CAT 



CAT 



69 



who are far from the sea, and not 

 furnished with salt hay, should now 

 and then sprinkle some of their 

 meanest fodder with salt dissolved 

 in water, which will answer the 

 same valuable purpose. And at 

 no season of the year should cattle 

 be kept, for any long time, without 

 salt. They are greedy after it, 

 and it conduces to keep them in 

 health. 



As to summer feeding, it is not 

 fit that a whole stock go promiscu- 

 ously in the same pasture. Some 

 would be overmuch fed, and some 

 not enough. A farmer's pasture 

 grounds should be made into a 

 number of separate inclosures ; the 

 greater the number the better. — 

 Milch kine and cattle fattening for 

 slaughter should have the first of 

 the feed in each inclosure ; then 

 working oxen ; afterwards, young 

 stock, horses and sheep. When 

 each kind have had their turn, for 

 two or three days, or perhaps a 

 week, the apartment may be shut 

 up, till it be sufficiently grown for 

 the milch cows. By such a rota- 

 tion much may be saved ; but lit- 

 tle of the grass will be wasted by 

 trampling ; and what one sort 

 leaves another will eat ; so that 

 none of the grass will be lost. 



Oxen should not live to be more 

 than eight years old, nor cows 

 more than ten or eleven. When 

 they are kept longer, they do not 

 fatten so easily ; and the beef is 

 not so good. Cattle to be fiitten- 

 ed should have the best of pasture 

 during the whole grass season, or 

 they will not be fat so early as De- 

 cember ; and they should lose a 

 little blood, when they are first 



turned to grass. In autumn, when 

 grass grows short, or is corrupted 

 by frosts, their fattening should be 

 promoted by feeding them morn- 

 ing and evening with the stalks of 

 Indian corn, punjpions, potatoes.or 

 carrots ; and especially with ears 

 of corn, if the owner chp aflford it. 

 Indian meal is supposed to be still 

 better to complete their fattening. 

 Oil cakes from the linseed mills are 

 much recommended in English 

 books, as conducing to the speedy 

 fattening of cattle. See Slock. 



The Philadelphia edition of the 

 Domestic Encyclopaedia observes, 

 that feeding cattle with turnips 

 does not succeed so well in the 

 United States as in Great Britain, 

 and mentions an unsuccessful ex- 

 periment, which resulted in that 

 conclusion. It is possible that the 

 want of a proper mixture of dry 

 food, such as hay or straw, might 

 be the cause of the failure. 



Cattle are apt to be hoven or 

 swollen in consequence of having 

 eaten too much green succulent 

 food. The common remedy for 

 this disorder has been to stab the 

 infected animal with a pen-knife or 

 other sharp instrument, under the 

 short ribs, and put into the orifice 

 a tube of ivory, elder, a quill, or 

 something of the kind, to g\\'e vent 

 to the confined air. The wound 

 is then dressed with some sort of 

 adhesive plaster, and thus, in gen- 

 eral the cure is easily effected. — 

 This, however, is a rough and dan- 

 gerous remedy, and we therefore 

 give place to others more safe and 

 gentle. 



The 33d volume of the Annals 

 of Agriculture announces the fol- 



