108 On Straw Cutting and Mangel Wurtzd. 



year, in consequence of a publication I saw in one of our 

 city newspapers ( being, I think, an address to the Bath 

 and West of England Agricultural Society,) in which 

 were detailed great advantages, that had been derived, by 

 adopting that practice. Experimenting on that mode of 

 distributing hay to the number of horses above-mention- 

 ed, 1 found, or as nearly so as I could calculate, a saving 

 of thirteen hundred pounds per month. I have since ex- 

 tended the practice to the whole of my farm stock of cat- 

 tle, and believe the saving to be, in the same ratio as sta- 

 ted relative to the horses. In addition to this saving, may 

 be added, the advantage of an intermixture of cut corn- 

 stalks and some other descriptions of food, that would 

 not be eaten separately, and without being thus chaffed. 

 My horses and cattle are all healthy and look well. 



The reasons thou hast assigned, in favour of the use 

 and advantages of chaff cutting, are those which have oc- 

 curred to me as being the most probable. In addition to 

 these, I think may be added another, viz, the great saving, 

 in point of the waste experienced in the usual mode of 

 feeding provender entire out of racks. As respects my 

 success in the culture of the Scarcity root, Mangel Wurt- 

 zel, or as it is sometimes called, the improved Beet root, 

 it must be coniined to an experiment of the last season 

 only, not having turned my attention practically to agri- 

 cultural pursuits for upwards of twenty years previously. 

 I was induced to make the experiment, from reading the 

 accounts of some extraordinary results, in the culture of 

 that plant in England. 



In the 4 mo. (April) of the last year, I had a piece of 

 ground containing thirty-one and three quarter square 

 poles, prepared for the purpose of planting my seed of the 



