On Soiling Cattle. 277 



for shade, and which also has a stream of water running 

 at one side of it. The stable is uniformly kept clean, and 

 the barn yard shoveled up daily ; the manure from both 

 of which is hauled into an adjoining yard to a heap, on 

 which being spread, it is immediately covered over with 

 a layer of loam, to prevent exhalation and loss, which I 

 consider would be tlie effect of the action of the sun's 

 rays upon it. Attention to this part of farming, has been 

 with me a grand desideratum, as my object has been the 

 improvement of the farm without foreign aid, by the pur- 

 chase and hauling of manure from a distance, consider- 

 ing it more economical to gather up, and save at home, 

 under additional labour, than to purchase, and have a 

 team employed upon the road. I also escape the bad 

 habits too frequently acquired by those so employed, in 

 frequent stoppings at the taverns, believing it a part of 

 the duty of one having others in his employ, as much as 

 can be, to guard them from temptations to vice of any- 

 kind ; and much, very much depends, I apprehend, upon 

 the faithful care of the head and master of a family in 

 checking that great evil, an attachment to strong drink. 

 It has been a part of my system to keep this evil aloof 

 from my premises, and by furnishing my hands nutri- 

 tive drink, and frequent diet, during the warm season, 

 and more particularly during the season of harvesting, I 

 have been favoured to get along with more real satisfac- 

 tion, than I believe would have been experienced by a 

 different course ; but to return. In the early part of the 

 season for soiling, (which commences with me about one 

 week after the usual time for turning out to pasture) 

 there is no difficulty in supplying my stock with such 

 grasses as they very freely eat : but in the advanced 

 state of the grasses, my cattle become more dainty, and 

 I serve them from different fields, as I find them most 

 freely to partake of it ; and that part of the field first cut 



