A NEW CATTLE FOOD MILL.

Bruce Herald, Volume VI, Issue 362, 5 April 1871, Page 8

A NEW CATTLE FOOD MILL.

On Monday last we witnessed the trial of a new crushing" machine on Mr Bum's, Hurst Farm, near Guildford. Tt is introduced by Mr J. L Norton, Belle Sauvage Yard, Ludgate Hill, and promises to he of immense se/vice to farmers and cattlebreeders. We found a number of farmers under a shed watching the movements of a small machine about four feet in height. A man was pouring into the hopper a sack of Indian corn, and in exactly (3| minutes the whole was crushed c up and deposited into the box receptacle at the bottom of the machine. Several experiments were then tried with straw, beans, peas, half-inch hones, locust- beans, gorse, and brambles. In crashing the straw it has a very material advantage over the ordinary cutting' machine. It is well known that the hard surface of the straw, if not thoroughly broken, requires extraordinary powers of digestion in order fully to assimilate it : thus, in horse feed, the chopped straw passes through almost intact. The new crusher breaks every particle of the surface of the straw, and thus makes every portion of it nutrive. Bone, used for manure, is generally broke up into half-inch size, and then laid upon the laud. It takes a long time, almost two years sometimes, before the benefit of this excellent manure can be absorbed by the land. What is wanted is a cheap means of pulverising the bones, so that the ground can get the benefit immediately. This it accomplished by Mr Norton's machine with the greatest ease. The bines nve put into the hopper, the machine starts, and, as quiokly as the hpans or the pea<=, the bones fall in powder in the box. The more interesting experiments were made, however, with the gorse and bramble bushes. These were crushed and pulverised with singular ease and rapidity, and produced a material something like the grass from a law n-mo -ving machine. Before going into the machine the gorse and the brambles were comparatively without smell, but after passing through there was a strong and pleasant aroma, differing from, but with as much strength as, new-mown hay. We tried it with several of the horses, and both gorse and brambles were devoured with avidity. The Itttle crusher, grinding 3teadily on with this novel cattle feel, seems to herald an entirely new era in cattle-breftding. Here is a pleasant green food which may be used all through the winter, costing nothing but the small expense of crushing. Mixed with corn, beans, and other products, it will doubtless be found to be the best and most nutritious food that can possibly be obtained. One great advantage possessed by the crusher is that cotton cake and rape seed, maize and straw, or any cornponnd required can be crushed together, so that all trouble of mixing afterwards is spared. For instance, we saw a small quantity of locust beans ground with straw, and it produced a very fragrant food, which the cattle ate with readiness. — ' Land and Water."'