1837.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



615 



and a lar<re boiler over it. This i.? for preparinn: 

 the liquid food for the cows, with which they are 

 liberally supplied three times a day. It contains 

 water, chart', weeds of all sorts, nettles, &e. cover- 

 ed with a little rye, rape, or linseed meal, or mix- 

 ed with dis!illery refuse. The butter-milk is also 

 added and given back to the cows, and with so 

 much liqufd jbod, they are able to consume a 

 fi'reat -deal of straw in winter. Turnips and car- 

 rots seem to form but a small proportion of their 

 iood. In summer they have clover, and spurry in 

 autumn when grown. A door adjoining the Ore- 

 place leads to the cow-house, and the liquid food 

 is given in wooden troughs, kept clean and nice. 

 Behind the cattle is the dungpit : this is excava- 

 ted to the depth of six or eight feet, and is twelve 

 or fourteen wide, into it they cast every sort of 

 stuff; sweepings of roads, parings of ditches or 

 baidts, and dry earth. These being completely 

 saturated with urine and mixed with droppings 

 from the cattle, form admirable manure. Not be- 

 ing exposed, like an English straw-yard, to wind 

 and rain, little or nothing is evaporated or lost. 

 When the manure is required, it is taken out, and 

 the pit again filled with earth, &c. It is of course 

 not filled up to the level of the stalls, but space is 

 left for the increase of the manure. The cattle 

 are constantly in the house, except an hour or two 

 in the morning in summer, and at noon in autumn, 

 when they go to walk along the lanes. Field pas- 

 turing is unknown, and thus almost all the manure 

 is deposited in the house, and even a large pro- 

 portion of what falls out of doors is gathered up 

 and collected in heaps bj' children. The quantity 

 of manure thus collected is very great, and owing 

 to the variety of their crops, the dungpits are 

 emptied several times a year. 



I think the Highland Society might with pro- 

 priety ort'er a premium f(:)r experiments on the use 

 of covered dungpits, and I have no doubt that if 

 the practice were once introduced, the advantages 

 would soon establish it universally. The Belgian 

 cattle are certainly too much confined to the house, 

 and part of their food seems more calculated to im- 

 prove the dungpit than any thing else, and to this I 

 attributed what appeared to me the inferior quality 

 of all the products of the dairy ; but this is a quite 

 different question from the propriety of sheltering 

 the manure, necessarily produced in a farm-yard, 

 from the effects of the weather, whether it be sun, 

 or wind, or rain. 



The dogs in Belgium are obliged to take their 

 share of the farm work, and relieve the dairy- 

 maids from the labor of churning. A wheel is 

 erected outside the house, and under a wooden 

 cover, twelve to fourteen feet diameter, with a rim 

 about filleen inches broad. The dog is placed 

 within the wheel, and moving forward, causes the 

 wheel to go round exactly like a tread-mill, ex- 

 cept that the dog is placed within, and the men 

 outside the wheel. There are wooden teeth out- 

 side the wheel, which turns a smaller wheel, 

 which again moves a double crank inside the 

 house, to which the plungers of the churn are at- 

 tached. There are generally three dogs kept for 

 each churn, and they work each an hour at a time. 

 They are made to go taster or slower by calling to 

 them. At gentlemen's houses they were fat, and 

 'seemed to like their work well, but at the peas- 

 ants' houses they were not so comfortable looking. 

 On one occasion a dog who was ordered to work 



to show me the process, displayed the greatest re- 

 luctance, but on my noticing it. the peasant as- 

 sured me it was only because he knew it was not 

 his regular time. 



The cultivation of flax forms a most important 

 part of Belgian agriculture, but the subject is loo 

 extensive to be included in the present communi- 

 cation ; perhaps I may ere long say something 

 about it. 



1 think the following recipe for the cure of red 

 water is worthy of being made public. I received 

 it fi-om a German fi'iend, and it is the recipe of an 

 old Pomeranian shepherd, who declared it never 

 failed. I had it a considerable time in my posses- 

 sion, before I had an opportunity of trying it on a 

 cow of my own ; and until 1 had done so with 

 success, I was unwilling to prescribe it among my 

 neighbors lest it should prove fatal. It however 

 cured a cow of mine, and I have since given it in 

 above twenty cases, almost all among my own 

 tenants, and with perfect success, except in two 

 cases, when the animals were at the point of 

 death before they got it. It is a mixture of equal 

 parts of Oleum Philosophorum, Olerum Aspic, 

 Oleum Terebinthum ; sixty to seventy drops in 

 half a quart of lukewarm water for a middle-sized 

 cow, and from thirty to filiy for a calf, according 

 to size. If it does not cure in twelve hours, repeat 

 the dose. I have never known more than two 

 doses required. The materials can be furnished 

 by Baildon, successor to Butler and Co. 74 Prince's 

 Street, Edinburgh. 



From the Troy [N. Y.] Budget of Jaiiuarj'2. 



RECENT AND DISASTROUS LAND-SLIPS IN 

 TROY. 



Early last summer, many of our readers are 

 aware, a large mass of cjay burst fiom the hill on 

 the east section of the first ward of this city, fol- 

 lowed by a gushing stream of water, and doing 

 no other injury than covering a lar^e portion of 

 iiround at the base with the bowels of the hill. 

 Last evening about 7 o'clock, a similar occurrence 

 took place on the same spot, but, we regret to say, 

 greater in extent, and exceedingly fatal in its con- 

 sequences. An avalanche of clay came tumbling 

 fi'om an eminence of nearly 500 feet, moving down 

 the base of the hill to level land, and then contin- 

 ued from the impulse it received, to the distance of 

 about 800 feet, covering u|) acres of ground, ac- 

 companied with a cataract of water and sand 

 which kept up a terrible roar. The mass moved 

 along with great rapidity, carrying with it two 

 stables and three dwelling houses, and crushinof 

 them and' their conlents in thousands of pieces. 

 The stables and horses were moved to a distance 

 of over 200 feet, into an hollow on the corner of 

 Washington and Fourth streets. 



In its way the avalanche also encountered a 

 brick-kiln, burying it partially over and crumbling 

 it together, from which a few minutes after the 

 flames rushed forth and lit up the city as with a 

 irreat conflagration. This signal was the first in- 

 timation that was had of the catastrophe, to those 

 not in the immediate vicinity. 



The three dwelling houses de.stroyed were 

 of light structure, and are occupied by Mr. .loha 

 Grace, another by Mrs. Leavensworth, and the 

 third by Mrs. Warner, the last of which was 



