Gorsc. 
387 
The expense of cutting and gathering the gorsc will, of course, 
depend upon the state of the crop and the nature of the ground. 
Any one who takes these circumstances into account will be able 
to form his calculation without difficulty. If it be an average 
crop, a man may cut in 3 hours enough to serve seven horses 
for a week (G, 5, App.)- In 4 hours a man ought to cut a 
cart-load of gdrse, containing 10 bundles ; each bundle w hen 
mixed w ith chaff being amply sufficient to supply two horses with 
food for 24 hours. 
The modes of preparing the gorse-plant for provender have 
been various. In former periods the gorse mill and the chopping 
block were the two contrivances by means of which this operation 
was always performed. Of late years these instruments have, in 
most localities, been superseded by machines such as are now 
used for cutting hay and straw into chaff. 
A gorse-mill for crushing, or blocks and mallets for chopping 
and bruising gorse were, forty 3'ears ago, appendages to almost 
every farm-house in the counties of Carnarvon and Anglesey, as 
well as in a great part of the county of Denbigh. 
In the construction of a gorse-mill three or four rows of strong 
angular pieces of wrought iron are firmly fixed in the shaft of a 
water-wheel. The length of each row, as well as of the teeth, is 
regulated by the power of the wheel. The rows are generally 
from 2 2 feet to 3 in length. The teeth in the rows are about 6 
inches long, clear of the shaft, that is, exclusively of the shank, 
which is driven into the wood constituting the shaft. The shaft 
so armed is placed to turn in the inside of a strong wooden box, 
having three wooden beams, each with a row of iron teeth, fastened 
within it, similar to those with which the shaft is armed (see 
Appendix). 
The gorse is thrown in at the top, and when the wheel is in 
motion the teeth on the shaft in passing between those which are 
on the beams inside the box effectually crush the gorse. As 
soon as the gorse is deemed to have been sufficiently crushed it 
is taken out from the opening at the bottom by the person who 
attends to the mill (see App.). A mill upon this principle 
crushes the gorse, including most part of its woody fibre, into a 
kind of pulp suitable for horned cattle and for sheep as well as 
for horses. 
Gorse thus prepared should be used as soon as possible after it 
is taken from the mill, for if it be kept more than a few hours it 
will ferment, heat, become sour, and be unfit for provender. 
The chopping-block and mallets, once so generally emj)loyed, 
are very simple, though efficient contrivances. In the absence of 
better they answer the purpose remarkaljly well. 
The block is formed of the but or root part of a large tree. 
