1 .162 



ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF AGRICULTURE. 



Sl'H'I.EMENT. 



little crashed barley, they mav Rain from 33 lbs. to 40 ll>s. a head In the course of ten weeks, :.t lh.it 

 season. Much of tfie success depends on having a boarded floor, which prevents the sheep from taking 

 the foot rot. (Ibid. p. 410.) 



84R3. A rain-proof feeding trough for sheep has been Invented by a farmer of Fifeshire, Mr. Bell, near 

 Cupar, and is described and figured by Mr. Buist. It is an adaptation of the common pheasant feeding 

 box to the sheep trough with the addition of a simple application of the bird cage watering glass. (See 

 Quart. Jour, cf Agr., vol.xi. p. 115.) 



8484 — 7283. The varieties of the hog described by Professor Low, are : — I . The wild hog ; 2. Siamese 

 or Chinese breed ; 3. The old English breed, and 4. The Berkshire breed. (Low's Domestic Animals, 

 vol. ii.) 



8485 — 7818. Preparation of fond fir swine. Mr. Bolton, who has fattened swine to an enormous weight, 

 has the following observations on the subject in the British Farmer'* Magazine, vol. vii. We consider 

 them worthy of quotation, with a view of impressing on the mind of the reader the importance of fer. 

 menting food for this class of animals : — "I always feed my pigs on sour food, which 1 have invariably found 

 to feed them faster, and to make the flesh firmer and whiter, than food given in any other state. The 

 following is my method of preparing it : — As soon as the potatoes are steamed, I have them, while quite 

 hot, beaten to a pulp, and mixed with bran, in the proportion of twenty-eight pounds of bran to a sack 

 (240 pounds) of potatoes, and this mixture is put into a vat for ten or twelve days, till quite sour ; this 

 food makes the pigs fat enough for porkers or small bacons. When I require them morethan commonly 

 fat, I begin with fifty pounds of barley flour, instead of the bran, to each sack of potatoes, gradually 

 increasing the quantity of flour till it amounts to half the weight of the potatoes : when the quantity of 

 flour is greater than the moisture of (lie potatoes will absorb, I add a sufficient quantity of water to make 

 it into a thick paste: I never give it until it has fermented." 



84S8 — 7315. Pigs in Hampshire are frequently washed and rubbed with a hard brush, which is found 

 greatly to improve their condition, and is one of the principal causes of the bacon of that country fetching 

 2d. more per pound than that of any other. (G. C. 1842, p. 351.) 



8487. A description of Mallet's improved apparatus for cooking fodder for cattle by steam. The 

 simplest form of apparatus for this purpose, usually met with, consists merely of a common open boiler, 

 over which a tub, with its bottom perforated, is placed, and the junction rendered steam-tight by what is 

 called a water-valve or water-lute joint ; that is to say, by the lower edge of the tub projecting below its 

 bottom, into an annular space round the upper edge of the boiler, filled w ith water. The tub is filled with 

 the vegetable matter to be cooked ; and the steam rising through the perforation of its bottom, from the 

 water beneath (a fire having been lighted under the boiler), prepares it. This apparatus, excellent as it 

 appears from its simplicity, has many disadvantages. The tub requires to be lifted on and off, by means 

 of a crane, if of large size ; a separate boiler is required for each tub ; there is no mode of regulating the 

 supply of steam, but by damping the fire, or urging it ; and the boiler, to be supplied with the water spent 

 in steam, needs the tub to be previously lifted off. Added to all, the boiler must be circular, and, there- 

 fore, of the worst possible form for economy of fuel. The next form is that in which several steaming 

 vessels are supplied from one boiler, which may be of any form. Each of these vessels consists of a tub, 

 as before, with a perforated bottom, and close but moveable cover, which is placed on another shallow 

 tub, with a close bottom, into which the steam from the boiler is conducted by a pipe from the boiler ; the 

 junction between the two tubs being made good, either by three or four thicknesses of felt, or by a gasket ; 

 a cock regulates the admission of steam to each lower tub, and a crane is provided, which commands the 

 whole range, and lifts them on or off. The arrangement answers tolerably well, but has some incon- 

 veniences. But a comparatively small surface of the potatoes or other fodder is exposed to coction. 

 The crane for lifting off the tubs, when each is capable of containing from four to six barrels of potatoes, 

 requires to be a strong and rather costly piece of work ; and the consumption of time and labour in 

 lifting on and off, filling and emptying those tubs while hot, is very great, whereby a considerable loss 

 in fuel accrues. All these considerations may be of small importance where the quantity of fodder 

 cooked is small, and therefore the cost of labour and fuel slight ; but where a large stock of cattle is to 

 be fed with cooked food, and the apparatus is therefore nearly at constant work, every consideration of 

 facility and economy becomes in the highest degree important. Accordingly, the following train of ap- 

 paratus was designed for a gentleman, who is not only an extensive rearer of cattle, but one of the most 

 distinguished agricultural improvers in Ireland.* It is conceived that it embodies most, if not all, that 

 can be wished for the purpose. Fig. 1188. is a longitudinal section of the boiler, which is cylindrical, and 



four times its diameter In length. Witty's patent gas-furnace is applied to it ; a is the inclined plane ; 

 b, the fire-bars ; r, the dead plate ; c, the ash-pit. The flame and heated air passes under the boiler, 

 through the bottom Hue. /, thence through the tubular flue, g, right through the body of water in the 



* Robert I.a Zouche, Esq., of Harriston. 



