384 THE HOME, FARM AND BUSINESS CYCLOPAEDIA. 



pump is an essential appendage to a cow-house. There is generally a deep 

 gutter along the wall behind the cows, into which the water and urine 

 drain, the ground sloping gently towards it. The tank is either immedi- 

 ately under the stable, well vaulted over, or it is so near that all the li- 

 quid readily runs into it through a covered drain. The heads of the cows 

 are towards the middle of the stable, and their tails over the gutter along 

 the wall. The width of the building admits of two rows of cows facing 

 -each other, with a space between them sufficiently wide to admit a smajl 

 cart to bring the food to them. This is universally the form of a cow- 

 house in Holland. The liquid in the tank is allowed to go through the 

 first stages of fermentation, during which the caustic portion of the urine 

 is rendered mild, and the liquid is better fitted to be taken up by the 

 fibres of the roots. In order that there may be a regular succession of 

 liquid in a proper state for use, there are partitions in the tanks, and by 

 means of small flood-gates in the drain which leads to it, the fresh accum- 

 ulation may be directed to any one of the pits thus formed, while the ripe 

 liquor may be pumped up into tubs or barrels set on wheels, to be convey- 

 ed to the land. There are means of accelerating or retarding the fermen- 

 tation, according to the time when the liquor is wanted. Stirring and 

 admitting the air assist the process, while the addition of earth, peat, or 

 ashes, and keeping out the air retard it. The efficacy of the liquid is 

 much increased by adding rape-cake, and other vegetable substances. 

 This is usually done a short time before it is put on the land, as it would 

 otherwise ferment too much." 



But it is in the irrigated districts of Piedmont and Lombardy that a 

 style of farming is to be found admirable in itself, and especially fitted to 

 interest and instruct the American farmer. For not only do we find there 

 the oldest, the most extensive, but the most thoroughly elaborate system 

 of irrigation to be met with in Europe. 



Of the Agriculture of the Britons before the Roman invasion we have 

 no certain record. Originally savages subsisting upon chance products 

 of the field or the forest, the roots and the nuts, and the flesh of ani- 

 mals what little they knew of agriculture during a period of a century 

 or so prior to the Roman invasion was probably imparted to them by 

 those who, emigrating, as tradition hath it, from Gaul, established colonies 

 on the British sea-coast, and brought with them some knowledge of farm 

 produce. 



Diodorus Siculus mentions that the ancient inhabitants of Britain used 

 subterranean apartments in which they kept their grain, these being con- 



