supplement. AGRICULTURE AS PRACTISED IN BRITAIN. 



1359 



may appear, attention to them will be amply repaid, in the shape of prime beef and docile cattle. The 

 whole may be easily accomplished by any man who regulates his movements by the watch ; and the man 

 having the charge of cattle in winter, who will do this whether he is seen by his master or not, is an 

 inestimable servant. 



8464. The quantity of turnips which feeding cattle trill consume, as stated by most writers, is about 

 one ton every week, for an ox of from sixty to seventy stones, or about one acre of a fair cron of turnips 

 in six months. Thirty-three double-horse cart-loads of turnips, each weighing from sixteen cut. to 

 eighteen cwt., are a good crop on light sharp lands. 



8465. Time of putting up to feed. If the second growth of grass has continued fresh till the latter part 

 of autumn, cattle may be soon enough put up to feed by the 1st of November ; but if she grass tail 

 sooner, which it will in most seasons do, the middle of October is late enough for putting them up to feed. 

 White globe turnips are an excellent juicy food for cattle till the commencement of the new year, after 

 which should follow the yellow or green tops, for two months longer, and then the Swedish turnips will 

 finish the season. If the Swedish turnips have been stored up before the second growth of the stem has 

 made its appearance in spring, they may be taken out quite fresh till the beginning of June. Since the 

 cultivation of the potato has increased so rapidly, many people feed their cattle on it in spring either 

 wholly or mixed with turnips. When cattle are fed on potatoes, attention ought to be paid to them after 

 feeding, for fear of internal swelling. When observed at first, the swelling may be allayed by pouring 

 down the throat a bottleful or less of common whale oil, which will check the fermentation, and operate 

 as a purgative. Should any of the young cattle or the feeding beasts in the byre be choked with a piece 

 of turnip, for those fed in hammels never or very seldom do so, the best expedient is to use the probang 

 at once, rather than to permit the throat of the poor animal to be squeezed, and consequently inflamed, in 

 attempting to push the piece of turnip up and do%vn. The probang may be used with great success, 

 by causing the animal to be forcibly held by superior strength, with its neck and mouth stretched for- 

 ward, and while one is pushing the instrument gently down, another is directing the end of it down the 

 gullet on the outside of the neck. When the piece of turnip is pushed down into the stomach, let the 

 instrument be gently drawn out; and if, during the operation, the animal forcibly twists its head about, 

 the instrument should instantly be let go. Feeding cattle will eat very little straw ; but they ought to 

 have abundance of litter at all times. 



8466. Comparative merits of feeding cattle in hammels and byres. " Our decided predilection is in favour 

 of hammels. In them the cattle are at perfect liberty to roam about, if disposed for exercise : they are 

 exposed to all the sunshine there may be in a winter day ; and the very rain which falls on their backs 

 titillates the skin, and causes them to lick and clean themselves ; they are comfortably warm in their 

 sheds among an abundance of straw in the coarsest night, and cattle will never suffer from cold, when 

 they have a comfortable shelter to which they can repair at will ; they can come and go to their food 

 whenever they please, night and day, and, their meat being constantly in the open air, it will be always 

 fresh and sweet : and their feet and hair, when they come to travel, are quite able to bear the hardness of 

 the road and the coldness of the air. These are all advantages which no byre can confer. Nor are the 

 hammels so expensive in their original erection as many represent them to be. We have seen a range of 

 them consisting of five divisions, capable of feeding twenty large oxen, erected for 2 1 /. ; but these had no 

 regular roof. The roofing of all buildings is the most expensive part of them. The roof of those to 

 which we refer, consisted of trees laid across as beams, about a foot asunder, the space between them 

 being filled up with the branches of the spruce fir and Scotch pine. Such a place was a choice one for 

 stacking pease or beans upon. To this purpose it was often appropriated ; or it was covered with straw, 

 roped down, which was used as bedding for the cattle in the first part of the succeeding season, when 

 fresh straw was put in its stead. In the hammels which faced the south, the cattle were well fed and 

 comfortably lodged ; and no byre could have afforded so much accommodation at the same expense." 

 (Quar. Journ. Agr., vol. ii. p. 241.) 



8467. —6978. Milk, is preserved from becoming acid by the addition of any alkali ; because, when milk 

 ferments, it developes an acid, which the alkalies neutralise. Hence alkalies prevent the curdling of milk. 

 Alkalies applied to curd will turn it into milk : they are not unwholesome, but in large quantities give 

 the milk a disagreeable flavour. (L'Agriculteur-Alanufacluricr. Mai. 1831.) 



8468. — 7008. A curd- breaker for skim-milk cheeses (figs. 1181. and 1182.) has been invented by Mr. 



Kobert Barlas, of Gilmour Flace, 



llbl 



Edinburgh. 1: consists of a hop- 

 per of wood (Jig. 1181. a), seven- 

 teen inches and a half by fourteen 

 inches on the tup, and ten inches 

 in depth ; and a cylinder of hard 

 wood six inches and three quar- 

 ters (6) in length, and three 

 inches and a half in diameter. 

 The cylinder is studded with 

 square pegs made of bard wood, 

 each a quarter of an inch in the 

 side, cut square at the ends, and 

 projecting three eighths of an 

 inch. There are eight teeth in 

 the length, and fifteen in the cir- 

 cumference, of the cylinder, 120 

 teeth in all. It revolves on a 

 round iron axle twelves inches 

 in length, and is moved by the crank handle (d in fig. 1182.) ; c c are two wedge-shaped pieces of hard wood, 



made to fill up, in some de- 

 gree, the space between the 

 side of the hopper and the 

 cylinder. These pieces rest 

 on a slip of wood nailed to 

 the lower rim of the hoppi r, 

 to keep them in their place. 

 The face of these is studded 

 with nine teeth of hard 

 wood, similar to those on the 

 cylinder, at opposite sides. 

 The stand (.■) (Jig- 1182 ) 

 can be made of any length, 

 to suit the breadth of the tub into which the curd is broken. The implement is used in this manner : 

 — Place over it a tub, heap the hopper (a), with curd, and, on turning the winch (rf) in either direc- 

 tion, the curd will fall, broken quite small, into the tub. While one hand is moving the machine, the 

 other can press the curd gently down into the hopper. As cleanliness is a matter of the greatest im- 

 portance in cheese.making. the internal parts of this machine, being loosely put together, can be easily 

 taken to pieces to clean. The cylinder axle rests on two hud wooden blocks {J, fig- H82.), one on 

 each side, which slip out of their groove. They are held in their working position by the thumb-catch 



