FEEDING STOCK WITH PREPARED FOOD. 337 
chopping or for bedding. We then went through the fold-yards 
containing the lean stock. 
Mr. Hutton’s attention being now occupied by the arrival of the 
rest of the company, I quietly walked back to the steaming-house, 
in order to examine more thoroughly the house itself and the 
apparatus it contained. 
The house is a plain building of one story, open to the roof. 
It is twenty-four feet in length, fifteen feet in breadth, and about 
fifteen feet to the eave. The floor is paved with brick. There 
are three moderate-sized windows in the walls, and a small ven- 
tilator in the roof. The furnace and steam-boiler are placed in 
one corner of the room, and sunk about three feet below the floor. 
Closely adjoining the steam-boiler, but on a level with the floor, 
the boilers, three in number, for holding the linseed, are placed in 
a row against the wall. The metal of these boilers is double, and 
the steam which boils the linseed is conducted by pipes into the 
space between the inner and the outer case of the boilers. A force- 
pump stands in a corner of the house, and water is thrown by it 
into a large cistern, from which, by ball taps, the steam-boiler is 
supplied. The chopped straw and bruised linseed and corn are all 
weighed before they are taken to the steaming-house, and no more 
is brought there than is wanted at a time. 
The cost of the steaming apparatus, I understand, is about £50. 
The house could not cost much, if built new ; but it appeared to 
have been an old house — probably a hind’s cottage — applied to 
its present purpose. 
About one o’clock we had lunch, and at half-past went to the 
steaming-house, where we saw the food mixed for the four o’clock 
feed of the fifty fat cattle. The chopped straw, in due proportion, 
was first spread upon the floor, about two feet thick, and with this 
the proper quantity of bean-meal was well mixed. About five 
stone of bruised linseed, with 120 gallons of water, had been put 
into the boiler three hours before (that time being necessary for 
cooking it properly), and was now a thick oily kind of broth. This 
liquid was laved out of the boilers into pails, and was thrown 
boiling hot upon the heap of chopped straw and meal, with which, 
by rapid turning, it was at length thoroughly blended. It was 
then shovelled into a tidy heap in a corner of the room, and 
smoothed down by patting with the back of the shovel. In this 
state it was left for an hour and a half; and in the mean time we 
walked over the farm. 
It would be easy of me to write of various things that interested 
me during this walk, especially the draining and fencing ; but 
respect for your space induces me to confine my remarks to the 
