710 



F A li M E K S ' REGIS T E K. 



[No. 12 



hand as they can afford; and not open the pits un- 

 til they are compelled. It if? not uncommon for 

 two years to pass beture a |)it o!"<>;rains is touched ; 

 and it is said that some have lain nine ycttrs, and 

 been perleclly good at the expiiation of that pe- 

 liod. The dairyman, however, must know his 

 brewer, and be able' to depend on him. The j 

 grains Horn a large ale brewery are the most nour- 

 ishing, 'i'hose iiom the pmier brewery are not so 

 good; and those li-om the li;ile brewers, who first 

 draw off their ale, and alier wards extract every 

 particle of nutriment in the l(,irmation of table 

 beer, are scarcely worth having. 



Each cow is allowed a portion of salt. In 

 Rhodes's establishment it is given with the grains. 

 Laycock salts his rick when it is first made — a 

 most excellent plan, for the hay is not only ctFectu- 

 ally secured I'rom becoming mow-burnt or mouldy, 

 but it is rendered more grateful to the animal, and 

 we may venture to say, almost doubly nourishing, 

 Irom the developement of the saccharine princi- 

 ple. It is to be doubted, however, wheUier the 

 cows obtain a sufficent quantity ol" salt in this 

 way. Some should be given vviib the grains. 



The grains are usually given ubout throe o'clock 

 in the morning, and two o'clock in the afternoon, 

 being a little belore the usual milking hours. Be- 

 tween the nhlkings they have green meat, as long 

 as the season will permit.. Cut-grass is a favorite 

 and excellent food ; but where it can be managed, 

 the plan of Mr. Laycock to let the cows cut the 

 grass lor themselves is a lar superior one. Tares 

 come in before the grass, and are afterwards given 

 alternately with it. In winter, turnips, potatoes, 

 and mangel-wurtzel, are given as long as they 

 can be obtained at any reasonable price ; and then 

 the dairyman is driven to hay or chaff: the superi- 

 ority ot chalT is now generally allowed. 



Both of these gentlemen Jatien oil' their dry 

 cows with grains, oil-cake, and clover chaff, to 

 which JVlr. Laycock adds boiled linseed. Our 

 readers may recollect the experiments made by the 

 Duke of Bcdibrd on the fattening quality of lin- 

 seed, boiled and unboiled, and in which the simple 

 unboiled linseed fattened the animals more expe- 

 ditiously than any cooked preparation of that seed. 

 Mr. Laycock boils the linseed in a common boiler, 

 and when reduced to a pulp, conveys it hy tubes 

 into large wooden cisterns, where it is mixed with 

 clover chaff roughly cut, and sometimes with 

 grains. 



These wholesale dairymen usually agree with 

 the retail dealers, that they (the dealers) shall 

 milk the cows. The dealer knows the quantity of 

 milk that he wants, and the dairyman knowing the 

 usual quantity of milk yielded by each cow, calcn- 

 l.ites what number of cows will meet the demand, 

 and the retail dealer attends at three o'clock in the 

 morning and two in the alternoon, to milk these 

 cows. He carries it into the measuring^room, 

 where its precise quantity is ascertained. II", as 

 cows often vary considerably in their Bow of milk 

 in the course of two or three days, he has milked 

 more than his quantity, i^ is put into a vessel he- 

 louiiing to the dairyman'; , of jl' the cows should 

 not have given their usual Supply, the deficiency 

 ■is made up from the dairyn\tin's vessel. The milk 

 which is lelt on hand is puf'into shallow vessels, 

 (he cream skimmed and made into butter, and the 

 skimmed-milk thrown into the pit for the hogs. 

 The joint-slock dairies, which a Oiw years ago 



sprung up in such abundance, have either ceased 

 to exist, or the number of cows, much diminished, 

 have i'allen into private hands. While there were 

 many partners, and the business was controlled by 

 a committee of persons who knew nothiuir at all 

 about the matter, they all proved to be lamentable 

 failures. Some of them, even in the hands of pri- 

 vate individuals, who brought with them little or 

 no experience, were sadly ruinous concerns. The 

 Metropolitan dairy was a striking illustration of 

 this; but now, under the management of those 

 who have been drilled into the business, it is doing 

 better. 



THE INCREASE pP INJECTS CAUSED BY THE 

 NOKT-GRAZING SYSTEM. 



To llie Editor of the Fanners'' Register. 



Shirley, November 20, 1839. 



I have been thinking lor some lime of writing 

 something on the subject of the great increase of 

 insects in our country, and particularly where the 

 non-grazing system has been pursued for any 

 length of time, as it has been with me in the four- 

 shift system. 1 am now convinced that no system 

 will answer in our warrii climate without tolerably 

 close grazing. The insects become so numerous, 

 that unless j"ou have the most favorable seasons, 

 your crops are very seriously injured by them. I 

 believe that if we could always have favorable 

 seasons, that is to say, if in the spring and fall 

 we could have mild, moist weather, with frequent 

 rains during summer, so as to give the crops a 

 good start, and keep them growing, our crops, un- 

 der the four-field system on good land, would bid 

 defiance to insects, such is the increased fertility 

 produced by the system. But our springs and falls 

 are so frequently cold and dry, and summers sub- 

 ject to great droughts, that \he, crops are checked, 

 and then the insects destroy them, or injure them 

 very seriously, on the very best land.* I was al- 

 ways under the impression that partial grazing 

 was necessary for success in cropping, but I was 

 not aware until lately, that it required so much, 

 and such close grazing in our country, to keep un- 

 der insects : and with close grazing the four-field 

 system will not answer, lor the success of it de- 

 pends entirely on a good clover lay for fallow, 

 once in four years, both to give, and keep up the 

 fertility of the land. 



I am confident under the four-field system pur- 

 sued by me for 20 years past, my land has increased 

 (bur-fold in lertility; but in consequence of the non- 

 arazing, or very partial grazing, the insects have 

 nmliiplied an hundred-fold, or perhaps I might 

 justly say one thousand-fold; and so numerous 

 have ihey become, that I find my crops on highly 

 improved land have become very precarious in 

 consequence ; llicrefore I have determined lo 

 change my system to one which will allow of 

 close grazing; and I do not know of any one which 

 win answer so well as a five-field rotation, which 

 I mean therefore to adopt. As a proof of the fer- 

 tilizing power of the four-field system pursued by 

 me, I, will mention that I have lor many years 



* Insects do very little injury in favorable seasons, 

 because tlinra is then sap enough to feed the insects 

 and make the crop, but we much more frequently have 

 dry and bad seasons, and then the insects do great 



1 injury. 



