THE FARMERS' REGISTER. 



Vol. VIIL 



MARCH 31, 184a 



No. 3 



EDMUND RUFFIN, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. 



ESSAY ON STALL FEEDING CATTLE. BY C. HIL- 

 LYAR D, ESQ., PUESIDENT OF THE NORTH- 

 AMPTONSHIRE FARMING AND GRAZING SO- 

 CIETY. 



From llie London Farmers' Magaziiip. 



A prize of twenty Fovereiiins having been od'ered 

 hy itie English Agricuhiira! Society for llie best 

 account oC stall leetiing cattle, to be sent in be- 

 Ibre the IstoC March, the essay was sent in be- 

 .fbre the appointed day. At the latter end of 

 April there was sent to the writer for circula- 

 tion a list of all the prizes oflered, which list 

 contained the Ibilowing conditions: — 



Competitors for the Essay on Stall feeding 



must stale : 



1. The number and sort of catile placed in 

 the stalls. 



2. Their estimated value. 



3. The y)eriod of the year when put up. 



4. Whether the catilfl were tied up or not. 



5. The times Avheu ihe food was given ; 

 wliether always given at the same hour 

 each day, 



6. The quantity of food given. 



7. The price paid lor what was bought, if 

 any, and the estimated quantity and 

 value of what was produced onthe fiirm. 



8. The price for which the cattle were sold, 

 and the time when. 



3, 4, 5, 6, answered. 



1, 2, 7. S, might have been very easily answered. 



Under the conviction that no one has had more 

 experience, or bestowed more attention to stall 

 reedintj, the writer of this is induced to become a 

 candidate lor the prize offered by the English 

 Agricultural Society, (or the best account of stall 

 feeding cattle. 



It is the writer's opinion that on all arable turnip 

 land farms, beasts should be stall fed, in numbers 

 according to the size of the farms ; and also to 

 have store beasts in the farm yards to eat straw, 

 and the refuse hay, which the stall-feeding beasts 

 will not eat; to trample the dung thrown out of 

 the stalls and thus have all the straw produced on 

 the farms turned into good manure. 



Many occupiers of entirely grass farms, stall 

 feed for six weeks belbre Christmas, the greater part 

 of their best beasts ; in thus doing they look chief- 

 ly to the increased value of their beasts ; the dimg 

 being of little value to them compared to wiiat 

 it is to the occupiers of arable land. 



The writer of this has for many years put into 

 the stalls, the latter end of October, five and thirty 

 bullocks, and as they have been taken out (at, has 

 replaced them by others. Three men and a boy 

 are necessary to attend this number of beasts. 

 The boy and two men to cut the turnips with the 

 machine, to feed &c., the other man to assist in 

 throwing out the dung in the morning, and tlie 

 remainder of the day in cutting clover hay into 

 chaff; so that the weekly expense of attending 

 beasts in the stall cannot be estimated at less than 

 one shilling each : this, and the value of the food 

 consumed, makes stall feeding very expensive. It 

 Vol. VIII— 17 



is for the occupiers of arable land farms to con- 

 eider whether being at such expense is likely to 

 answer their purpose. Near large towns it can- 

 not, (or their straw can be exchanged for gootl dung. 

 liuying manure and (etching it (rom a distance, 

 the wear and tear is so great it cannot answer ex- 

 cepting where the produce of the liirm is drawn 

 to market. Those who with their arable have 

 good grazing land, may turn their strav/ into good 

 Itiir manure by giving their store beasts in the 

 yard eating straw, three feeds daily of half a 

 bushel of cut turnips-, thus when they are turn- 

 ed out on good grazing land, they will become 

 good meat the latter end of the summer or begin- 

 ning of autumn, when good beef, from not being 

 ilien plentiful, generally letches a good price in 

 Smilhfield market. 



In Norfolk it is a common practice to give store 

 beasts in the fold-yard eating straw, as much lin- 

 seed oil-cake as they will eat, this is getting good 

 manure at an expense that cannot possibly answer 

 hut on very weak land at very low rents. It is a 

 mistaken notion that beasts can be belter led in 

 Norfolk than elsewhere. It is quite true that they 

 are generally belter fed, because it answers the 

 purpose of Norfolk occupiers of land to keep them 

 longer in the stalls. 



Meat cannot be laid on lean beasts to pay the ex- 

 pen.':es of stall feeding, allowing the utmost value 

 of the dung produced ; they should be half fat 

 when put in the stalls: and the price of beef high- 

 er when ihey come out than when they were put 

 in, to repay the great expenses of stall-feeding. 



Beasts when first put up may, for a short time, 

 be kept on common turnips and hay, to keep their 

 bodies from being heated by the great change of 

 the atmosphere of the field to that of the house; but 

 common turnips, from having so great a portion of 

 water in them, will do very little lowards feeding. 



For stall feeding on a large scale there ought 

 to be a mill on the premises to grind the corn into 

 flour, thus getting rid of the miller's toll, the. 

 trouble, inconvenience, and expense of sending to 

 and from the mill, the stall feeder thus having 

 meal, the produce of his own grain. There are 

 hand-mills made to grind corn into flour, but the 

 grinding being by stones, they require so many- 

 men to work them, that one worked by a horse 

 would answer much better. The hand steel nMn 

 which are sold to grind corn into flour, will only 

 break it. A one horse chaff cutter would be the 

 most useful where there is much stall liieding, and 

 in (act on every large farm. 



In Norfolk the greater part of the beasts are fed 

 in yards with sheds. Polled Scots, and their polled 

 home-breds may do as well as if tied up, but 

 horned beasts ceriait]ly do not. 



Stall feeding answers better in Norfolk than in 

 most other counties, the land in general being so 

 weak as to require more manure to raise good 

 crops of turnips and corn, rents therefore arc 

 generally lower than elsewhere, which enables 

 the occupiers to be at a greater expense for manure, 

 and thus to keep their beasts longer in the stalls, 

 and make them verv fine meat for the LoiidoM 



