106 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 2 



more common throi!(Thout the country than for- 

 merl}^, has had the etlect of making meat, in most 

 years, as cheap in the spring as in the autumn, 

 which it used not to be ; consequently, stall-teed- 

 (lintr, of late, has seldom turned out to be profrta- 

 bie, but often, as I have experienced, a serious 

 loss. Meat cannot be laid on lean beasts in the 

 stalls, to repay the expense of the food they con- 

 sume ; the only chance of making stall-leeding 

 answer, is, to put in the beasts which prove to be 

 only three parts fat at the latter end of autumn, 

 when grass will no longer improve them, but which 

 will, in the stalls, increase in their weight, and im- 

 prove m the quality of their meat ; still, however, 

 if the price of beel when these beasts become fat 

 should be the same -as when they were put into 

 the stalls, the expenses will not be repaid. JMeat 

 must be a penny a pound more in the spring than 

 it had been in the autumn, to repay the great ex- 

 penses of stall feeding. It is carried on to a very 

 large extent in Norfolk and Sutfolk, and although 

 from the great expense of oil-cake consumed, the 

 farmers certainly must lose by every beast they 

 feed, still they must continue the system on their, 

 large arable farms, for the purpose of turnmg their 

 straw into good manure. 



On beast's being tied up, white, turnips will do 

 (or the first week or so ; they keep beasts cool in- 

 side, but there is so very great a proportion of wa- 

 ter in them that they are not of half so feeding a 

 nature as Swedes. Those who have mangel wur- 

 zel should keep it as a corps de reserve, for spring, 

 or severe frost, when the turnips are frozen, which 

 are often given to beasts almost as hard and as 

 cold as stone, and which, in such a state, cannot. 

 be good for them. The turnips should be cut — 

 there are many machines for cutting or slicing. 

 The machine I use, andlikebetter thanany I have 

 seen, I have had five and twenty years ; it was 

 made at Banbury, turns very easily with a large 

 fly wheel, and cuts the turnips very expeditiously 

 into irregular pieces, which I preftjr to slicing them. 

 My method of feeding, when the beasts have been 

 up' a little time, and when on what I call full feed- 

 ing, is thus : — first feed in the morning, half a bush- 

 el of cut turnips, and afterwards half a bushel of 

 cut hay, with about a quart of meal in it. 

 These feeds repeated at noon ; in the afternoon a 

 feed of turnips, and supped up at night with hay 

 in the rack, and three oil-cakes in the manger. 

 Should oil-cake be cheap, give more of it, and less 

 of meal. The difference of the weekly cost of 

 my way of feeding is as hereinafter stated. 



Oil-cake at £ 12 per thousand in London, with 

 the cost of about ifp2 per thousand getting home, 

 will bring the cost of each cake 1o ver)' nearly 

 three pence halfpenny. At £ 10 10s. to three 

 pence. 



The different weekly cost of feeding for each 

 beast will be as under : 



s. d. 



10^ bushels of turnips, 

 1| cvvt. of hay 



Turnips . . _ . 

 1^ cwt. of cut and uncut hay 



3 6 

 5 10 



9 4 



3 6 

 5 



Half a bushel of meal 



Half a bushel of linseed 

 Tlu'ee gallons of meal 

 1^ cwt. of cut and uncut hay 

 Turnips _ - _ - 



21 oil-cakes, at S^d. 

 Three gallons of meal - 

 Cut and uncut hay 

 Turnips _ - _ 



s. d. 



12 8 



15 



No food can he given to stall-feeding beasts that 

 will fatten them so soon or so well as linseed oil- 

 cake. It certainly is expensive leed, but not so 

 expensive as it appears to be, taking into conside- 

 ration that it liittens quicker. The expense of it, 

 compared with other stall-leeding food, is thus: 

 when it costs the consumer at home £12 10s. per 

 thousand, each cake said to be 31b?., (but never 

 are quite so much,) the stone of 141bs. costs Is. 

 S^d. Linseed at 56s. per quarter. Is. lid. Bar- 

 ley meal, when the price of good grinding barley 

 is 26s. per quarter, the stone will be about lid. 

 The stone of bean meal, when beans are 32s. per 

 quarter, the same. Some winters I have fed with 

 linseed instead of cake, and ibund it answer very 

 well, although it added to the trouble of feeding. 

 My mode of preparing it has been to break it in a 

 little hand-mill, and steep it in cold water, in se- 

 ven tubs, of a size sufficient for one day's feed; in 

 this way it will have been steeped seven days be- 

 fore it is mixed with cut hay and barley, or (that 

 which is better,) bean meal, li^ steeped in hot 

 water, two days will do ; if steeped longer than 

 three, it is apt to get a little sour, which I think 

 not quite so well for the beasts. There are annu- 

 ally great importations of linseed from which I 

 conclude that it can be imported at a less price than 

 it can be produced here. It is grown pretty exten- 

 sively in some parts of the kingdom ; it is, howe- 

 ver, to be regretted, that the cultivation of it can- 

 not be more general, and prevent the necessity of 

 such great importations ; and thus circulate 

 amongst the English farmers a large sum o( mo- 

 ney which now finds its way into the pockets of 

 foreign farmers. I have not yet n>ade such use of 

 wheat in feeding as to enable me from experience 

 to speak decidedly about it. I have hitherto used 

 only my tailing wheat, ground with barley, and 

 thought it answered very well ; but I hear of num- 

 bers of beasts being now fed entirely with wheat ; 

 and, it is said, quite as vvell fed, and at a much less 

 expense than with oil-cake at its present price. 

 The way of preparing it for liieding is thus : — 

 steeped Ihirty-six hours; then laid ibr five days on 

 a brick lloor, turning it over once a day ; then laid 

 on a boarded floor, about six inches thick ; in two 

 days it will be fit tor use. One gallon and three 

 quarters in the grown state, per day, ibr each beast, 



