398 



FARMERS' REGISTER— STALL-FEEDING NEAT CATTLE. 



to fatten any ox that thrives tolerably well. The 

 roots should, at first, be given in small (juantitief:, 

 which fihoLild then he gradually increased to one 

 or tv\o bushels per day; dry food being always in- 

 termixed, and the proportion of hay being uni- 

 formly regulated by the effect which "the potatoes 

 produce on the bowels. There ought to be at least 

 five servings in the day; and according to the 

 quantity of roots which a beast can be induced to 

 eat with appetite, he will fatten the sooner, ol" 

 course with less expense and more profit. The 

 hay should be cut once, or if it be not very 

 Aveighty, twice along, and three tmies across the 

 truss, so as to be in square pieces of eight or ten 

 inches, in which state the cattle will eat and digest 

 it more readily, while their fattening is considera- 

 bly expedited. The potatoes, however, according 

 to Mr. C, need not be cut, except at first, in order 

 to entice the beasts to eat them; but they ought al- 

 ways to be fresh and clean. No corn or meal is 

 necessary; but if it can be procured at a moderate 

 price, it would contribute materially to facilitate, 

 and of course to render more profitable, the whole 

 system of cattle-teeding. Should a scouring be 

 brought on by the use of raw potatoes, which often 

 happens, the quantity of meal or other dry food 

 given them should be increased, until the beasts 

 become accustomed to the roots, when this incon- 

 venience will cease. 



Potatoes, however, being an article of constant 

 consumption in our markets, are more subject to 

 variations of price than any of the other roots 

 commonly used for lattening cattle. The grazier 

 must, therefore, be governed by the consideration 

 of their comparative cost, as well as quality. The 

 cultivation of potatoes is also expensive; and there 

 is a general impression (whether well founded or 

 not, it is not our present purpose to inquire) that 

 they exhaust the land; in consequence of which, 

 they are seldom resorted to as a fallow crop, even 

 on soils best adapted to them, while in some of the 

 best grazing districts the ground is too strong and 

 heavy lor their growth. It should also be remark- 

 ed, that when given raw, during a longtime, they 

 have been frequently found prejudicial to the health 

 of cattle: the cause has not been ascertained, but 

 it may, possibly, be owing to the poisonous quality 

 known to exist in the juice of the root. When 

 given sfeanied, it has been found an improvement 

 to combine thein with Swedish turnips: the turnips 

 being boiled, and the juice given with the dry po- 

 tato. 



In some districts where winter food is with diffi- 

 cidty procurable, it appears that heaih may be ad- 

 vantageously resorted to. In a paper on this sub- 

 ject, communicated to the Board of Agriculture 

 by James Ilall, Esq., he states, that in the course 

 of numerous experiments on furze, broom, rushes, 

 bean-straw, and other neglected articles, he had 

 discovered, that, if heath be cut when young and 

 in bloom, and the finer parts be infiised in hot wa- 

 ter, it produces a liquid very grateful to the taste, 

 well riavorod, and extremely wholesome. Being 

 anxious to know how far young heath might be 

 useful to cattle, he^tried the experiment on a cow. 

 'When first tied up, she refused to eat any of the 

 lieath, except the very finest part, nor did she ap- 

 pear to relish an infusion of it -when set before her: 

 hunger, hovi^ever, compelled her first to drink the 

 infusion, and thento eatthe heath; and on this fr)od 

 only she lived for nearly a tbrtnio'Iu, during which 



her milk was reduced in quantity, though its qual- 

 ity was much improved. A similar exjieriment 

 was made on a couple of sheep and an old horse, 

 with nearl}^ the same effect. As food for sheep, 

 indeed, it forms the chief portion of their suste- 

 nance on mountain pastures during the latter part of 

 autumn, and the beginning of winter. Satisfied 

 fi'om tliesc experiments, that cattle may be sup- 

 ported for a long time by young heath, Mr. Hall 

 l)rocccded to ascertain liow far the plant was ca- 

 pable of retaining its valuable qualities when dried 

 and laid up. He therefore cut some at the end of 

 the summer, and dried it in the shade; and, at the 

 end of two years it produced an infusion equally 

 strong and well flavored as at first; and the effect 

 was the same at the end of three j-ears. Young 

 heath may be procured by burning the old which 

 remains on the ground; the ashes afibrd an excel- 

 lent manure, and generally cause a fine young crop 

 to spring uji, which will afibrd a bite for the flocks 

 in the ensuing months of August and September. 

 This, it is also said, may be cut for hay at two or 

 three years old, and given to cattle when fodder is 

 scarce; and that when intended for this purpose, it 

 should be carefully stacked and Icept close, other- 

 wise it Avill become less valuable:* but, in a late 

 very intelligent account of the husbandry of the 

 count}'- of Sutherland, by Mr. Patrick Sellar, pub- 

 lished by the society for the difl'usion of useful 

 knowledge, in their "Farmer's Series," no men- 

 tion is made of this latter application of heather, 

 though he describes its uses for sheep, when eaten 

 on the ground, and states the great difficulty of 

 providing them with food during j)art of the spring; 

 and, as it is not probable that so obvious a mode of 

 supplying that deficiency would have escaped ob- 

 servation, we may conclude that it has been tried, 

 and not found to answer the purpose. 



Fir-tops, or the young and tender shoots of fir- 

 trees, have likewise been employed with effect in a 

 case of emergency, as a substitute for other articles 

 of winter fodder. Of this circumstance we have 

 a striking illustration in the fifth volume of the 

 "letters and papers of the Bath and West of 

 England Society," Avhere a correspondent states, 

 that, being in great want of provender, and having 

 scarcely any haj', he was compelled to feed his 

 beasts on fir-tops, and though he had more than 

 four hundred head of neat cattle, yet he did not 

 lose above four or five out ol that number; while 

 many graziers, farmers, and breeders, who resided 

 in the same county, lost one-half, and several of 

 them nearly the whole of their live-stock. f We 

 state this fact, as it was communicated to the re- 

 spectable society above mentioned; and would re- 

 commend attentive experiments to be farther 

 made with this vegetable production, as, in the 

 event of a scarcity of winter provender, it promises 

 to be a salubrious substitute for more invigorating 

 food, which might in a short time be collected, and 

 prove eminent ly useful in cases of emergency. 



[To be continued.] 



* Communications to the Board of Agriculture, Vol. 

 VI. Part 2. 



t Tliey have aiso been used by Mr. Coke, at Holk- 

 liani, with considerable advantaj^e. 



