IMPROVEMENT OP PASTURES. 21 



application ? Is it not quite probable that cattle on one farm 

 require different feed from those on another. As an illustra- 

 tion, cattle on some farms will leave the most tempting food 

 that can be placed before them to chew and swallow an old 

 honey-combed bone, from which the fatty matter and cartilage 

 have been removed by decomposition. We know men who are 

 careful to secure for their milch cows every such bone lying in 

 their path ; and if furnished in sufficient quantities to cattle 

 which desire them, there need be little fear of the horn-ail or 

 other kindred diseases, consequent on a deficiency of bone- 

 producing elements in the usual food. Hence, bone-meal has 

 been recommended for all neat stock. This recommendation 

 furnishes an example of the folly of drawing universal conclu- 

 sions from partial facts, and it should not be adopted for two 

 reasons. The first is, that bone meal, as usually purchased, 

 contains more or less undecomposed animal matter, which is 

 distasteful and in some cases poisonous ; and the second, — 

 which is pertinent to the subject under consideration, — is, that 

 on many farms, where the herbage abounds in phosphate of 

 lime, cattle need no additional supply, and are never known to 

 seek it by eating bones. 



It is possible, then, that a difference in the constituents of the 

 soil of farms, and a consequent difference in the qualities of the 

 grasses they produce, may lie at the foundation of the opposite 

 results noticed by individuals on feeding any particular crop to 

 their stock. Ruta-bagas probably contain more of the phosphates 

 than any other root crop, and, if so, they must be much more 

 valuable where the usual herbage is deficient in these elements 

 than where there is no such deficiency. Till agriculture becomes 

 more of a science than it now is, farmers must rely mainly upon 

 their own experience in determining what crops they should 

 raise for the stock upon their own farms. 



On the question of raising crops for market, it is truly fortu- 

 nate that unanimity of opinion is impossible. Our farmers 

 depend mainly upon local markets. If all were to devote their 

 energies to the raising of one and the same crop, they might find 

 themselves in the condition of some of our Bristol County 

 friends, who are said to have ploughed in their unsalable onions 

 for manure. It is not wise to infer, because turnips have some- 

 times sold for two and three dollars per barrel, that they will 



