490 Diminishiiir/ the Q}iantilrj of Roots in Fattening Cattle. 
to diminish the quantity of roots which I had generally heard 
recommended one half — viz., to from 70 lbs. to 80 lbs. per diem, 
according to the size of the animal, and to give a portion of these 
with each feed, as intimately incorporated as might be practicable 
with the more solid food. With this view I obtained Moody's 
cutter, now sold by Carson, of Warminster, which cuts the roots 
into thin ribands : these we turn over amongst the chaff, so that 
the animals cannot avoid eating them together. 
I have for some time directed the attention of some of the 
agricultural implement-makers to the v/ant of a p?//p/;?f/-machine, 
in order to effect a still more intimate incorporation of the drier 
food with the roots, for which a prize has lately been offered by 
the Royal Agricultural Society. Such an article was produced 
at Lincoln by Mr. Phillips, of Downham. This is an effective 
machine at 11 guineas. It cannot probably be rendered, as at 
present constructed, at a less cost ; but while the cost of Moody's 
cutter is only 4/. IO5., a machine for pulping must be produced 
at much less cost than 11 guineas before it will get into the 
farmer's hands. 
I observed that the animals under the change to which I have 
adverted throve faster, and were kept equally clean with one- 
third less litter, hy weight, than we had found necessary on the 
former mode of feeding. 
In the montli of August, 1853, our swedes and mangold 
were struck with some kind of blight, or other not very well 
defined malady, which nearly stopped their growth, and we were 
reduced to the alternatives of selling some of the stock or putting 
the whole on short allowance of roots, and we adopted the latter. 
We limited the bullocks to 50 lbs. weight, and the sheep to 
10 lbs., per head per diem. We had plenty of good barley-straw, 
but the hay was very indifferent, having heen exposed for several 
weeks to rain, and put uji at last in questionable condition. 
I purchased seventeen bullocks at the October Hereford fair. 
For the first four weeks they had little else than the barley-straw 
and bad hay cut into chaff, with their 50 lbs. of roots. From 
that time till they were sold they had (3 lbs. of linseed and rape- 
cakes, mixed in equal jiroportions and boiled, and the soup 
poured over the chaff, which was then covered over in a slate- 
tank until the former was completely absorbed. This destroyed 
the fungus or mould which had accumulated on the damp hay, 
and rendered it perfectly sweet, but of course could not restore 
the nutriment washed out by the rain. The linseed and rape- 
cake together averaged 8/. per ton ; the cost of this therefore was 
2s. Ihd. per head per week. The attendance I put at 6cf. per 
head per week (a man and a boy, at I85., managed in all respects 
24 bullocks, 24 fatting hogs, and the store pigs) ; the chaff. 
