THE FARMER^S MAGAZINE. 



313 



FARMING ECONOMIES. 



HOW TO MAKE HEA.VY LAND FARMS "STOCK FARMS/' 



Why are they not stock farms? Certaiuly not because they 

 caauot proJuce euough to keep stock ; for if heavy lands be 

 thoroughly drained, deeply cultivated, and heavily manured, 

 it will produce ample crops of mangel wurzel, and other rootsi 

 clover, tares, rape, beans, and other feeding stuflfa, and certaiuly 

 more straw than can be grown on the lighter soils. 



The real reason is, that you cannot keep stock in the open 

 fitlds ou such heavy laud during the cold wet months. 



But cannot you keep them under cover, dry and comfort- 

 ably sheltered ? and will it not pay you to provide such suf- 

 ficient shelter ? I purpose in this paper to prove that it will 

 pay, and that the absence of such covered yards on a heavy 

 land farm is the cause of much loss and damage. I have re- 

 cently been over many good farms, of from 400 to 750 acres, in 

 Essex and Cambridgeshire, and found nothing but large open 

 yards, with a few narrow sheds. During this wet season, the 

 direct rain-fall, added to the water from the untroughed build- 

 ings, has caused a flooding of the yards, and a washing away 

 of the most valuable and soluble portions of the manure, to 

 the great injury of the farmer's pocket. This h a scarce year 

 for straw, and farmers are now becoming converts to the cut 

 straw and pulped root system ; and yet, owing to the open- 

 yard system, they are compelled to waste a large quantity of 

 that valuable feeding commodity, in vain attempts to keep a 

 dry bed for their animals. One farmer told me that the flood 

 was so great in his yard, that the men could only get across 

 to their feeding bullocks by laying down planks ; so, as a 

 remedy, they had tied them up under the sheds, and thus saved 

 both straw and manure. My animals and manure are all un- 

 der cover; therefore, although mangel wurzel, the last wretched 

 season, was but half a crop, and straw rather scarce, I manage 

 by consuming the straw cut up, steamed, mixed with rape- 

 cake, malt combs, aud bran, and adding to this a very few 

 pulped roots, and plenty of straw chaff, to keep a good head of 

 stock improving in condition, and making good manure, under 

 cover. 



The strong stems of beau straw are cut up, steamed, and 

 couaumed as food, the analysis showing that they are nearly 

 equal to hay. In fact I use straw largely as food, instead of 

 wasting it to mop up water. My short crop of roots will 

 therefore last until June. The straw chaflf is cut very fine 

 by steam power, and absorbs the juice of the pulped roots. 

 This is mixed with the hot steamed mess of rapecake, malt 

 combs, brau, and chaff, and given warm to the animals. 



Simple covered yards, with space slating, may be provided 

 at a cost of 93. per square yard, or Is. per superficial foot ; 

 and as I find thai 12 superficial feet affords ample room for 

 one half-bred sheep, it follows that a charge of Is. per year per 

 sheep would amply pay the interest on such an investment. 

 The question then arises, whether 2 lbs. more of meat per head 

 could be made during the six cold wet months, by placing the 

 animals in dry comfortable quarters, as compared with their 

 exposure to the vicissitudes of weather on a wet clay. I have 

 long since solved the question to my own satisfaction : avoid- 

 ance of death and disease would about pay for shelter ; but 

 when we add to this a great saving in the quantity of food con- 

 sumed, and especially an improved quality of the manure made, 

 it being uQwashed, aud unexposed to atmospheiic influences; 



no further argument is required in favour of such a system. 

 The same principle holds good for bullocks. 150 superficial 

 feet of shelter, at a cost of £7 lOs., would be ample for a large 

 bullock, at a charge of lOs. per annum for iucerest. When 

 tied up, or when on sparred floors, 75 feet for a bullock, or 12 

 feet for a sheep, would give ample space, for the spars permit 

 a circulation of air under and around each auimal, which would 

 not be the case with straw. If judiciously managed as to ven- 

 tilation, and especially as to a properly-regulated supply of 

 litter, your sheep will be free from foot rot, and perfectly 

 healthy, and your bullocks equally so. Breeding animals 

 would require rather more space than I have specified. 



The time will come when the value of straw as a feeding 

 material will be better understood, and then farmers will re- 

 sort to sparred floors, or to burned clay ashes, as a bed for their 

 animals. Mr. Randall has long adopted the latter practice 

 with success and profit, a barrowful of dry ashes or brickdust 

 daily being ample to keep twenty sheep dry and comfortable. 



The saturated ashes form a capital turuip manure, furnishing 

 of themselves a large supply of alkaUes, &c. 



Miserably unprofitable stiS clay farms, now difficult to Iet» 

 would be chiefly converted into paying stock farms by an an- 

 nual summer burning of 1,000 cubic yards of stvtf clay or brick- 

 dust ashes to each 100 acres, at a cost of £25 ; for we can 

 raise and burn at 6d. per cubic yard of ashes. The straw would 

 be then avsilab'e as food, instead of being wasted in sopping- 

 up rain. 



Estimated Cost for 100 Acres, 



Per acre. 



Burned ashes ,£0 5 



Interest at 7 per cent, on covered yards suf- 

 ficient for 20 bullocks and 100 sheep 3 



Interest ou drainage of land per acre 7 



^0 15 



Such an arrangement, on the part of landlord and tenant, 

 would convert our miserable and profitless plastic clays into 

 holdiugs creditable and advantageous alike to tenant, landlord, 

 and the nation. 



But then the tenant must have capital enougii to purchase 

 stock, aud to buy cake for them, as well as to provide the ne- 

 cessary machinery for preparing the food. At present I know 

 of several good buildings put up by landlords, whose tenants 

 have never availed themselves of them, having neither suflicient 

 capital nor disposition to do so. 



Last year was a ruinous one to the holders of stiff, bird- 

 lime-like, undiained clays. I know many instances where the 

 produce has ranged from 1 to 2 qrs. per acre; and where there 

 must have been a loss equal to one, and in many instances to 

 more than one, rent. The difference in value of produce be- 

 tween the drained and undrained clays was last'year very great, 

 in fact enough to pay for several years' interest on good drain- 

 age. J. J. Mechi. 



March, 1861. 



P.S. — I was speaking to a farmer, who entered upon an ex- 

 hausted poor farm, without any roots, and he said, "1 have 

 240 ewes eating cotton-seed-cake, rapecake, and straw. My 

 shepherd tells me that they give more millf, and of a better 

 quality, than when, on another farm, they had plenty of tur- 

 nips alone. Our 200 lambs have been lambed down with a 

 loss of only four. Both ewes and lambs are in much better 

 condition than when we used to feed them on turnips only, oa 

 the open fields, exposed to the vicissitudes of weather. Now 

 they are in shedded yards, and can shelter when they choose, 

 instead of having wet or frozen fleeces, and lying ou cold wet 

 ground, we thus avoid losses by death, and also increase the 

 fertility of the soil by importing fgod on the farm." 



B B 



