der, Mr. John Walsh,[28] of Stedalt, county of Dublin,
the following remarks in relation to this subject are made:--

I had lately an opportunity of seeing a herd of cattle of about
sixty head, of which twenty had been fed with furze prepared with
my machine for about six weeks before being put out to grass. The
condition of these was so superior that I pointed out every one of
them, one after the other, out of the herd. The owner of the cattle
had made the same observation; it was new to him but not to me.

Furze is seldom given to sheep or pigs, but I believe that it might with
advantage enter into the dietary of those animals. Some of my friends
who have lately tried it with pigs report favorably as to its effects.
Horses partly fed upon this plant keep in good condition; it is usually
given to them cut merely into lengths of half an inch or an inch, but it
would be better to give it to them finely bruised. A horse during the
night will eat a much larger quantity of coarsely cut furze than of the
well bruised article, because he is obliged to expend a great deal of
muscular power in bruising the furze, and must, consequently, use an
additional quantity of the food to make up for the corresponding waste
of tissue.

Until quite recently, the chemistry of the furze was very little
studied. The analysis of this plant made many years ago by Sprengel
gave results which, in the present advanced condition of agricultural
chemistry, are quite valueless. The late Professor Johnston merely
determined its amount of water, organic matter, and ash. I believe I was
the first to make a complete investigation into the composition of this
plant according to the methods of modern chemical analysis. I made two
examinations. The first was of shoots cut on the 25th April, 1860, on
the lands of Mr. Walsh of Stedalt, near Balbriggan, in the county of
Dublin. The shoots were, in great part, composed of that year's growth,
with a small proportion of the shoots of the previous year. They were
very moist, and their spines, or thorns, were rather soft. Their
centesimal composition was as follows:--

Water 78.05
Nitrogenous, or flesh-forming principles 2.18
Fat-forming principles (oil, starch, sugar, gum, &c.) 8.20
Woody fibre 10.17
Mineral matter (ash) 1.4