234 



Soiling of Caltle. — Tloughing. 



Vol. II. 



or a series of cross battens or rods, rising in 

 gradation from the floor to the roof. The bat- 

 tens should be placed at such a distance hori- 

 aontally as that the birds, when roosting, 

 may not incommodate each other by their 

 droppings. For tliis purpose they should be 

 a foot apart for hens, and eighteen inches 

 apart for turkies. The slope of the roost 

 may be about 45°, and the lower part should 

 lift up by hinges in order to permit a person 

 to remove the dung. No flying, is requisite 

 in case of such a roost, as the birds ascend 

 and descend by steps, see figure 39, in which 

 (a, b) are spars for the poultry to sit on (c, c) 

 ranges of boxes for nests, (r/) the roof, (c) the 

 door which should be nearly as high as the 

 ceiling, for ventilation, and should have a 

 small opening with a shutter at bottom, to 

 permit the poultry to go in and out at plea- 

 sure. The spars on wliich the clawed birds 

 are to roost, should not be round and smooth 

 but roundish and roughish like the branch'of 

 tlie tree." — Maubray. 



To the Editor of the Fanners' Cabimt, 



Soiling of Cattle. 



The following is taken from " the Diary of 

 an Invalid," a late traveler in Switzerland 

 and may serve to show sometliing of the 

 manner of managing cattle in that country, 

 where industry and thrift are the order of 

 the day. If you think it worth publisliing 

 it is at your service. X. 



" In the neigliborhood of Lausanne, there 

 is a large grazing tarm, where no less tiian a 

 hundred cows are kept in the confinement of 

 tlie stall during the whole year. Tlie ad- 

 vantage of this mode, in a farming point of 

 view, seem to be considerable. The grass 

 ■v^hicii supplies them with food during the 

 summer, instead of being wastefully trodden 

 underfoot, and daintly picked, is regularly 

 and fairly cut — fat and lean together — and is 

 tiius made to go much farther; while the 

 vastquantity of wiyz^i^re which is accumula- 

 ted from so "large a stock, is sufficient to sup- 

 jK)rt the pastures, under the constant exhaus- 

 tion of the scythe. 



The Swiss are very attentive to the dres- 

 smg of tlieir pastures, and to the preservation 

 of the means of doing so ; particularly to the 

 urinary part of the manure, by far the richest 

 and most valuable, of which tliey collect and 

 treasure up every drop with scrupulous care. 



The animals on the other hand give more 

 milk than if they were at liberty, and are in 

 much better condition, in the grazier's sense 

 of the word ; that is, they are always ready 

 for the butcher. The only objections to this 

 mode, arise out of considerations lor the hap- 



piness of the animals themselves, to whom 

 we are disposed to attribute human feelings 

 and sentiments, and to imagine that they 

 derive tlie same pleasure from browsing free- 

 ly in the sunshine of the meadow, or reposing 

 in the protecting shade of the woodland, sur- 

 rounded by the beauties of nature, which we 

 should ourselves feel, if similarly situated. 

 But it may, I think, be fiiirly concluded 

 that animals, though they may seem to parti- 

 cipate with man, to a certain extent in the 

 faculty of reason, are utterly insensible to all 

 the pleasures of taste and imagination. The 

 beautiful has no charms for the brute creation ; 

 and even in the passion of sexual desire, 

 where, if any where, it might be supposed to 

 have some influence ; we do not perceive that 

 youth, beauty, and cleanliness, make a more 

 forcible appeal to their feelings, than age, 

 dirt, and deformity. And it may be doubted, 

 whether, the tranquility and protection from 

 flies during summer, afforded by the stall, be 

 not sources of greater gratification to these 

 animals, with whom — 



''To Uve well, means nothing but to eat" 



than any which they could find in the en- 

 joyment of liberty, or the contemplation of 

 the landscape." 



On Deep ancl Frequent Plouglilng. 



The late Mr. Pickering, in an address be- 

 fore the Essex County Agricultural Society, 

 says — "I entertain no doubt of the utility of 

 deep ploughing; not at once, in our lands in 

 general, but by an increase of 2 or 3 inches 

 every annual ploughing, until the earth be 

 stirred and pulverized to the depth often or 

 twelve inches. Indian corn planted in such 

 a mass of loosened earth, would not, I am 

 persuaded, ever suffer by ordinary drouo-hts. 

 Like a sponge it would absorb a vast quantity 

 of rain water, and become a reservoir to sup- 

 ply the want of that and of all other plants. 

 Nothing is more common in a dry summer, 

 than the rolling of the leaves of corn; and 

 that circumstance is often mentioned as an 

 evidence of the severity of the drouo-ht. 

 This rolling of the leaves of Indian corn, is 

 the consequence, in part, of scant manuring, 

 but still more of shallow ploughino-. Few, 

 perhaps, are aware of the depth to which the 

 roots of plants will penetrate in a deeply 

 loosened earth. A gentleman much inclined 

 to agricultural inquiries and observations, in- 

 formed me nearly fifty years ago, that seeing 

 some men digging a well in a hollow place, 

 planted in Indian corn then at full growth, 

 he stopped to examine how far its roots had 

 descended, and he traced them to the depth 

 of nine feet. The soil was an accumulation 



