146 EVERY MAN HIS OWN FARRIER 



farmer's pasture grounds should be made into a num- 

 ber of separate enclosures ; the greater number the 

 better. Milch kine and cattle fattening for slaughter 

 should have the first of the feed in each inclosure ; 

 then working oxen ; afterwards young stock, horses 

 and sheep. When each kind have had their turn, for 

 two or three days or perhaps a week, the apartment 

 may be shut up, till it be sufficiently grown for the 

 milch cows. By such a rotation much may be saved ; 

 but little of the grass will be wasted by trampling ; 

 and what one sort leaves another will eat ; so that 

 none of the grass will be lost. 



Oxen should not live to be more than eight years 

 old, nor cows more than ten or eleven. When they 

 are kept longer, they do not fatten so easily ; and the 

 beef is not so good. Cattle to be fattened should have 

 the best of pasture during the whole grass season, or 

 they will not be fat so early as December; and they 

 should lose a little blood, when they are first turned 

 to grass. In autumn, when grass grows short, or is 

 corrupted by frosts, their fattening should be promoted 

 by feeding them morning and evening with the stalks 

 of Indian corn, pumpions, potatoes, or carrots ; and 

 especially with ears of corn, if the owner can aflx)rd 

 it. Indian meal is supposed to be still better to com- 

 plete their fattening. Oil cakes from linseed mills are 

 much recommended in English books, as conducing to 

 the speedy fattening of cattle. 



Cattle are apt to be hoven or swollen in consequence 

 of having eaten too much green succulent food. The 

 common remedy for this disorder has been to stab the 

 infected animal with a pen knife or other sharp in- 

 strument, under the short ribs, and put into the orifice 

 a tube of ivory,, elder, a quill, or something of the 

 kind, to give vent to the confined air. The wound is 



