ROOTS. 157 



ter, losing some of their moisture, and, ripening completely, 

 become more nutritious as the season advances. In feeding 

 them they should be sliced or pulped iiu a suitable machine 

 made for the purpose, and to be procured of the dealers in 

 farm implements. A very useful machine may be made 

 by any ordinary mechanic in the way here slicwu. The 

 frame consists of a receptacle for the roots on. the top; under 

 this is a wooden roller fitted into a round case; under this 

 roller is studded with chisel-shapes points of steel, set with 

 the bevel up and in rows three inches apart. These work in 

 between the other points set in the curved frame as shown 

 in the opened end of the machine. The space under the 

 roller is open to let the roots come in contact with these 



ROOT PULPER. 



pointed scrapers, which tear the roots into pulp as they are 

 drawn between the moving and the stationary pointed 

 chisel-edged scrapers; the pulp falling into the receptacle 

 beneath, whence it is shoveled into baskets to be carried 

 to the sheep which are fed in troughs. A crank handle is 

 of course fitted on the end of the shaft of the cylinder, 

 which is left exposed in the drawing to show the manner of 

 fitting the machine. By furnishing both sides of the outer 

 cylinder with these scraping stationary teeth the machine 

 may be worked either way. A full grown sheep will eat 

 twenty pounds of this pulp daily when fully fed. 



The most desirable other roots are the common white 

 globe turnip for the first feeding, the ruta-baga for the 

 next feeding. Of the mangels, the long red is the most 

 productive, twenty to thirty tons per acre being easily pro- 

 duced under good culture. Lane's American sugar beet is 

 the preference of the author, who has grown as much of it 

 as of the long red mangels, and roots of twenty pounds each. 



