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XX XII. On Jeed'ing Cattle ivtth green Food; together 

 until other ingeniom and valuable Observations in Agri' 

 culture. By Mr. Edwakd Powi's*. 



JL CONCEIVE the principal object respecting agriculture in 

 the present state of' this country, is to procure the greatest 

 possible supply of the necessaries of life within the kingdom 

 itself, and one principal means of doing this is, to raise the 

 greatest produce from a given quantity of land. 



To effect this, every encouragement should be given by 

 land-owners to the cultivation of grain and turnips; be- 

 cause I look upon the produce of an acre of grain to be, to 

 the produce of an acre of grass, in the proportion of at least 

 fifteen to two, in furnishing the necessaries of life. I sup- 

 pose the grain made into bread, and the grass digested by 

 a feeding beast, and changed into an increase of weight. 



One great means of increasing the growth of gram and 

 turnips, I think, would be to encourage the farmer to make 

 as much manure as possible. This would be effected by 

 allowing him to sell all his wheat and rye straw, with the 

 restriction of laying out the whole price in manure ; and by 

 gentlemen, who have land in their hands, trying the expe- 

 riment of keeping their cattle and horses in the house upon 

 green food great part of the summer. 



For these last six years I have sold all the wheat straw I 

 did not want for thatching and the beds of certain kinds of 

 horses, and can assure you that the same farm has pro- 

 duced for some years back one-third more grain, and keeps 

 double the live stock it did six years ago. 



As a proof that what I say of keeping cattle in the house 

 in summer upon green food is not matter of theory oniy,. 

 but of practice, I shall mention my own experience. 



For these last five years I have kept eight or ten wag- 

 gon horses in the stable upon clover, cut and carried for 

 them once a day ; the small waste that they made was 

 thrown into a low cratch (or receptacle, with staves on each 

 side) for my pigs, which have generally been from 23 to 

 40. My horses and pigy» thus fed, have eaten, between the 

 beginning of May and corn harvest, from S-J- to 3^ acres,, 

 according to the goodness of the clover. My horses- have, 

 been, by this means, in much better condition than if turned 

 into a field ; there has been a saving of at least eight or tea 

 acres of clover for other stock ; a great deal of the richest 



* From CLueral Vieiv of Ihje ^igTicuUurc of Shrcpshirf. 



manure 



