256 THE AUTHOR'S REPLY TO 



ought to be, which are to make your sills and ties. I should gladly 

 learn, also, the length which you allot to each beast, from the crib 

 backwards. 



The description of wood being perfectly immaterial, and 

 consisting simply of poles, such as the thinning of plantations, 

 I left this department of building to the discretion of the car- 

 penter. The length of the crib backwards is explained by the 

 circumstance of the boxes being 8J feet square. 



" Have you any provision for carrying off and preserving the 

 liquid manure, or is that left to soak into a porous soil, as it 

 will?" 



The excellency of my system consists in retaining all the soil 

 in the box, which, being absorbed by the litter, is, after two or 

 three months, removed. 



" If there be either iron, brick, or stone channels, and pavement 

 to intercept and conduct it to a reservoir, the poor thirty shillings 

 will not supply these" 



My boxes are, in fact, small reservoirs or tanks of them- 

 selves, from which no escape is allowed. 



<( The double gates which are to shut in the cattle, must also 

 be attended with considerable cost" 



On the contrary, they are nothing more than common lift- 

 gates, in the shape of doors, according to the appearance of 

 the elevation ; and at the cost of about eighteen shillings per 

 dozen. 



" Is water given in the same cribs or troughs as the compound ?" 



Upon the Rev. Blair Warren's premises at Horkesley Hall, 

 Essex, the cribs have each a partition for water, supplied, I 

 believe, by a pipe running parallel with the boxes ; but to my 

 cattle water is given in a pail. 



" A more detailed and minute estimate of the materials, expense, 

 and dimensions of the several parts would, doubtless, confer a great 

 kindness on many farmers" 



