108 O* LIVE STOCK. 



sheds or hammels, or in stalls. These points have been 

 already discussed, (See Sect. II.); but some observations 

 still remain to be made on stall-feeding in general. 



By some, feeding cattle in stalls is objected to, as ren- 

 dering the animals unhealthy. An experienced farmer, 

 however, affirms, that in the space of twenty years, during 

 which he fattened several hundred head of cattle, he has 

 tried feeding cattle of the same sort, some loose in a warm 

 shade, some in the open court-yards, and some in stalls, 

 and that the last, so far as his experience goes, was the 

 preferable system. It is proper to observe, that those fed 

 in the stalls, were well curried, kept very clean, to which, 

 probably, this farmer's success in stall-feeding was owing. 

 Care also was taken, never to put more turnip, or food of 

 any other sort, than they could eat up at once, and care- 

 fully to remove any small quantity unconsumed, otherwise 

 they are apt to loath it. And here it may not be impro* 

 per to observe, that though the general principles and 

 practices of husbandry are already sufficiently understood, 

 yet that much information is still wanting regarding the 

 minutiae of this, as well as of other branches of agriculture, 

 on a due attention to which, the success of the farmer must 

 necessarily depend. 



As an additional proof of the justness of that remark, I 

 am led to state the particulars of an experiment made by 

 a respectable farmer in East Lothian, (Mr Dudgeon of 

 Prora), which proves how much depends upon supplying 

 cattle, fed in winter, on dry food, with a sufficient quantity 

 of water, and the necessity of sparing no expence in fur- 

 nishing them with that essential article in abundance. 



Mr Dudgeon having a number of Highland cattle con- 

 suming straw * and chaff, on a farm unfit for turnips, an 



* Mr Curwen is of opinion, that a moderate quantity of straw contri- 



1 



