336 
Feeding Stock with Prepared Food. 
[From “ The Farmer’s Magazine.”] 
MANY of your readers will, doubtless, remember that, in the 
Transactions of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society for 1846, a 
prize essay or report was published on the feeding of stock with 
prepared food. The straightforward manner in which Mr. Marshall 
treated the subject in his report, and the high character of the 
gentlemen by whose evidence he supported his statements, at- 
tracted a good deal of attention then, and much anxiety has since 
been felt to ascertain if longer experience confirmed the favourable 
opinions expressed respecting this novel system. 
With a view to make this subject fully known, Mr. Hutton, of 
Sowber Hill, near Northallerton, invited a large party of in- 
telligent and influential agriculturists to visit him on Thursday 
last, and spend the whole of the day in examining his stock, and 
in witnessing the process of preparing and serving the food. 
To parties at a distance it may be here necessary to state, that 
Mr. Hutton farms his own property to the extent of 1400 acres, 
and occupies a leading position among the agriculturists of his 
neighbourhood. 
Being kindly invited to join this party, I arrived at Sowber Hill 
about ten o’clock on Thursday morning, and was immediately 
shewn through the various farm offices by Mr. Hutton. We 
went first to the houses containing the fat cattle, where there were 
fifty heifers tied up, all looking very healthy, exceedingly clean, 
and nearly ready for the butcher. They had finished their first 
foddering of cooked food, and I think only one beast out of the 
fifty was standing when we went round, and for the restlessness 
of this animal a sufficient reason was given. 
We then went to the boiler-house, and I saw the boiled linseed 
mixed with the chaff for the horses at noon. We next proceeded 
to the house where the straw is cut into chaff. A powerful straw- 
cutter, made by Crosskill, was at work, driven by two horses. 
Barley-straw was being cut, in the rough state in which it came 
from the thrashing-machine : the machine was cutting at a great 
rate, and, considering the state of the straw, made good work. In 
the same building, but in a story over the straw-cutter, one of 
Clyburn’s bruising machines is fixed, and at a later period in the 
day we saw it bruise, very satisfactorily, both linseed and oats. 
This building is quite separate from the thrashing barn ; for this 
immense establishment keeps two horses constantly at work, cut- 
ting straw and bruising corn; and the straw of nearly four large 
corn-stacks is required each week, at this season of the year, for 
