JAN.] FENCES. 25 



quarters of barley, oats, pease, or beans. Barley is 

 the grain that threshes worse with them than any 

 other ; but I have seen several that thresh it as well 

 as other corn, such as Mr. Asbey's, at Blyborough, 

 Suffolk. His price, for a fixed one, 100 guineas, 

 and for a moveable one l6o guineas. The granary 

 should always be over the fixed mill, that the corn 

 may be drawn up at once and lodged safe under the 

 farmer's key. For feeding cattle, fresh threshed 

 straw is better than old ; for littering (the proper 

 application) they are equal : but the best manage- 

 ment for eating straw clearly is, to cut it into chaff 

 by the power of the mill, and to have the chaff- 

 house adjoining, so as to receive the cut straw at 

 once, without any carriage. This house should 

 have brick walls, in order that fermentation may 

 not set fire to any thing, and then if water be 

 thrown on the chaff it ferments, and is much more 

 nutritious* than when used in the common way. 



FENCES. 



This is a principal season for hedging and ditch- 

 ing. A farmer cannot give too much attention 

 to the fences of his farm ; for, without good ones, 

 he might as well cultivate open fields : .he can- 

 not manage them as he pleases, but is for ever 

 crampt, for fear that his own or other people's cat- 

 tle should break into his com or hay fields. la 

 fencing, he should determine to execute the work 

 in the best manner, which is the plashing method. 



* Annals, vol. iii. page 480. 



it 



