528, 
Gorsc as Food for Cattle. 
growth of the gorse forming the underwood of the woods to which 
he is ranger, he has now a dairy of eight cows, which yields a profit 
of lOOZ. per annum, thus starting from poverty into comparative 
wealth. Being the first person in Ireland who attempted gorse 
feeding with milch cows, or cultivated it as a meadow, 1 laboured 
under great disadvantages, not having any person to apply to 
whose experience or advice might be useful, but I am now happy 
to say that many gentlemen are adopting the system with the de- 
sired effect. 
Mr. Cliffe of Bellvue, in the county of Wexford, supports 
about fifty head of young cattle and many horses by shearing his 
gorse fences and an extensive fox cover. He lays down the 
manufactured food at an expense of 45. 9fZ. per ton. 
Mr. Crook, of Derreen, in the county of Cork, has 14 acres 
laid down under gorse, and an English gentleman has ordered 
100 acres of his estate in the same county to be laid down in like 
manner, and I fondly hope that such examples may be followed 
up by the resident gentlemen of Ireland, as the poor farmer 
cannot afford the risk of experiments. 
Elly Walks, County of Wexford, 
23rd Ajn il, 1845. 
Note. — Furze has been long recommended, and partially cultivated, on 
poor soils, chiefly as a food for horses. During the Peninsular war our 
cavalry was mainly supported on it in the passage of the army from the 
North of Spain into France ; and in the Agricultural Report of Mid 
Lothian (App. No. VI., p. 56) is the following statement : — 
" An acre of whins, or furze, has been found sufficient for six farm- 
horses for four months, with one feed of corn per day, and whins ; being in 
as good order as when fed on two of corn and straw ; so that the whole of 
the straw and one feed of oats were saved, and valuing these at 7d. per 
day for each horse, the saving in 17 weeks amounted, on the six horses, to 
17/. 17s-, from which deducting 5s. a-week, as the expense of cutting and 
bruising, there would remain 13/. I2s. as the product ; but, as the plant 
requires two years for its growth, Gl. IGs. is the yearly value." 
The expense of machinery appears to be unnecessary, as a common 
heavy grindstone, turned on an axle by a donkey, is a sufficient bruising 
mill, of which there is an engraving, with a detail of the cost and charges, 
in the ' History of British Husbandry,' vol. i., p. 134. — French Burke. 
XLIV. — Experiment on the Action of Dung, and of Ronve Artificial 
Manures, upon Beet-root. By Pu. Pusey, M.P. 
Being desirous to try the comparative effects of certain manures 
for my own guidance, I made an experiment upon 5 acres of 
mangold-wurzel — or beet-root, as it would be more convenient to 
call that root. There were several questions to which it seemed 
