1333.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



107 



is said to be about equal to one bushel per weeAi of 

 of dry wheat. Having lately seen one ox that 

 was said to have been entirely fed on wheat, leaves 

 no doubt in my mind that it must be a very nutri- 

 tious thod for beasts ; I cannot however, restrain 

 some ftielingsof regret that this grain, intended on- 

 ly lor the use of" man, should be thiisapjiroprifited. 

 Most likely, after two more harvests, the price of 

 beans and barley will correspond, as it used to do, 

 with the price of wheat, and then it will no longer 

 be given as food for beasts. After all the great 

 trouble and expense of stall feeding, this mortify- 

 ing circumstance has frequently occurred ; the 

 beasts are sold in the London market at a ruinous 

 price to the stall-feeder, at less than they would 

 have made in any other market; the butchers 

 knowing that the beasts, having been so much 

 knocked about in Smithfield, could not be turned 

 out of an overstocked market to come into the 

 next, have frequently bought them at their own 

 prices. It will not be thus when the Islington 

 market is quite established. 



I have given rather lengthened details of stall- 

 feeding, from its having been for some years my 

 hobby; but I confess rather an expensive one. No 

 fox-hunter, however, can look with greaier plea- 

 sure on his stable of fine hunters than I have at 

 my stalls of fine beasts. I have tied up, several 

 years, in the course of the winter, one hundred 

 and fifty beasts; at this time (December, 1835,) I 

 have only forty, chiefly well-bred Durhams, grazed 

 in this county, and I never had beasts that im- 

 proved faster. I have some fine Herefords, bought 

 gcod nieat at Hereford Ootober Fair, but from the 

 drift home (as is alwaj's the case,) tliey made lit- 

 tle progress in feeding in the first three weeks of 

 their being tied up. If beasts that are ptit up in 

 warm places to stall feed have a great deal of long 

 hair on their chines, top of their shoulders, and 

 necks, it is a good plan to cut it off, for when the 

 beasts are thriving, they perspire much in their 

 fore quarters, the longhair consequently gels mat- 

 ted together, and makes them very itchy and un- 

 comfortable .Brushing also tends to their comfort 

 and expeditious feeding, 



JVl any beasts are subject to be blown after eat- 

 ing their green food: in such case let them be kept 

 moving in a yard till the swelling goes do\yn. If cut- 

 ting to let the wind out be necessary, it should be 

 done with a penknife on the left side, between the 

 haunch-bone and the first rib. 



It is not very probable that either grazing or 

 stall-feeding will ever again prove a profitable 

 concern. Great quantities of fat beasts and pigs 

 will be imported fi-om Ireland, even should the 

 condition of the Irish poor improve so decidedly 

 that the consumption of meat be increased two- 

 fold; for Ireland vrould still be capable of produc- 

 ing a sufficient quantity for export to depreciate 

 the price of stock in this country. Those will 

 have the best chance of making a profit of gra- 

 zing who can get beasts forward m winter, and who 

 have rich grazing land to make them early ready 

 for market, there being generally a fiur demand 

 for good beef in the months of July, August, and 

 September. Times will not admit of givingexor- 

 bhant prices for fancy breeds; still, however, I 

 have found that it well answers to give somethinir 

 more for beasts which evidently show some good 

 brreeding, as such will fatten much sooner than 

 mongrels, and, therefore, at less expense; and, al- 



though there is not now the same difference as 

 there used to be in the price of meat of various 

 qualities, yet the finest is most readily sold at the 

 top price of the market. There cannot be a ques- 

 tion l)ut that in the large breeds of cattle, the 

 competition is between two breeds only — the Here- 

 ford and the Durham. I retain the same opinion 

 as to the merits of" these two excellent breeds, as 

 [ expressed more than twenty years ago. For 

 grazingj 1 prefer Herefords — for stall-feeding, 

 Durhams; having found that the latter increase 

 fitster in weight, and that if highly fed, they be- 

 come more even carcasses of beefj and are less 

 likely than many of the Herefords to prove patchy. 

 It must, however, be admitted, that from their 

 large frame they consume more food than Ilere- 

 f"ords. My idea of a good beast is, that it should 

 have a straight and flat back, projecting hips, deep 

 fore quarters, wide chine, sloping shoulders, good 

 head, with prominent eyes, deep and bowed ribs, 

 projecting bosom, good purse and flank, and not 

 thin thighs. 



From Thompson's Kecords. 

 KATIVE COUSTRY OF MAIZE. 



Roulin, Humboldt, and Bonpland, have noticed 

 this plant in its native state, in America, and have 

 hence concluded that it was origmally derived from 

 that country. IMichaud, Daru, Gregory, and Bo- 

 nafbus, state, that it was known in Asia Minor be- 

 fore the discovery of" America. Crawford, in his 

 History of" the Indian Archipelago, tells us that 

 maize was cultivated by the inhabitants of" these 

 islands, under the name of djagniwg, before the 

 discovery of America. In the Natural History of 

 China, composed by Li-Chi Tchin, towards the 

 middle of the sixteenth century, an exact figure is 

 given of maize, under the title of lachoii-cha; and 

 Rifaud, in his "Voyage en Egypte, &c., from 

 1805 to 1807," discovered this grain in a subter- 

 raneous excavation in a state of remarkably 

 good preservation. M. Virey, however, refutes 

 these statements, (^Journal de Pharmade, xx. 571) 

 by showing that these authors have mistaken the 

 holcus sorghum for maize, and that the maize of 

 Riliiud is the holcus bicolor, a native of Egypt ac- 

 cording to Delile. Where maize occurs in the 

 east, there is no proof of its having been carried 

 there previously to the discover)' of America. 



3Iaize, (Zea mays) therefore sprung from Ame- 

 rica; millet, ox couz coiiz, from Afi-ica; rice, (joryza 

 saliva,) from Asia; and wheat, barley, and oats, 

 from Europe. 



From Jameson's Journal. 



PROGRESSIVE INCREASE OF TEMPERATURE 

 AS WE DESCEKD IN THE CRUST OF THE 

 EARTH. 



For the purpose of ascertaining whether a con- 

 stant stream of wafer could be obtained by means 

 of an Artesian well, sunk on the south side of the 

 Jura mountains, at the distance of about a league 

 fi-om Geneva, and at an elevation of 297 feet above 

 the level of the lake, M. Giroud, at his country 

 residence at Pregny, bored to the depth of 547 

 feet without success. Despairing of success, he 

 offered great facilities to any persons who might 



