On Pulping Roots for Cattle Food. 
463 
mixture to dairy cows and young stock with a little rape and oil-cake ; also to 
my farm horses. 
The machine I had was the small size (Wood's) for hand-power, but I put 
a pulley on it and took a belt from the dram of my threshing-mill. I would 
have preferred one of a much larger size. 
I may state that the sheep continued very healthy, and there were no deaths 
after the third week ; their feet continued sound, and there was no foot-rot, 
as when standing upon stone. — Nov. 29, 1859. 
9. From Mr. Joffs Watson, Agent to the Eael of Macclesfield, 
Shirhurn Castle, Tetsworth, Oxon. 
We have used pulped roots for all our cattle these five years. 
For the fattening cattle we mix about four bushels of pulped roots with five 
bushels of cut chaff. The store cattle have a mixture of about three bushels of 
pulped roots to six bushels of chaff. Good sweet barley or wheat chaff from 
the threshing machine is used for the stores instead of cut chaff, and all have 
as much of their mixed food as they will eat clean up. 
I find the cattle thrive well, and improve much faster than they would with 
the same quantity of roots given to them either whole or sliced and given 
twice a day as we used to do. The chaff and roots are mixed from 14 to 24 
hours before they are given to the cattle, and get pretty warm. 
Of course we do not expect that the pulping adds to the nutriment of the 
roots, but the mixing with chaff prevents scouring in the cattle, particularly 
in the use of mangold wurzel ; and, though I have not entered so accurately 
into the weight and measure of the saving as might be desirable, I am satisfied 
with the progress the cattle make while fed with the mixture above described, 
and believe the saving in the quantity of roots to be about one-fourth. — Xov. 
29, 1859. 
10. From Mr. T. Duckham, Baysham Court, Ross, Herefordshire. 
The advantages of pulping roots for cattle are — 1st. Economy of food ; for 
the roots being pulped and mixed with the chaff' either from threshing or cut 
hay or straw, the whole is consumed without waste, the animals not being 
able to separate the chaff from the pulped roots, as is the case when the roots 
are merely sliced by the common cutter : neither do they waste the fodder 
as when given without being cut. 
2nd. The use of ordinary hay or straw. After being mixed with the pulp for 
about 12 hours fermentation cornmences ; and this soon renders the most 
mouldy hay palatable, and animals eat with avidity that which they would 
otherwise reject. This fermentation softens the straw, makes it more palat- 
able, and puts it in a state to assimilate more readily -svith the other food ; 
in this respect I think the pulper of great value, particularly upon corn- 
farms where large crops of straw are grown, and where there is a limited 
acreage of pasture, as by its use the pastures may be grazed, the expensive 
process of haymaking reduced, and consequently an increased number of cattle 
kept. I keep one-third more, giving the young stock a small quantity of oil- 
cake, which I mix with the chaff, &c. 
3rd. Choking is utterly impossible, and I have only had one case of hove 
in three years, and that occurred when the mixture had not fermented. 
4th. There is an advantage in mixing the meal with the chaff" and pulped 
roots for fatting animals, as thereby they cannot separate it, and the moisture 
from the fermentation softens the meal and insures its thorough digestion ; 
whereas, when given in a dry state without any mixture, frequently a gi'eat 
portion passes away in the manure. 
