ON STALL-FEEDING COWS. 27 



Art. VII.— on STALL-FEEDING COWS. 

 By Mr. Blacker.' 

 By referring- to tlie experience of all g'ood farmers, in all 

 countries, and under all circumstances, it is ascertained 

 beyond dispute, that by the practice of sowing- g-reen crops, 

 sucli as clover and rye-g-rass, winter and spring- vetches, 

 turnips, mang-el-wurzel, &c., tlie same ground wliicli, in 

 poor pasture, Avould scarcely feed one cow in summer, 

 would, under the crops mentioned, feed three, or perhaps 

 four, the whole year round, by keeping- the cattle in the 

 house, and bringing- the food there to them ; and the manure 

 produced by one of these cows so fed, and well bedded with 

 the straw saved by the supply of better food, would be more 

 than equal to that produced by three cows pastured in 

 summer and fed in winter upon dry straw or hay, and badly 

 littered. 



Here, then, are two assertions well worthy your serious 

 attention, — first, that three cows may be provided with food 

 in the house all the year from the same quantity of ground 

 which would scarcely feed one under pasture for the summer ; 

 and secondly, that one cow so fed in the house will give as 

 much manure as three fed in the field. I call these impor- 

 tant assertions ; for, if they ar« really founded in fact, then 

 any of you who may now be only able to keep one cow, 

 would, by changing his plan, be able to keep three ; and 

 each one of them producing as much manure as three fed in 

 the way they have hitherto been accustomed to adopt, the 

 result will be, that you would have nine times as much 

 manure by the new method as you have hitherto had by the 

 old. Now, as I do not think there can be a single individual 

 among you so blind as not to see at once the great advantage 

 it would be to have such an immense addition to his manure 

 heap, it appears to me that the l)est thing I can do is, in the 

 first instance, to endeavour to im})ress firmly upon your 

 minds the conviction that this fact, so much entitled to j^our 

 attention, and yet so little attended to, is in realit_yi a truth 

 that may be relied on, and may be practically adopted with- 

 out any fear of disappointment. It is upon this foundation 

 that the practicability of almost every improvement I mean 

 to suggest in the cropping of yoiu* land must ultimately 

 depend ; and it is, therefore, indispensable to the success of 

 * Essay on the Improvement of Small Farms. By Wm. Blacker, Esq. 



