FARM- YARD, 



FARM-YARD. 



This may be the last month of cattle remaining 

 abroad, and if so, the farm-yard should be in order to 

 receive them. 



Good and convenient yards are of such great im- 

 portance to spirited husbandry of all sorts, that, in 

 the hiring a farm, a man should attend to this point ; 

 but if he finds himself on a farm where it has been 

 neglecled, and that the advantageous circumstances 

 of a new one more than balance the expence of alte- 

 rations, let htm determine to remedy the evil himself, 

 which may generally be done at no great expence. 

 Let him run a high, warm fence, about a piece of 

 ground large enough for all his cattle, contiguous to 

 the barns and other buildings. It will pay the ex- 

 perice of good pales very well ; but a much cheaper 

 fence is, to build a stack of stubble, fern, ling, or 

 straw, about eight or nine feet high, and five or six 

 wide, arid to thatch it for preservation : no fence is 

 so warm for cattle. This inclosure he must gravel or 

 chalk at bottom, to keep it always firm, and hard 

 enough to shovel up earth or dung. Throughout the 

 leisure times of the summer or autumn, a layer one to 

 two feet deep, of marie or chalk, turf, ditch-earth, 

 peat, &c. should be spread in it ; and upon that layer 

 the cattle may be foddered with straw, hay, &c. all 

 winter. Plenty of stubble, fern, or straw, constantly 

 spreading as fast as they tread it into dung, or lie wet 

 or damp : the stables, cow-houses, hog-sties, fatting- 

 stalls, if any, should be cleaned on to it ; and, if the 

 farmer fats any beasts on turnips, he may give them 

 in binns in such a yard ; by which means the quantity 



of 





