No. 11. 



Cultivation. — SlaU-Fed Sheep. 



349 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Cultivation. 



I HAVE often thought that Dr. Johnson's 

 definition of the business of a schoolmaster, 

 was particularly applicable to that of the a<r. 

 ricultural journalist : " To recall vagrant in- 

 attention," and to "stimulate sluggish indif- 

 ference." 



Every movement of the farmer — every step 

 which he takes, is emphatically under the 

 broad canopy of Heaven : it is in the midst 

 of the forests, and the fields, and over the 

 luxuriant carpet which nature has so liberally 

 spread abroad for his enjoyment. He ploughs, 

 he plants, he cultivates, under a full persua- 

 sion of the fidelity of Nature's great " Fruc- 

 lifier." He throws " broad-cast" his seed into 

 her bosom, nothing doubting the continued 

 fulfilment of the ancient promise, that seed- 

 time and harvest shall not cease while the 

 earth remaineth. 



It is an appropriate duty of the periodicals 

 which the farmer reads, and puts into the 

 hands of his children, not only to keep him 

 informed of the improvements that are con- 

 tinually bettering the condition of his "craft," 

 and to suggest to him variations in his crops, 

 as well as new modes of feeding them out, 

 and every thing else, in fact, connected with 

 his "thrift" — the appliance of his farm and 

 household, — but also, to raise his views from 

 his horses and his plough, to the magnifi- 

 cence of nature that is around him, and from 

 nature, as the poet says, up to Nature's God ; 

 and to remind him occasionally of the fact, 

 which his customary round of duties may lead 

 him to forget, tiiat his vocation, if properly 

 followed, is among the noblest, and most en- 

 nobling, pursued by man. There is a pro- 

 gressiveness — an onward course, in the 

 efforts of the farmer, that render them de- 

 lightful; and why should not this be con- 

 tinually accompanied by a corresponding im- 

 provement of tlie mind, and enlargement of 

 views, that would place Ms among the most 

 intelligent and respectable of the professions. 

 The farmer, it seems to me, cannot behold 

 but with great complacency, his horses — his 

 cattle — his sheep — his every thing that is liv- 

 ing around him, obviously improving by his 

 attention, from year to year; — he perceives 

 the truth of the old sayinjr, tiiat " land is ho- 

 nest," for he finds his fields always trrateful 

 for what he bestows upon them ; and there is 

 on indescribable feeling of consciousness, that 

 he deserves more of iiis country than he who 

 has led armies to battle, and slain his thou- 

 sands — because, in the language of old David 

 Lawton, he has made two blades of grass to 

 grow, where but one grew before. 



There is great inducement for our farming 

 population to believe that the tendency of 



every thing connected with their vocation is, 

 like every thing else in this great and won- 

 derful Republic, upward and onward. Let 

 us, then, extend our views — let us "look 

 aloft" — let us aim, as Sir Philip Sidney ad- 

 vises, at the "mid-day sun," and who can 

 doubt but our judicious enterprise will render 

 the result correspondent with the aim? — as 

 advantageous to the permanent interests of 

 the country, as it will be gratifying and bene- ; 

 ficial to ourselves. Z. Y. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Stall-Fed Sheep. 



Mr. Editor, — I am much gratified to find 

 the correspondents of the Cabinet advocating 

 more care in the husbandry of sheep. It is 

 truly astonishing that so little regard is paid 

 to this kind of stock ; nothing is more easy 

 than to make them the most valuable, and 

 assuredly it is the most convenient mode, by 

 which a man may convert a very considerable 

 part of his produce into a marketable article 

 at home, and secure to himself, without the 

 cost of cartage, a large and valuable addition 

 to his stock of manure on the premises. It 

 seems that great attention is being paid to 

 feeding sheep in enclosed yards and sheds in 

 England, by which much profit is obtained at 

 a very small outlay of capitaL In a late pe- 

 riodical I find an account of a very interest- 

 ing experiment, in feetling sheep in a yard 

 with a shed, which I copy for insertion in 

 your much improved journal. 



Jno. Eldridge. 



"On the 1st of January, 18S9, I drew 40 

 wether hoggs (sheep over one year old) out 

 of my Leicesters, and divided them into two 

 lots as equal in quality as I could get them: 

 I found, on weighing them, one fcore to 

 weigh 183 stones 3 lbs., the other 184 stones 

 4 lbs. I then put the first lot into the yard, 

 and placed the other on turnips in the field, 

 the land being sandy, well sheltered, and pe- 

 culiarly favourable and healthy for sheep; 

 each lot had exactly the same quantity of 

 food given to them, which was as follows:— 

 1st. As many cut turnips as they could eat, 

 which was about 27 stone per day for each 

 let. 2d. Ten pounds of linseed cake, at the 

 rate of half a pound per sheep per day. 

 3d. Half a pint of barley per sheep per day. 

 4th. A little hay, and a constant supply of 

 salt. For the first three weeks, both lots 

 consumed equal portions of food, but in the 

 fourth week there was a falling off in the 

 consumption of the sheep in the sheds of three 

 stones of turnips per day ; and in the ninth 

 week, there was a falling off of two stones 

 more ; of linseed cake, there was also a fall- 



