Suggestions for Stock-feeding in the Winter of 1893-94. 461 
down with boiling water or steamed the day before being incor- 
porated with the “ mixing ” above described, we have by different 
practical comparisons found them a cheap, palatable, and nutri- 
tious auxiliary. When fed in a dry state, they did not appear 
to be worth much more than our properly-prepared chaff. 
As a matter rather out of the reach of farmers, on account of 
the expensive machinery required, I may say that in the course 
of an endeavour to get information as to continental systems of 
winter feeding, I have received a letter from M. Grimaldi, of 
Milan, who has probably given as much attention to food-pre- 
paring machinery as any man in the world. He informs me that 
the machine for reducing straw to pulp (first made under his 
patent by Messrs. Garrett in 1884) is largely used in Italy and 
other southern countries, that cattle are chiefly fed on this 
pulp either alone or mixed with hay, and that they thrive well 
on it. He has kindly sent me a sample of the pulp, the enclosure 
of which herewith may elicit editorial opinion. 1 It seems that, 
notwithstanding the prices at which some continental products 
are exported to England, the British farmer is in advance of his 
neighbours generally in the matter of stock feeding ; and that 
the apparent cheapness of some of our importations (butter, to 
wit) is due (1) to adulteration — which we take no steps to pre- 
vent — and (2) to the cheaper labour available. 
Possibly many will follow the advice given by M. Viger, the 
French Minister of Agriculture, who says, “ It is an error to think 
that animals are condemned to perish if the hay crop fails.” He 
recommends the storage and use of the shoots and leaves of trees, 
and shrubs, and says that “ in France, Italy, and Spain cattle 
are always fed on the dried leaves of poplar, ash, elm, lime, and 
oak trees . . . that these constitute a forage as rich in feeding 
material as the best meadow hay . . . By neglecting to use these, 
much resource is lost to the country.” The leaves and twigs 
should be gathered and stacked like hay. Leaves after fall- 
ing in the autumn have no value as food. As a matter of fact, a 
herd of twenty bullocks here, in Bedfordshire, did well the greater 
part of June on pickings cut from elm trees. The labour of one 
man half the day was sufficient, the range of the cattle being on 
a poor hill where there was a good supply of water, but not a vestige 
of other food. They have now (the beginning of September) 
returned to this diet, to save the grass for use later on, and are 
doing well. 
All store cattle will naturally be kept on the grass lands as 
1 This material hasneither the softness nor the succulence usually associated 
with the term “ pulp.” If some fragments of ordinary straw chaff be torn length- 
wise, the shreds thus produced will give a good idea cf the “ straw pulp.” — E d. 
