198 THE GORSE CROP. 



into short lengths. These fall down, and are received by 

 a double set of rollers, through which they are drawn, and 

 are passed out at the bottom in a thoroughly crushed state. 

 The rollers admit of being set at any required degree of 

 crushing power, by means of the weighted lever acting 

 upon one of the rollers (/), which is moveable, while the 

 other two rollers (e and g) are fixed. When a simple 

 chaff-cutter is used, some difficulty is usually experienced 

 in feeding the machine with the gorse. This is greatly 

 lessened, and the work rendered much more regular, by 

 keeping the floor of the feeding-trough covered with straw, 

 and laying the gorse upon it, by which it is carried readily 

 into the feed rollers, and then acted upon by the knives. 



The old and simple form of gorse-bruiser is still met with 

 in many of the places where it is used for cattle food. The 

 woodcut readily explains the arrangement of the apparatus, 



The butt of a tree usually forms the block on which the 

 gorse is laid, and the mallet used is plane on one face, and 

 on the other has crossed, stout cutting-blades. A few blows 

 with this latter side cut up the gorse into pieces, which 

 are then bruised or crushed by the other end before they 

 are carried to the cattle. In all cases it is important not 

 to allow the food to remain long after being crushed, as 



