CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



1813, the date of Sir John Sinclair's Appendix to 

 the General Report. Before the opening up of 

 the London market by steam-navigation, the feed- 

 ing of cattle was not much followed. In 1813, 

 the six-course of rotation was most generally 

 adopted on the best farms in the Lothians that 

 is, I, fallow; 2, wheat; 3, clover; 4, oats; 5, 

 beans ; 6, wheat On the lighter and fertile soils, 

 the five-course was not uncommon : i, fallow ; 2, 

 wheat ; 3, barley ; 4, grass, one or two years ; 5, 

 oats. 



The modern improvements in these systems, 

 owing to the drainage of the soil, has been the 

 substitution of turnips for bare fallow, followed 

 largely by barley instead of wheat. Since the 

 abolition of the corn-laws, barley has greatly in- 

 creased in price, while the value of wheat has 

 fallen, so the difference in value betwixt these two 

 crops is not so great as formerly. Potatoes of 

 late years now occupy three-fourths of the land on 

 which beans were formerly grown. 



The Berwickshire four-course shift is not so 

 productive of wheat or barley as the Norfolk. 

 Even were so large a proportion of the arable 

 land in turnips as a fourth, it is difficult to obtain 

 a fourth of the land in wheat without curtailing 

 the extent of barley. Wheat not generally suc- 

 ceeding well in Scotland after grass-crop, the 

 rotation is often : I, turnips ; 2, wheat or barley ; 

 3, grass, one or two years ; 4, oats. 



It is often asserted that the climate of Scotland 

 is unsuited to the growth of wheat, and that the 

 inferior grains, oats and barley, can be raised with 

 greater advantage. The practice of farmers who 

 cultivate the best soils does not countenance such 

 an idea. 



Everything indicates that, although it may be 

 profitable to cultivate spring crops under an 

 inferior system, improvements in Scottish agricul- 

 ture, where the climate is suitable, must evidently 

 take the direction of increasing the extent of the 

 two most valuable cereals, barley and wheat. 

 But the other aspects of this question will be 

 best treated in the paper on CATTLE AND DAIRY 

 HUSBANDRY. 



FARM-BUILDINGS. 



Each farm must possess a residence for the 

 farmer, cottages for the servants, and buildings 

 for the stock and crop. The farm-house should 

 be commodious and plain, with an extent of 

 accommodation about equal to that which those 

 have who are engaged in commercial pursuits in 

 town, employing the same amount of capital. The 

 cottages for the servants should be roomy, and 

 internal convenience more studied than outward 

 ornament. A kitchen and two bedrooms are 

 essential for common decency. 



Proper offices are necessary for the economical 

 disposing of the produce of the farm. The corn 

 crops are usually thrashed there, and a large 

 portion of the green crops is consumed by stock, 

 which must be well provided with shelter from the 

 cold. When few turnips were raised, and few 

 cattle fed, large open courts were best suited for 

 converting the straw into manure. Now, how- 

 ever, in many cases, the excrements of the stock 

 are sufficient for wetting all the straw, and hence 

 has arisen the practice of box-feeding. In this 

 case, the solid and liquid excrements are carted 

 M 



out along with the straw, which acts the part of a 

 sponge. This is, no doubt, an excellent way of 

 manufacturing home-made manure. It takes a 

 considerable quantity of straw, however ; and as 

 more green crops are raised and consumed on the 

 farm, sufficient straw cannot be got to absorb all 

 the liquid ; hence a saving of the straw is effected 

 by stall-feeding, when the excess of liquid must be 

 collected into tanks, and otherwise disposed of. 

 When it is remembered that ammonia cannot be 

 purchased in the market at the present time under 

 ;ico per ton, the utility of husbanding this mate- 

 rial when it is freed as the excrements of the stock 

 decompose, must be self-evident. If the solid 

 excrements are kept in a compressed state, no 

 fermentation takes place ; and if the manure is of 

 good quality, it should be applied to the fields at 

 once. Liquid manures should be carted out or 

 distributed by pipes, when the plants are in a 

 growing state, otherwise part of it will be washed 

 out of the soil. Covered farm-yards are rapidly 

 extending over the country. It is the cheapest 

 and best way of erecting farm-offices. Our fron- 

 tispiece represents a bird's-eye view of a ' Model 

 Farm - steading,' designed by Mr J. Lockhart 

 Morton, for a farm of 500 acres, and a model of 

 which was commended by the judges of the 

 Berwick cattle-show in 1854. The steading is on 

 the covered principle, all the various departments 

 being under one roof. 



Ventilation. ' Without good ventilation,' to use 

 Mr Morton's own words, 'a covered homestead 

 must be a nuisance. All the apartments are so 

 arranged that, unless fresh air circulate through 

 them, and they are kept perfectly clean, there 

 must constantly be unwholesome effluvia in the 

 interior the foulness of one apartment being 

 communicated to another. The system of venti- 

 lating this model farmstead is certain to give most 

 satisfactory results, if only ordinary care be taken 

 to keep the different houses as clean as they ought 

 to be.' His arrangements are briefly as follows : 



Under each feeding-passage is built a circular 

 ventiduct or air-shaft, thirty inches in diameter ; 

 in connection with these there are feeding-mouths 

 with gratings on the outside of the building ; 

 inside, there are numerous finely perforated grat- 

 ings ; by sliding-valves, wrought by a cord and 

 pulley, the supply of air is regulated. Besides 

 these, there are gratings every ten or twelve feet 

 along the exterior walls, perforated so as to admit 

 near the floor a considerable quantity of air. The 

 roof, too, is provided with ventilators with vertical 

 spars, and openings are left here and there in the 

 sarking to act as induction and eduction tubes. 

 The numerous perforated apertures throughout 

 the building will admit twice the quantity of air 

 required for the respiration of the animals, and 

 are so under command that they will neither 

 admit flies in summer, nor too large a supply of 

 cold air in winter. A covered steading, somewhat 

 similar in construction to Mr Morton's, has been 

 erected at Glen, in Peeblesshire, where the venti- 

 lation of the inclosed cattle-courts, &c. is admir- 

 able. 



We would only remark, that to carry out this 

 principle of ventilation is somewhat expensive. A 

 cheap and yet efficient system of ventilation for 

 cattle, is to cover the yards with pan-tiles without 

 plaster or lath. Those who wish to see farm- 

 offices economically erected, at the same time 



