enough
roots to keep their bowels in a proper condition. To the two or
three-year-old beasts I give some long straw and a part chaff,
and the offal (if any) of the food of the above lots of stock.

My farm is but a small one--under 200 acres. My predecessor always
mowed nearly all the pastures for hay, which is about half the
farm, and with this scarcely ever grazed any beasts, and kept but
very few sheep. Since my occupation I scarcely ever exceed ten acres
of meadow with one field of seeds for hay. I keep from 250 to 300
large-size Leicester sheep, and graze from 20 to 25 large-size
beasts a year, with other breeding stock in proportion.

I consider the pulping of roots is better for fatting pigs than
anything else. My plan is to have a large two-hogshead vat as near
the pulping machine as possible, so as to fill it with a malt
shovel as it comes from the machine; at the same time I keep a lad
sprinkling meal (either barley or Indian corn) with the roots; and
this is all done in fifteen or twenty minutes. It is then ready for
use, to be carried to the pigs in the stalls alongside the fatting
beasts. I never could fatten a pig with profit until I used pulped
roots.

Although the practice of cooking food has been advocated by several
eminent feeders, it has been condemned by others. Mr. Lawes is not
favorable to the cooking of food unless when it is scarce. The results
of Colonel M'Douall's experiments go to prove that cattle can be more
economically kept upon a mixture of raw and cooked foods than upon
either raw or cooked fodder given separately. One meal of cooked food
and two feeds of raw turnips gave better results than three feeds of
raw turnips; whilst two cooked feeds and a raw one resulted in a loss.

The fermentation of food, if not the best, is certainly the cheapest
mode of preparing it. If the process be not pushed too far the loss of
nutriment sustained is inconsiderable. When a mixture of straw and roots
is fermented, the hard fibres of the latter are, to a great extent,
broken up, and the nutrient particles which they envelop are fully
exposed to the action of the solvent juices of the stomach.

A great advantage in cooking or fermenting food is that the most
rubbishy materials can be used up. Indeed, as a general rule, the better
soft food is, the less the necessity for cooking it; but washed out hay
and hard, over-ripen