IMPROVEMENTS IN MAKING AND PRE- PARING FOOD FOR CATTLE
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
CLISILD DANIELL, of Tiverton Mills, near Batlı, Clothier, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Thirty-first day of March, in the fifth year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Joseph
Clisild Daniell, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Joseph Clisild Daniell, my exors, adññors, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Joseph Clisild Daniell, my exors, admors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MAKING AND PRE-
PARING FOOD FOR CATTLE;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
that I, the said Joseph Clisild Daniell, shall cause a particular description
of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being there-
unto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Joseph Chisild Daniell, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had
to the Drawing hereunto annexed (that is to say):-
My said improvements consist, first, in the mode herein-after described of pre-

page_text: paring and treating certain substances herein-after set forth, in order to render
such substances fit to be used as food for cattle. Such substances may for the
sake of description bo designated ligneous matter, because it is in all cases of
the nature of wood. And such ligneous matter comprises all kinds of wood,
but that which I have found best calculated for the purpose is such as is
commonly called under or coppice wood, either oak, ash, maple, sycamore, or
hazlewood, brushwood, hedgewood, brambles, furze, gorse, heath, or any
other fibrous matter of the nature of wood, possessing the qualities of those
above stated, and which when prepared, as herein-after stated, will be applicable
as food for cattle.
Secondly, in the mode of treating and preparing grass, either common grass
or lucerne, sainfoin (or French grass), green clover or green vetches, also either
wheat or barley straw, bean or pea halm or straw, vetch, or any other sort of
straw, or halm, or hay, such as may be used as fodder for cattle, after being
treated according to my said improvements, or part thereof, as herein-after
set forth.
The mode of preparing such substances, designated ligneous matter, as afore-
said, in order to constitute them food for cattle, according to my improvements
or part thereof, consists in reducing the same to a state of fine powder, by any
machinery or series of machines adapted for cutting, bruising, and grinding
such ligneous matter as aforesaid to a state of fine powder; and suitable
machinery for such purpose is herein-after mentioned and referred to. In
order to reduce such ligneous matter to a state of fine powder, when such
powder will be fit food to be given to cattle, I take the wood, (if under or
coppice wood,) such being cut the whole length of the growth and not cut into
short lengths as when made into faggots, and put it into a machine, such as is
used for cutting hay into chaff, but made much stronger, for the purpose of
cutting such under or coppico wood into fragments, the large sticks of which
require stronger machinery for that purpose than hay, or even furze, heath, or
smaller wood. (This machine is represented in the Drawings annexed to the
Specification of a former Patent taken out by me, entitled "Improvements in
the Manufacturo of Manure, or a Composition to be used on Land as a
Manure." When it is reduced into fragments by passing it through the
machine above mentioned, and which is done exactly in the same manner as
in cutting hay or straw into chaff, I run it through a machine made similar
to a coffee mill or malt mill, but made much larger and stronger, and similar to
that used by tanners in grinding bark. This machine also is represented in
the Drawings annexed to the Specification above referred to. I then run it
through another machine of a similar form, only made finer in its cutting parts,

page_text: in order still further to reduce the fragments. I then pass the wood, so
reduced as above stated, through a pair of millstones, such as are commonly
used for grinding flour. After it is so reduced, by passing through the mill-
stones as above stated, it is to be then passed through a miller's screen, such
as is used by millers in separating the sharps from the gurgeons and the bran.
The finer sort of wood so treated will be then fit to be used as food for cattle;
the second sort, which passes through that part of the screen which separates
the gurgeons from the bran, may be mixed again with the coarser sort, (which
does not pass through either screen,) and be again passed through the mill-
stones, with a small quantity of the wood added in the state it is after the
passing through the third machine, as above, to facilitate the grinding, until it
is sufficiently reduced by grinding and screening for food for cattle.
Note. When either gorse, heath, brambles, or brushwood is used, it is to be
cut close to the stock or stonel, the same as under or coppice wood is cut, and
it does not require so strong a machine for first cutting it into fragments as
the under or coppice wood requires; most of the common shaft machines would
be sufficiently strong for that purpose, but in all respects it is to be treated, in
reducing it for the purpose of food for cattle, as the under or coppice wood
before described.
And note, as none of the ligneous matter above described can conveniently
be reduced to powder in a perfectly green state, it should be partially dried
after cutting from the stock or stonel, in order to get it to pass freely through
the millstones by which it is to be reduced to powder; and although it may be
used at any time before it decays, provided it be kept perfectly dry, the sooner
it is used after being cut and partially dried as aforesaid, the better it will
be; but gorse, or heath, or even oak, or any other wood of a bitter or unpleasant
flavor, may be improved by being put on a kiln, or in an oven with a strong
heat, before or after it is cut into fragments. The way and manner in which I
prepare the grass and straw, or halm, as aforesaid, is by taking a quantity of
the straw or halm, before described, in a dry state, and intimately mixing with
it about or a little more than double its weight of grass (after it is cut in the
usual manner, preparatory to making it into hay, and when free from external
moisture). I then put both straw and grass into a tank or vat, surrounded by
steam, as represented in the Drawing hereunto annexed, and let it remain
about twenty-four hours, by which time the straw will be saturated with the
moisture arising from the grass by action of heat produced by the steam which
surrounds the tank or vat. I then pass or force a current of atmospheric air
through the matters under process, above described, by means of an air. pump,
represented in the Drawing annexed, by which, after six or eight hours so
forcing it, a considerable part of the moisture will be carried off, when it may

page_text: be taken out; and will be fit for immediate use, or it may be stacked for future
use (but care must be taken that the above materials when taken out should
be thoroughly shaken abroad, so that the locks of grass may be divided, and
intimately mixed with the straw); but if the current of air passing through it
should not sufficiently carry off the moisture, it may be exposed for a few hours
to the sun, or a dry wind, wlien it may be stacked, or stored away in a barn or
store-room, without any fear of its becoming fusty. But if it is put into stack
without being dried after it is taken out of the vat, it should be sufficiently
moist to allow it to heat enough to carry off' such moisture, but to have it dried
completely before stacking or storing away is the safest plan.
Note. In case the weather should not be favorable for drying.it, if re-
quired to be dried in the open air, it may be put into a heap (and turned to
prevent its getting fusty) until the weather serves.
,
Note: If the grass should be partially dried before it is put into the tank or
vat, it will require less straw to be mixed with it, or such grass may, if nearly
dry, be put into the tank or vat by itself.
Hay may be substituted instead of straw to mix with the grass when put
into the tank orvat, and if had hay, it will very much improve it. Stout
straw, or such as is hard and firm in its texture, will require longer time in the
tank or vat to saturate it than thin or soft straw. If the grass and straw when
taken out of the tank or vat were run through a thrashing machine it would
very much improve its condition...:
The way in which I use the powdered wood in feeding cattle is (for horses)
by mixing half a peck of ground wood or ligneous matter with a bushel of chaff,
together witli a pint of corn or barley meal, if corn is usually given to such
horses, and then given as the horses may require it, after being made moist by
sprinkling it with a little water, or it may be steamed in the usual. way that
chinfl' is steamed by the feeders of cattle; or, the powdered ligneous matter inay
be moistened before it is mixed with the chaff with a solution of eight ounces
of soda in about a gallon of water, with a bushell of powdered ingricous matter.
For horned cattle or sheep, about half a peck of powdered wood or ligneous
matter anixed with a bushel of chaff, and the same, after being sprinkled with
water, or steamed or moistened with a solution of soda and water, as above,
may be used alone, or may be mixed with about half a bushel of grains, ór
half a bushel of crushed potatoes, parsnips, carrots, turnips, or mangel-wurzel;
and, if mixed with either of the last-mentioned, an additional quantity of from
half a. peck to a peck of the powdered ligneous matter may be added to such
mixture. For the feeding of store pigs, I use one bushel of grains or crushed
potatoes, parsnips, carrots, turnips, or mangel-würzel, with half a bushel of the
powdered wood or ligneous matter together, mixed with the wash; 'or, I use,

page_text: instead of the grains or the last-mentioned vegetables, three pecks of the
ground wood or ligneous matter, together with one peck of barley meal mixed
with the wash, or two pecks of bran or gurgeons mixed with two pecks of
ground ligneous matter mixed with the wash. For fatting pigs, instead of
giving barley meal in the usual way, I give barley meal and ground wood or
ligneous matter in equal quantities, mixed up with the wash.
Note. When potatoes, parsnips, carrots, turnips, or mangel-wurzel are
given, they may be used in the raw state, or steamed in the usual way.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I would have it understood that what I
claim is,―
First, the mode of making and preparing food for cattle by pulverising
ligneous matters, and applying the same to feed cattle.
And secondly, I claim the mode of treating all kinds of grass and straw, or
halm, or grass and hay, in a vat or tank, when preparing the same for the food
of cattle, as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Clisild Daniell, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-two.