Ch. XXXII.] FEEDING OF CATTLE— STRAW- YARD 371 



covered shed, to which they may repair at will. They should, therefore, 

 always have that protection ; and even if the yard be open, hovels can, 

 with a little ingenuity, be erected for a mere trifle in the angles of the fence 

 with any poles of rouffh timber laid across to support a bean or pea-stack, 

 or the roof may be thatched with haulm. Whether furnished with sheds 

 or not, the yard should, however, be divided by post and rail into different 

 enclosures, so as to separate the cattle of various ages from each other, and 

 to prevent too many from being placed together. The bullocks in straw- 

 yards should also have plenty of room, for many accidents occur among 

 horned cattle by their goring each other. 



The common objects of the straw-yard are those of merely maintaining 

 the cattle in the state of flesh which they acquired at grass, and converting 

 the litter into dung; it is, therefore, a very general practice to confine the 

 food of stores to the straw of oats or wheat, and the haulm of pease and 

 beans, without any addition of liay or turnips. The animals are exceed- 

 ingly fond of bean-chafF, and the wet litter from the horse-stable is very 

 acceptable to them ; it should, therefore, be daily spread out in the yard. 

 In this way, if well bedded, and the thrashing be so managed as that they 

 can be supplied with fresh straw in cribs, they may be made to just hold 

 their own ; though in most cases they fall off so much in the spring 

 months, when the straw becomes dry and loses the ; little power of nutri- 

 ment which it possesses, that perhaps more than a month is required at 

 grass to recover what they have lost. Any improvement in condition is 

 not to be expected, and the dung will be found of such poor quality that it 

 will not be equal in its effects upon the land to half the quantity of that 

 made by well-fed bullocks *. 



If hay and turnips can be spared, they will probably, therefore, be not 

 so thrown away as they are by many imagined when given to store 

 stock. The turnips should be given oft" in small quantities, increasing 

 their amount as the straw loses its nutritive powers ; and thus, perhaps, 

 two double cart-loads, weighing 15 cvvt. each, may do very well for 

 the daily supply of a score of cattle of the ordinary size ; but after 

 Candlemas, if the supply can be then furnished, three cart-loads will 

 be required. Upon clay-farms, it is very true that the land may be 

 incapable of producing turnips, and that hay may be thought too dear to be 

 thus employed ; but we are strongly of opinion that a moderate quantity of 

 clover cut with straw, and given morning and night in the manger, will 

 more than repay the expense in the future state of the cattle, besides the 

 increase of value in the dung. 



In breeding farms, especially, this will be evidently seen in the improved 

 power of the young stock ; for, if stinted during their growth, they will 

 not be afterwards able to acquire flesh either so rapidly or so fully as if 

 better kept ; and thus, both time and weight being sacrificed, a loss will 

 be incurred by the feeder. The apparent condition of cattle thus diff"erently 

 fed must at once strike any one who views the stock on farms where they 

 have been thus separately treated ; and if their owners were to produce 

 their accounts, we have no doubt that he who had expended the most 

 money in food would be found to have realized the greatest return of profit 

 in money. 



* See vol. i., chap, s. 



2 b2 



