12 NOTES ON FIELDS AND CATTLE. 



hay. Swedes increase the yield of butter as well as 

 milk. Mangold-wurzel increases greatly the milk, 

 but it is of comparatively poor character. As they 

 are apt to purge cattle at first, they should not be 

 used before January or February, and then should 

 be sprinkled with meal or salt, a commencement 

 being made with a few slices only. You may make 

 a few available, however, at any time by throwing 

 them from the heap into a dry corner of a shed, 

 when they will shrink from the excess of their 

 watery development. The breed invented by Collings 

 with such diligence and judgment, we should never 

 recommend for the adoption of a farmer upon a 

 small holding, or a poor soil ; unless, indeed, he 

 adopt the plan of buying food on a large scale — a 

 principle upon which a three-decker could be farmed. 

 It is only those who, by the accidental possession of 

 rare stock, make large profits, that should attempt 

 this plan. 



A more wretched animal than the shorthorn on 

 scant keep it is difficult to conceive : a faded tulip 

 where a cowslip should have been. Warmth is a 

 main essential for the secretion of milk. Your cows, 

 if you adopt the practice of grazing them, rather 

 than feeding on cut green food in the fold-yard, or 

 tethering by a stake, as they do in the Channel 

 Islands, and to some extent in the fen country, 

 should never be confined on wet land, and should 

 always have a shed of thatched furze or wicker-work 

 to run under, divided into roomy stalls by poles : as 

 in a long open shed the mistress of the herd is apt to 

 play Czarina and butt the others out, there being 



