

AND HORTICULTUfiAL 



REGISTER. 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 52 NORTH MARKET STREET, (Agriculthral Warehouse.) 



VOI-. \I*.] 



BOSTON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEiMBER 30, 1840. 



[NO. aa. 



N. E. FARMER. 



ON THE PROPER MANAGEMENT OF STOCK 

 rN GENERAL. 

 This is a subject which can only, in this place, 

 be sli(;htly touched upon. It is an object of very 

 great consequence to every husbandman, to cxprnd 

 in the most economical and advantageous manner, 

 the vegetable produce allotted for the maintenance 

 of his stock, and to bestcw it chiefly on those 

 from whom ho is likely to derive the greatest and 

 the earliest benefit. Notwithstanding many recent 

 and truly valuable improvements, there still pre- 

 vails, in regard to some particulars, a sad mi.xture 

 of prolusion on the one hand, and penuriousness on 

 the oilier. The saving to the community, by a 

 careful attention to the feeding of live stock, would 

 be greet, an<l in times of scitrcity, would be incal- 

 culable. For the attainment of that object, it would 

 be necessary to pay regard to — 



1. The due preparation and frugal expenditure 

 of their food. 



2. The ajipropriation of that food to the different 

 sorts respectively, according to the different spe- 

 cies and breeds of stock — their different habits 

 and degrees of hardiness — and the different de- 

 grees of exercise, and modes of treatment to which 

 which they are subjected ; and, 



3. The requisite attention to the demands of dif- 

 ferent periods, the relative efl^ects of different sea- 

 sons, and the state of the animals themselves, in 

 regard to ago, fatness, &c. 



The following general rules as to the manage- 

 ment of stock, may deserve attention : 



1. Animals intended for the butcher, should be 

 kept in a state of regular improvement. The finer 

 breeds are highly fed from their birth, and are al- 

 most always fat. With other breeds, and on pas- 

 tures of inferior quality, this is neither necessary 

 nor practicable. But in every case, the same prin- 

 ciple of ii provement should be adhered to, and 

 such ani.iiils ought never to ba allowed to lose 

 flesh, in the hopes of afterwards restoring it by bet- 

 ter feeding. 



2. The size should never be above that which 

 the pastures oan support in a thriving condition. 

 The attempt to raise them to an undue size, by 

 crossing, has been already censured. In regard to 

 size, the stock of every kind, and of all the various 

 breeds, should be proportioned to the quantity and 

 the quality of their intended food. 



3. The best pasture should be allotted to that 

 portion of the stock which goes first to market ; 

 the next in quality, the breeders ; and the coarse 

 pasture to the inferior or growing stock. 



4. Great caro should be taken, not to overstock 

 pasture, which is attended with great loss to the 

 farmer and the community. This ought to be par- 

 ticularly avoided in regard to young and growing 

 animals. If they are kept poor during one part of 

 the year, they will scarcely thrive during the re- 

 mainder; and when ill fed, will never attain to 

 their proper size and proportion. 



Lastly, the food, whatever it may be, should not 



be too suddenly changed. It is seldom profitable 

 to bring lean animals immediately from coarse to 

 rich pastures ; and a change from dry to succulent 

 food, and vice vfrsa, should be gradually effected. 

 A change of pasture, however, of the same quality, 

 tends to produce a greater accumulation of fat. 



It may be pro|)er to add, that nature seems to 

 have designed different sorts of animals for diffe- 

 rent purposes. A breed of cattle, equally well 

 adapted to the butcher, to the dairy, and to the 

 plough or cart, is no where to be met with ; and, 

 so far as experience enables us to judge, these 

 properties are hardly consistent with each other, 

 and belong to animals of diflTerent forms and pro- 

 portion.s. A heavy Leicestershire sheep, for in- 

 stance, was never intended to travel great distan- 

 ces, or to search for its subsistence in a rugged or 

 mountainous country. The judicious breeder, 

 therefore, will fix upon one object to be principally 

 attended to ; and he will endeavor to rear that spe- 

 cies of stock, the best suited to attain the object 

 he has in view, or, in other words, the most likely 

 to pay the most money with the least food. 'I'hat 

 can only be obtained by an attention to the princi- 

 ples of breeding, and the practice of the most emi- 

 nent farmers who have excelled in the art. — Sin- 

 clair's Code of Husbandry. 



From the same. 



COMMAND OF WATER. 



Those to whom good water la accessible, can 

 have no conception of the miseries which attend 

 the want of it ; or which are found, when it is only 

 attainable in small quantities or of inferior quality. 

 In the low districts of Lincolnshire, the water is 

 almost every where brackish, and good spring-water 

 is in such request, that carts are sent for it, the dis- 

 tance of seventeen miles. In the wolds of York- 

 shire, there are instances still in recollection, be- 

 fore the improved mode of making artificial ponds 

 was discovered, of numbers of animals having per- 

 ished of thirst: and in Hampshire, the continuance 

 of dry weather, during the autumnal months, has 

 been so great, and the wells became so exhausted, 

 that the labor and expense required to supply the 

 family and the stock, by means of water-carts, was 

 great beyond all conception. To avoid the risk 

 of such serious misfortunes, it was anciently the 

 practice, for the conveniency of having water, to 

 erect farm buildings in low grounds, near brooks or 

 rivers. This plan, however, was attended with 

 several disadvantages. The house became damp ; 

 the grain, from the moisture of the atmosphere was 

 frequently much injured, and rendered nearly un- 

 saleable, and the land in the neighborhood, was 

 usually found to be in a poor condition, as a great 

 part of the manure was carried down to the stream 

 and lost. Besides, the vicinity to water was liable 

 to accidents of various descriptions. When the 

 advantages, therefore of having a house and offices 

 in the centre of the farm, and rather on an elevat- 

 ed situation, came to be generally understood and 

 admitted, various modes of obtaining a supply of so 



essential an article as water, were devised. The 

 chief are, 1. From the roofs of the buildings; 2. 

 Natural springs; 3. Wells; 4. Artificial ponds; 

 or, .5. Artificial rills. 



1. Roofs of Buildings. — Water for common pur- 

 poses, may be obtained in most situations, by col- 

 lecting the rain which falls upon the buildings oc- 

 cupied by the family and their cattle ; and the 

 means of freeing it from every impurity, is simple 

 and easy, by two water butts, placed on diff'erent 

 levels, for filtrating it, with a tank under ground to 

 preserve it for use. The buildings and yards of a 

 farm are supposed to receive rain sufficient, if duly 

 collected, to supply both the family and the cattle 

 of the place, for at least a considerable part of the 

 year ; and ponds, where necessary, may be made 

 in any situation, at a very small expense, for the 

 remainder. Cattle, therefore, ought not to be 

 driven to water beyond the limits of their pasture ; 

 and it is not requisite to be fetched in carts from 

 distant places. 



2. jYatural Springs. — Where natural springs 

 are to be met with, they will generally furnish a 

 sufficient supply for family use ; but they are sel- 

 dom adequate to the necessities of a great farming 

 establishment. If sufficient attention, therefore, 

 has not been paid to the collecting of water from 

 the roofs of the farm buildings, in that case, wells 

 or ponds must be resorted to. 



3. fVells. — In Middlesex and Surrey they have 

 dug wells to a considerable depth, (from 100 to 

 above .500 feet,) before they could procure water. 

 In Essex they have been obliged to go as deep as 

 500 feet, to obtain water of a good quality, and at 

 that depth they succeeded. In Hampshire they 

 have likewise dug from 300 to 400 feet in depth, 

 through dry, cracked, or fissured chalk rock, and 

 thus have been able to supply whole villages with 

 water, except during the autumnal droughts. 



4. Jlrtifrial Ponds. — In several parts of Eng- 

 land, as in Hampshire, in Lincolnshire, and in Nor- 

 folk, artificial ponds have been formed, with varied 

 skill and success. In Gloucestershire, such ponds 

 are made, either of a square or a circular shape, 

 and generally so situated, as to furnish a supply to 

 four fields. Three layers of clay, free from the 

 smallest stone or gravel, are so worked in, as to 

 form an impenetrable cement. The whole is after- 

 wards covered with sand and finished with pave- 

 ment. In Derbyshire, artificial meers, or cattle 

 ponds, are made in their dry, rocky pastures with 

 great success. Having selected a low situation 

 for the purpose, they deepen it ten or twenty yards 

 across; and spread over the whole excavation a lay- 

 er, about five inches thick, of refuse slacked lime 

 and coal cinders; then they spread, trample, and 

 ram down a stratum of well-tempered clay, about 

 four inches thick ; and upon this they place a se- 

 cond bed of clay, in a similar manner, of the same 

 thickness ; the whole of the bottom and edges of 

 the meer is then paved with rubble stones ; and 

 small rubble stones, several inches thick, are 

 spread upon the pavement 



A most ingenious, as well as economical mode 

 of making these reservoirs of water, was invented 



