THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



■177 



know full well that more requires drainiug than has already 

 been drained. There is, I know, some degree of prejudice 

 against the draining of pasture laud, and it is not uncommon 

 to hear that practice deprecated. To this circumstance we 

 may possibly attribute the non- drainage of a portion of those 

 lauda. It is, in my opinion, a great error, and has its origin 

 in the circumstance that pastures do, for a time, occasionally 

 wear a worse appearance, and carry less stock, than before 

 draining was effected. But this is very easily accounted for, 

 and is in reality no valid reason against the ultimate benefits 

 of good drainage. We all know that stagnant water produces 

 and suppoits a coarse herbage, and is destructive to 

 the finest and most valuable grasses. Having taken out the 

 water which is essential to the support of the coarse grass, 

 and sufficeut time not having elapsed for the reproduction of 

 the finer ones, it is no great wonder that temporary dis- 

 appointment is the result. la the end, however, the drainage 

 is highly beueficiul, and the outlay profitable. In my ex- 

 perience, I can safely aver, that I have never yet seen an in- 

 stance to the contrary. There are some soils naturally so 

 tender, that no amount of draining will make them otherwise ; 

 and as they produce only the finest and most feeding herbage, 

 it is folly to attempt it. It is only necessary to keep the 

 cattle off them in wet seasons. But, supposing that some 

 portion of the pasture land has been fairly dealt with, and 

 that all the excrementitious matter which belonged to it has 

 been returned to it, still waste and deterioration may be 

 going on by the yearly abstraction from the soil of phosphates 

 and other substances. Where laud is used for dairy purposes, 

 this is unquestionably the case. Hence the marked benefits 

 which the me of bones has caused on the dairy lands of 

 Cheshire aud other districts. To the above-named causes, I 

 think I am justified in assigning the great injury done to some 

 portions of the grass lands, and the partial deterioration of 

 others. I am acquainted with a good deal of land that has 

 the reputation of having been, many years since, much better 

 than it is at the present time. Some fields are spoken of as 

 having fed off two lots of beasts in a season, that now will 

 scarcely make one lot fat. It is owing to this deterioration, 

 aud the consequent unproStablenees of many of the old 

 pastures, that many of them were broken up. This has been 

 cue of the chief causes of the lessened supply of live stock. 

 Another cause may be found in the substitution of the four- 

 course roia'.ion of husbandry, for the six-course. I recollect 

 when the ariificial grasses were very generally grazed two 

 years, and some even three. There was, therefore, one-third 

 of the light arable soils on farms so managed in pasture ; 

 and a much greater number of cattle aud sheep were then 

 kept upon them, than there are at the present day. I have, 

 on former occasions, when addrtssiug the members of this 

 club, advocated a return to the six-course rotation; and the 

 increased value of both store and fat stock is an additional 

 reason for its adoption. I have long been of opinion that 

 more stock may be produced, aud more corn grown at a less 

 cost, by that system than by any other. An increased supply 

 of young cattle is now of the first importance. Until it is 

 produced, of course it cannot be fed, and we must look to the 

 arable soils for a portion of that increase. At present, by the 

 great extension of winter feeding, they abstract very largely 

 from the supplies of the summer grazier. No one can regret 

 this, because stock feeding is the life and soul of good hus- 

 bandry ; but it causes the price of store cattle to rule so high, 

 that even with the present price of meat, those purchased now 

 can scarcely leave a profit to the feeder. Breeding has gene- 

 rally, for many years past, when combined with feeding, been 

 the most profitable part of the business. More than twenty 



years since, when the late Lord Spencer (the uncle of the pre- 

 sent Earl) endeavoured to perausde the farmers of Northamp- 

 tonshire to turn their attention more to breeding their own 

 cattle, he gave as a very cogent reason for their doing so, 

 that his own home-breJ steers piid him more per week from 

 the time they were calved, to the time they were sold as 

 fat ones, than the cattle he bought for grazing did 

 for the last six months they were feeding. The in- 

 ducement to breed is much greater now than it 

 was then, aud it should be extended wherever practicable. 

 It is, moreover, highly important that the cattle which pre- 

 vail in some districts should be greatly improved. This is 

 especially the case with respect to North Wales. There is no 

 more useful class of beast than a good Welsh runt ; but many 

 of them are so inferior, and require so much fattening, that 

 they are much kss profitable than they ought to be, or 

 need to be. This is owing to the suicidal practice of the 

 breeders, who sell all their best heifers to come to England to 

 be fed, and keep only their worst ones to breed from. It 

 seems useles to offer advice to men who can be capable 

 of such folly ; but they may be quite certain 

 that much the largest portion of the cattle they breed 

 would command much higher relative prices if they were 

 to adopt the very contrary course, and breed only from the 

 best males and females they can obtain. The cattle of South 

 Wales are getting more into favour than the North, owing to 

 their greater aptitude to fatten ; but many of them are very 

 light of flesh, and require great improvement in that respect. 

 Another matter requiring great change, is the use of better 

 bulls in the dairy districts. Too many of the owners of dairy 

 herds care nothing about the bulls they use, so long as their 

 cows are only in-calf at the proper season, and many of their 

 bulls are of the most ordinary character. The calves so bred 

 are bought by dealers, and sold by them for rearing ; and the 

 result is very often a very mongrel kind of shorthorn. 

 Numbers of these calves have been sent to Ireland to be 

 reared, and kept there till they are two or three years old. 

 They are then sent back for the benefit of the English 

 grazier. While speaking of Irish cattle, I will mention, in- 

 cidentally, the very objectionable treatment they receive on 

 the passage to England. I was once at Holyhead when cattle 

 were being unloaded from a steam vessel. They had been 

 crowded one tier above another in the hold of the ship, and 

 the stench from them was perfectly unbearable. After having 

 been kept in this foul atmosphere during the voyage, and 

 steaming with perspiration, a rope was looped round their 

 bodies with a ruuning noose, and hooked to the crane by 

 which they were drawn on deck. The effect of the rope, 

 drawn by their whole weight tightly round their flanks and 

 chest, was not only to force their intestines into their lungs, 

 but also to compress their libs with great force upon tlie 

 lungs. After this treatment on beard, they were driven to a 

 bleak hill side, till such time as they could be loaded in rail- 

 way waggons, and forwarded to England. They were con- 

 veyed at great speed through the cold air ; and with their 

 skins still wet, we can easily imagine the chill they would get, 

 aud need not be surprised if, from these combined causes, dis- 

 eased Inngs were the result. From what I saw on that 

 occasion, I have had no difficulty in accounting for the losses 

 sustained amongst them. I have myself participated 

 rather heavily la those losses, not only with respect 

 to the Irish cattle, but also in others infected by 

 them, and dare not now venture to purchase them. 

 I ueed scarcely add that these losses recoil upon the producers 

 of the cattle, as they are purchased at prices commensurate 

 with the risks. This may be thought a digression from the 



