200 AX AMERICAN FARMER IX EXGLAXD. 



enclosure of a rod or two, in front of the house : not the least 

 regard had been had to beauty except the beauty of fitness ; but 

 every thing was neat, useful, well-ordered, and thoroughly made, 

 of the best material the barns, stables, and out-buildings of 

 hewn stone, with slated roofs, grout floors, and iron fixtures. The 

 cattle stables were roomy, well ventilated and drained, their 

 mangers of stone and iron ; fastenings, sliding chains ; food, fresh- 

 cut vetches, and the cattle standing knee deep in straw. 



The fatting cattle were the finest lot I ever saw, notwithstand- 

 ing the forty finest cows that had been wintered, had been sold 

 within a fortnight. These forty had been fattened on ruta baga 

 and oil-cake, and their average weight was over 10 cwt., some of 

 them weighing over 12 cwt. They were mostly shorthorns. 

 Those remaining were mostly Hereford bullocks. 



Sheep were fattening on a field of heavy vetches : Cheviots 

 and Leicester, and crosses of these breeds. 



The VETCH is a plant in appearance something like a dwarf 

 pea ; it is sown in the autumn upon wheat stubble, grows very 

 rapidly, and at this season gives a fine supply of green food, 

 when it is very valuable. It requires a rich, clean soil, but grows 

 well on clay lands. I think it has not been found to succeed well 

 in the United States. 



In the rear of the barns was a yard half filled with very large 

 and beautifully made-up stacks of hay, wheat, oats and peas. 

 The hay was of rye-grass, a much finer (smaller) sort than our 

 timothy. The peas were thatched with wheat-straw. The grain 

 stacks were very beautiful, several of them had stood three years, 

 and could not be distinguished from those made last year. The 

 butts of the straw had been all turned over at regular distances, 

 those of one tier to the top of that below it, and driven in, so the 

 stack appeared precisely as if it had been served with straw-rope, 

 and I supposed that it had been, until I was told. The thresh- 



