 



The Excelsior Root- 

 Cutter, exhibited at the 

 fair of the Housatonic 

 Agricultural Society, ap- 

 pears to me to be one of 

 the best that I have exam- 

 ined, on account of the 

 shape and condition in 

 which it leaves the roots 

 after they have passed 

 through it ; that is, in long 

 and slender strips of the 

 size and shape of a man's 

 thumb. This machine 

 cuts pumpkins, turnips 

 and other kinds of roots 

 of a size desired by the 

 operator. At the last 

 State fair at Buffalo it cut a bushel of potatoes fine enough for 

 sheep in twenty-six seconds. The roots are put into a box and 

 come in contact with a hollow iron cylinder, the upper side of 

 which is shown in the figure. Small gouge-shaped cutters are 

 fastened to the surface of this cylinder, and these slice out the 

 pieces of roots and pass them down into a basket below with 

 great rapidity. It is so easily worked that a small lad can cut 

 a bushel of roots in a minute with little exertion. If the 



EXCELSIOR KOOT-CUTTER. 



