Farmers’ Column.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 29, 12 August 1871, Page 9

Farmers’ Column.

PULPING EOOTS FOR STOCK FEEDING. [From the Agricultural Gazette.] At the April meeting of the Framlingham Farmers’ Club, Mr Frederick Long, of Stowmarket, read an excellent paper on the above subject from which we make the following extracts : Mr Long said : Chaff cutting and rootpulping are so closely connected in stock feeding that it would be difficult to separate them, therefore I propose first to start with the former. . . . The advancing

price of meat, as well as the growing demand for it, make many farmers look inquiringly at their straw stacks, anxious to know whether all their value departed with the grain, or whether there was not beef and mutton latent in straw as well as in turnips. The most approved method of storing the straw after being cut appears to be to carry the cut straw into the chaff barn and have it well trodden down, mixing about a bushel of salt to every ton, and also a certain quantity of green stufftares or rye—cut green into chaff, sown by hand as the cut straw is brought in. This causes it to heat. Adding the amount of green stuff required to give it a proper heat is the great secret of the successful operation of storing chaff. Respecting the quantity of green chaff to be mixed with straw chaff, about one cwt to the ton of straw is enough. But some judgment is required as to the state of the green stuff; if it is green rye on the ear, a full hundred weight is required ; if very green tares, a rather less quantity will do, as the degree of fermentation depends upon the quantity of sap contained in it. I am not stating that straw chaff can be rendered as valuable as hay chaff for feeding purposes, but that it may, by judicious management, be made a very important auxiliary to the production of meat food for our fast increasing population. The straw used for chaff should be wheat and oat, for these may be cut without loss in a far greener state than is generally done. If the chaff is prepared in spring and summer, it will come into use for October and the winter months. Pulping-.— l will now proceed to the second part of my subject. In 1854 the Royal Agricultural Society of England offered a prize for “ The best machine to reduce roots to a pulp.” At the Lincoln show in that year Mr Fredk. Philips, of Downham, near Brandon, exhibited two machines, one was a barrel cutter with projections in form like a saw tooth ; the other a disc cutter with projecting knives made adjustable. The Royal Society awarded their prize to the first, or barrel machine, but the disc machine has worked its way into public favor. At the Oxford Royal show last year, there was considerable competition, and the trials in the pulper class especially were closely watched. Two distinct principles were seen in the different machines, viz., a barrel or cylinder, with knives on the surface, and spaces or openings through which the cut roots passed; and a disc carrying the cutters, the cut stuff passing through the openings on the face of the disc, the difference between the cutters and pulpers being simply the form of the knife. After a patient inquiry, the judges were unanimously of opinion that the disc principle was right, especially in the case of pulpers, for several reasons : one is that you may adjust the cutters as the points wear away; or you can set the cut coarser or finer, as you require ; also that when new cutters are required they can be easily replaced by a farm laborer much easier than changing a chaff knife. The cost of new cutters is but a few pence each. The term pulper is still retained, although the roots are not pulped, but are cut fine ; hence I think either grater or mincer would be a more appropriate name for the machines. Having thus disposed of the machine part of the subject, I will now proceed to what are claimed as the merits of the pulping and mixing system. The principal are: It economises the roots, for, after being pulped and mixed with the chaff, either from threshed or cut hay or straw the whole is consumed without waste, the animals not being able to separate the chaff from the pulped roots, as is the case when the roots are merely sliced by the common cutter, neither do they waste the fodder, as when given without being cut. By economising roots they last longer into the season—a most important consideration on all farms. Inferior hay or straw may be used. After being mixed with the pulp for about twelve hours fermentation commences, and this soon renders the most mouldy hay palatable, and animals eat with avidity that which they would otherwise reject. This fermentation softens the straw, makes it more palatable, and puts it in a state to assimilate more readily with the other food. In this respect the pulper is of great value, particularly on corn farms, where large crops of straw are grown and where there is a limited acreage of pasture as by its use the pasture may be grazed, the expensive process of haymaking reduced, and consequently an increased

number of cattle kept. The masticatory process is materially abridged, and animals are enabled to fill themselves sooner and return to a state of repose, and digestion -is easier. The condition of the animals is better, they are more free from disease than under any other system of feeding. Scouring is entirely avoided. There is a great saving in the consumption of hay. Mangel may with safety be used much earlier in the season if required. There are as well as these many other advantages to recommend the pulping and mixing systems. I will briefly quote some of them, with various methods adopted by users of pulpers, for horses, bullocks, cows, sheep, and pigs. First horses. In feeding horses with pulped roots, proportions may be varied to suit the time of year, and the work they have to do. One gentleman tells me he has kept his horses in work throhigh the winter by giving them pulped roots, with equal quantities of straw or corn chaff, allowing each horse a little hay and 281 b of corn meal during the week, effecting a saving of half the corn and hay he had previously given. Another says he gives one bushel of pulped roots to two bushels of straw chaff, mixed fresh every day, with half a peck of cracked beans, and a little hay for the night. Another gives 201 b of pulped roots with plenty of chaff, two thirds straw, one third hay. Another says that horses do not require hay; the pulped mangel induces them to eat a quantity of chaff'. He carries the pulp to the stable in a cask directly it is cut, and after mixing with the chaff and the corn mangers are filled at night. The general report is—horses eat the meat with avidity, it alleys their thirst, and frequently prevents colic and inflammation, which often turns out fatally from the animals getting an excess of colei water on an empty stomach. Aged horses are kept in better condition on the mixture. Horses will not refuse dry food when feeding on pulped food, and the state of their health is mnch improved. Parsnips and carrots for horses are liked very much when pulped. Most agree that the pulped root is best for horses when fresh done, and all, that a considerable saving in the corn takes place. Colts thriven well on the pulped mixture. For bullocks the method of the feeding varies. One says, ‘ I take the 2\ year old steers, I cut for them chaff about five-sixths straw, onesixth hay, and sometimes nothing but straw. With this I give them about two pecks of pulped mangel per day during the early part of the winter, and as spring approaches increase the quantity until they get up to four pecks per day. I mix the pulped roots with the chaff upon the floor of the chaff house, and use the food thus mixed before it ferments. The oilcake and other artificial food I give separately.” Another writes : “ I consider the pulped good for all live stock, more espicially for those in which we suppose the digestive organs weakened from exposure or other causes. The proportions must vary in all cases according to the quantity and quality of the fodder, chaff, roots, &c., the farmer has in hand. I find in practice it is best to mix the roots immediately after pulping with chaff, throw the whole into a heap to allow the chaff to soak up the juices, and the whole mass to slightly ferment. In 24 hours it will be in the best condition to use; that is to say, mix up the quantity required for the day ensuing. I usually give the cake, corn, &c., from the mixture.” ****** Another farmer says : “ As regards the use of the pulper for cattle generally, irrespective of age, my plan is to have a layer of cut chaff, consisting of three parts hay and one of straw, and one bushel of pulpel mangels or turnips, and to repeat the quantities until sufficient is obtained for next day’s consumption, allowing it to remain about twelve hours to ferment. The stock are then fed on it thrice a day, with sufficient to satisfy them. Last winter I left off giving my dairy of cows the mixture, as previously named, substi tuting mangel sliced by a turnip cutter, and dry chaff. The result was a deficiency of above a pound of butter each cow. I then reverted to my previous plan, and I found they produced the same quantity as before.” It is generally agreed by all who have tested it that the pulped mixture not only improves the quality of the milk, but it also does away with that unpleasant flavor of the turnips in butter, usually attempted to be got rid of by using saltpetre in making. The improved milk also produces a better quality of both butter and cheese. Less mastication being needed, it is a great consideration in the case of young cattle casting their teeth and old ones who have but few. It is an old saying, that “ the milk comes from the cow’s mouth,” so the pulping must be an advantage in saving the cow’s front teeth, which must suffer from the chipping of the whole turnips ; the dairy farmer cannot be too careful of this, so that when he has a good cow to keep her for a number of years. For calves, the mixture being of a soft nature suits their mouths, and they quickly take to it. Another gentleman says :—“ Having an unusually heavy crop of straw, and my parsnips having partially failed, I resolved,

as I wished to increase my stock of breeding ewes, on testing the pulping system, and try how far, by cutting up my wheat straw and by pulping my turnips, I might achieve the end I had in view. The system I pursued was of mixing about half turnip pulp and half chaff the day before using. My expectations were fully realised ; my former flock of ewes was from eighty to ninety, and last year I kept on the same land 140 to 150, and at lambing time they were in as nice condition as I could wish, and were particularly healthy, having consumed no more turnips than my flock of eighty or ninety had done iu previous years. Ewes will always suckle well on the food, and lambs will eat it much sooner than foodotherwiseprepared.” Pigs :—The methods for these are most simple. An extensive pig breeder says: “I find great advantage in mixing the barley meal with the roots when pulped. The manner I make use of the roots is this. First have them thoroughly cleaned and washed before pulping, then pulped and put in a large close bin or cistern, mixing a little barley meal with it before it is given to the pigs. The allowance to each pig is one peck of barley meal per week for the first three months, and as much mangel or Swede as they will eat. After that I increase the barley meal gradually for the next three months up to two pecks per week for each pig. By such treatment I make many of them weigh from twenty to thirty-five stones each.”

Having thus gone through the various classes to show that pulped food is beneficial for every description of animal, I would here remark that a great deal has both been written and said on the system of fermentation. If hay or straw is at all tainted, then fermentation will remove the objectionable taste. The time for the fermentation must depend on the state of the weather and position of the place for admitting air at the time. Straw by this method of feeding comes round into manure much quicker. Straw that has undergone the fermented storing plan may be mixed with the roots, and after laying sufficient time together to allow of the straw becoming moistened, may be given to the animals with great advantage. If time permitted I could give the results of many experiments that have been carried out on farms—l will mention one : —Two lots of year old cattle were fed, the one in the usual way—sliced turnips and straw ad libitum ; the other with minced turnips, mixed with cut straw. The first lot consumedß4lb sliced turnips, lib oilcake, lib rape cake, and -|lb bean meal, broken small and mixed with a little salt and what straw they liked : the second lot ate daily 501 b minced turnips, lib oilcake, lib rape cake, -|lb bean meal, and a little salt, the whole being mixed with double the bulk of cut straw or wheat chaff. In the spring the lot of cattle which had the mixed food were in as good condition, and equally well grown as the others, though they had consumed in five months two tons less of roots a piece. I have compiled the following from various sources, to show the amount of moisture and mineral substances, contained in each food used on the farm :

WILL WHEAT GROWING PAY? The New South Wales newspapers have been condoling with the South Australian farmers on the supposition that wheat growing does not pay them, and that with every quarter of wheat exported a portion of the working capital of this colony is sent away. The ground upon which they go is that the cost of cultivating wheat in South Australia reaches from 65s to 75. s per acre. This, however, is a palpable error. We have no wish to prove the wheat growers of South Australia a highly favored class. They have, as every one of them has learned by experience, many difficulties and harships to contend with, and but moderate profits to reconcile them to their lot; but at the same time we feel it undesirable that the injurious idea that our farmers are necessarily carrying on operations at a loss should remain unchallenged. We admit that our averages of wheat produce have not for many years exceeded frojn twelve to fourteen bushels an acre, and are not likely to do so as a

regular thing for many years to come; but we demur to the conclusion that on this account it is a ruinous thing for the cultivation of cereals to be maintained or even largely extended. There are hundreds of thousands of acres of arable land not yet alienated from the Crown upon which farmers may locate themselves with a fair prospect of remunerative returns. They may not—probably will not —make fortunes, but they can rely upon a tolerable competency. It would be easy to show by calculation that the highest computation the expense of cultivating an acre of wheat does not exceed 50s, but we are not obliged to rely solely upon estimates, for we have been favored with figures giving the actual outlay upon certain farms in the North, and these go conclusively to prove that we should be justified in fixing a lower total than 50s. It will be understood that the whole of the work on the farms to which the following statement applies has been done by contract. The statement is made up for three years. During the first year the payments were for ploughing 9s an acre, sowing and harrowing 3s, reaping and bagging 6s, seed 4s. During the next year the land was merely scarified, and the cost was as follows Seed 4s, scarifying, &c. 4s, reaping, &c., 6s. This makes for the two years a total of 365. During the third year the land is allowed to lie uncultivated, and there is therefore no outlay except by way of rent. This for the three years would, at 10 per cent, interest on £2 per acre, the total cost of the land, amount to 12s an acre, or 4s annually. Adding this to the 36s the expense is brought up to 48s, averaging 24s per annum for the two years during which the land is under crop. It must not be understood that the land is altogether unproductive in the third year, for it is then run over by sheep. In fact, sheep are constantly kepton the farms, but the returns from them cannot, of course, be taken into account in the present calculation. The items of expenditure given above certainly appear small, but our authority is beyond question. The seed was purchased on the ground, and about a bushel per acre was allowed. Possibly the bad seasons in the North may have had some effect upon the prices at which the work was done; but after making libera] allowance for this and for other contingencies, and also after making ample provision for conveying the produce to market, the cost would still be considerably below the 50s an acre. We have received from a small farmer in the North some further information in which although it does not enable us to draw any distinct inference as to the relation between cost of tillage and returns to the producer, is yet interesting as showing that in suitable localities and in favorable seasons wheat growing in South Australia yields excellent results. In the case of No. 3 referred to, if not also in the case of Nos. 4 and 5, the amount received would probably enable the farmer to pay for his land and have a tidy balance over to pay for his labor. Taking it that the expense of working No. 3’s block of 60 acres, not reckoning the guano, was even forty shillings an acre, that would only be £l2O, leaving £2ll for his labor—no insignificant return from what in this colony is regarded as a very limited acreage for a farm. Another important point in the letter is the proof it gives of the benefitofusingguano. It is not stated what the character of the soil is, or how long it has been under crop ; these are matters upon which we hope “ A Small Farmer” will give us further details. Ilis communication, as it has reached us, is as follows :

“ From the perusal of your remarks as to the cost of wheat growing, I am induced to send jmu an account of what some of my neighbors are doing - “No. 1. Owner of an 80 acre section ; last year he had 50 acres in wheat, 10 in hay and 20 fallow. He reaped 600 bushels, sold at an average of ss; deducting 50 bushels for seed, it leaves him £137 10s for his labor. His stock-in-trade consists of two horses £2O, plough and harness £lO ; having no reaping machine he gives a fortnight’s labor and the loan of his two horses, and in return gets the use of a reaper, winnower, and his neighbor’s and horses’ help to reap his own crop. His crop was sold at the farm. “No 2. Owner of" 80 acres; had 60 acres in crop, 20 acres in hay and grass ; was fallowed. Reaped 700 bushels, at ss, less 60 bushels seed, leaves C4O bushels or £l6O for his labor. “ No 3. With 80 acres, 60 of which were in wheat, with 2 cwt. guano per acre at a cost of 10s per acre. Reaped 25 bushels per acre, or 1500 bushels ; .deducting 60 for seed, leaves 1440 bushels at ss, or £360 ; deducting guano £3O, leaves £330 for his labor. “ No 4. I cannot give particulars as to his acreage ; but by applying 2 cwt guano per acrehereaped 35 bushels wheat peracre. “No 5. By applying 4 cwt guano per acre reaped 50 bushels per acre barley, sold at 4s. “No 6. By applying 2 cwt guano per acre reaped 24 bushels wheat per acre, whilst the unmanured portion brought only six bushels per acre.”

100 lb. weight of Dry organic matter or real food. Moisture. Mineral matter. Wheatstraw conts 79 18 3 Barley straw.,.,.. 83f 11 52 Oat straw 67228:2 32 Pea straw 82 12 6 Bean straw 752 14,V 9f Bye straw 782 18:2 3 Clover straw 78 21 6 Ordinary hay 762 16 72 Mangel Wurzel... 10 89 1 Swedes 14 85 l Turnips 10 89 l Red Beet 10 89 1 White Carrots ... 12 87 l Potatoes 27 72 l Linseed cake 752 172 7 Peas 802 16 32 Beans 822 14 32 Bariev meal ..... 822 152 2 Oatmeal 89 9 2 Bran 81 14 5 Oats 79 18 3 Lentils 81 16 1