342 Comparatire ProjU of Cheese cuid Butter- Making, cVe, 



up in October to turnips, ground-oats, oil-cake, and straw, and sold 

 from the middle of December to the middle of January at 22/. 

 to 24/. per head. The extent of land may also seem small for 

 the number of beasts and sheep kept ; but this is accounted for by 

 the circumstance that all the grass-land is available for pasture, 

 only a small quantity of hay being recjuired for the horses. 

 Again, the practice is to l)reak up a frcsli turf-field every year for 

 ley-oats, to be succeeded by turnips, which, aided by the moist 

 climate of the district, is always a very heavy crop, averaging 

 from 33 to 38 tons per statute acre ; hence the large amount of 

 winter-kocp from so small an extent of arable land. 



The item of .")()/. for cake may also appear small, but I may 

 state that cake is not used as the chief article for fattening beasts, 

 but rather as conducive to their health and as an aid to the corn 

 and turnips, which are mainly relied upon for fattening them. 

 The sheep and lambs get no cake. 



1 may also further state that of the (50 cows grazed, not more 

 than 50 are tied up in the autumn, as the remainder either go out 

 from grass or as calvers, of which there are always a few, and 

 wliich pay e(|ually well, regard being paid at tlie time of pur- 

 chasing that they arc right in their milking-organs. 



Rut I should hardly do justice to the merits of this system of 

 grazing by siniplv giving the practical results of my own neigh- 

 bourliood, and comparing them fniancially Avlth those of cheese 

 or butter making and milk-selling. Grazing has collateral 

 advantages in many forms that do not siiow themselves in such 

 a comparison, but which assume so large an amount in the aggre- 

 gate, that though milk-selling excels it in direct profit by, say 

 88/. 5.f. per annum on a farm of 200 acres, I yet consider that 

 in the main grazing is the preferable system, as I will endeavour 

 to show. 



In the first place, I consider that the apparent margin in favour 

 of milk-selling may fairly be reduced somewhat on account of 

 the extra risks attending the system from the more general ten- 

 dencv to delicacy and sickness of milking as compared with 

 fattening cows. Again, we must not overlook the risk of 

 making bad debts with the milk-dealers, who, as a body in the 

 large towns, are not the best of payers. In saying this I do but 

 speak the experience of milk-producers. Again, under the system 

 of grazing, the farm w ill regularly increase in fertility, as a much 

 greater portion of the nutriment, either extracted from the 

 ground or artificially supplied, is then returned to it again by 

 the animal, than under the system either of cheese-making or 

 milk-selling. If, then, we suppose a tenant to have a lease for, 

 say twenty-one years, at a fixed rent, the progressive improvement 

 of his farm under grazing will yearly increase his crops of beef, 



