13^ Farm Horses. 



bullocks, inducing them to eat any food you may wish to 

 give them.'' 



Whenever the root crop is inferior, or the hay crop 

 badly harvested, the pulper, for economizing the former, 

 and for enabling the easy consumption of the latter, is a 

 great economy. It is the most recent experience that 

 roots should be pulped and mixed with chaff a day or so 

 before being used. 



Whether or not the advantage of pulping is derived 

 from its inducing a larger consumption of straw, first cut 

 and mixed with the pulp, than when offered to animals 

 uncut, it is decidedly an advantage to the arable farmer, 

 for a large quantity of straw is on plough-land generally 

 used wastefully in litter, and a portion of it will be saved 

 for use as food with economy and profit. 



The advantages of pulping roots are — 



1. Economy of food, for the whole is consumed without 

 waste, the animals not being able to separate the chaff from 

 the pulped roots, as is the case when the roots are merely 

 sliced by the cutter; neither do they waste the fodder, as 

 when given without being cut. 



2. The use of ordinary hay and straw. — After being 

 mixed with the pulp about twelve hours, fermentation 

 commences ; this soon renders the most mouldy hay pa- 

 latable, and animals eat with avidity that which they would 

 otherwise reject. This fermentation softens the straw, 

 makes it more palatable, and puts it in a state to assimi- 

 late more readily with the other food. In this respect the 

 pulper is of great value. 



3. Steaming food is another great economy. A warm 

 meal of steamed roots, with hay-chaff and oats, or barley, 

 may take the place of one of the feeds of oats once a day 

 in autumn, when labour is heavy and the weather is becom- 

 ing severe. 



