A NEW CATTLE FOOD MILL.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXVII, Issue 4206, 6 February 1871, Page 6

A NEW CATTLE FOOD MILL.

On Monday last we witnessed the trial of a new crushing machine on Mr. Burtt'a, Hurst Farm, near Guildford. It is introduced by Mr. J. L. Norton, Belle Sauvage Yard, Ludgate Hill, and promises to be of immense service 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 ©^minutes the whole was crushed up and deposited into the box receptacle at the bottom of the machine. Several experiments were then tried with straw, beans, peaa, half-inch bones, locustbeans, gorse, and brambles. Tn crushing 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 nutritive. Bone, used for manure, is generally broken up into half-inch size, and then laid upon the land. It takes a long time, almost two years sometimes, before the full 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 is accomplished by Mr. Norton's machine -with the greatest ease. The bones are p«V m\t> ft*& lacppfeT, :**&>& •ssfc.t&rafo sfcarta, and, as quickly as the beans or the peas, tl\e bones fatL- iv 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 lawn-mowing 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 little crusher, grinding steadily on with this novel cattle -feed, seems to herald an entirely new er* in cattlebreeding. Here is a pleasant green food which may ba used all through the winter, costing nothing bat th« small expense of orashing. Mixed with corn, beans, and other products, it will doubtless be found to be the beat and most nutritious food that can possibly be obtained. ~ One great advantage -possessed by the crusher is that cotton-cake and rape-aeed, maize and straw, or any compound 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 1 f ood, which the cattle ate iritb readiness. — l and and. Water.

1 As a former meeting of theßritish Asaocia-' tion in Dublin, Mr.* Charles of 1 Cashel, read a paper relative to hi«'extensive car-establishment, after Vhioft a gentleman stated that- at, Pickford*», X Ihe great English, earner's, they (&nld i noirwprk% horse economically more than 10, miles aday, and Wished' to Jbear Mr. ißianconi's,' opinion on the subject. Mr, Bianconi staged, i be rfonnd by experience,^ £«! Jctfuld'lLbetftri fWotk ,», Ahorse «ight miles a-day, fdFaix day*] in tii^ek^than six m'i&r a'-da^foV; cgpbi ;diyfl { m mi't&k.^u^iiimff^ sari'- Joian<soni'S opinion 0n : itmB^Boittt4J§ : the ' Hjghßafc antnority -irf^r'^Jtfo^^jL . j^H q ' extension of railways in tbeTan'dS^^^kctwn 37i"of of Minil^^mw^pp