No. 9. 



Experiments in Farming. 



269 



While on this subject it may not be amiss 

 to add the experience of some excellent gra- 

 ziers as respects salting the cattle as a pre- 

 ventive to the murrain, as well as hastening 

 the accumulation of fat. Whoever has no- 

 ticed the salting of stock, must have been 

 struck with the eagerness with which they 

 rush for this luxury. The strong ones get 

 a double portion, while many get none at 

 all. The successful ones, however, in their 

 strife, seize much more thun is good for 

 them, since an excess occasions excessive 

 thirst. A remedy is found by saturating 

 salt, with water, and then adding clay or 

 ashes to absorb the liquid; the residuum, 

 after standing still a little while, becomes a 

 hard mass susceptible of form. This is then 

 conveyed, say in the form of a pyramid, to 

 a convenient place — which should always 

 be a dry place — for the stock to assemble 

 at, and there protected by some covering 

 from the rains. 



To this pyramid give the cattle free ac- 

 cess. Sheep will usually lick the salt-cake 

 two or three times a day. None of the stock 

 will take more than they want, and all will 

 get enough. The experiment has been at- 

 tended with the most favourable results. 



In addition to the advantage of giving all 

 the cattle such a supply of salt, it has been 

 found that large herds have been saved en- 

 tirely from the murrani. I would, therefore, 

 recommend a trial, which can be easily 

 made. If successflil, the plan will save 

 much labour and some danger. The follow- 

 ing proportion will usually answer: 



One part salt dissolved in two parts wa- 

 ter; three and a half parts dry clay; three 

 and a half parts of wood ashes. 



The ashes and clay will help to keep the 

 stomach and bowels in good order. This is 

 the great preventive of the murrain, which 

 is a highly excited inflammation of the in- 

 testines. The supposition that this disease 

 arises from drinking in leeches, which sub- 

 sequently find their way to the liver, is often 

 believed, but is not tenable. The leech — if 

 so it may be called — found on the liver, ap- 

 pears, upon microscopic investigation — in- 

 deed, also to the naked eye — to be a very 

 different thing from the water leech; be- 

 sides, if the leech proceeded from the sto- 

 mach to the liver, such a breach would be 

 made as to cause the speedy death of the 

 animal ; nor could the leech very pleasantly 

 find its way through the gall-ducts. Be ail 

 this as it may, the experiment of salting in 

 the mode prescribed is confidently recom- 

 mended. — Ellsworth's Report for 1844. 



Drive your business — don't let your busi- 

 ness drive you. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 

 Experiments in Farming. 



The writer of this has derived instruction 

 and interest from the perusal of the Cabinet 

 for several years past, and though not de- 

 pending on agriculture as his principal busi- 

 ness, yet, having a small farm, has made 

 some observations and experiments in that 

 line. These may be worth one half the 

 room they may take, if deemed worthy an 

 insertion ; their principal merit being that 

 they are facts; a stubborn ingredient, diffi- 

 cult to be got over or around. 



Conversing with farmers frequently many 

 years since, I was struck forcibly with the 

 opinion advanced by them all, without ex- 

 ception, that one load of barn-yard or stable 

 manure, made, tramped in by the stock, and 

 always under shelter, till time to haul it on 

 the land, was worth at least two loads — 

 some said three — of that made exposed to 

 sun and rain, or without shelter; the ques- 

 tion rushed to my mind at once, " if the dif- 

 ference is so great why do you not roof your 

 yards, nearly or quite all overl it can be 

 cheaply done; a roof of boards not necessa- 

 rily water-tight, will answer every purpose, 

 and pay you certainly not less than twenty 

 per cent, clear, for your money;" a satisfac- 

 tory reply was never obtained to the ques- 

 tion. 



Having occasion some years afterward to 

 build a barn — my land having been limed 

 and otherways improved, until I had not 

 shelter for half the product — the idea of a 

 roof over a more than usual portion of the 

 yard, having (obtained an immovable place 

 in the mind was carried out, and the only 

 regret about it is, that the plan was not laid 

 for roofing a much greater quantity. Care 

 is now generally taken several times during 

 the winter, to sow about one bushel of plas- 

 ter of paris at a time all over the manure, 

 whether sheltered or not, at times when 

 there is a thaw, or warm wet weather; a 

 larger yard would require more plaster. 



With me it is set down as bad economy of 

 time to send my farming men to a distant 

 part of the farm to work before breakfast, 

 except to a suffering job, for the reason that 

 almost every farmer can find suitable work 

 near the buildings, or in the gHiden, and 

 thus save the time spent in walking to and 

 (ro before the breakfast hour; hencepan of 

 our early hours are spent in putting under 

 the shelter, wet dripping manure and straw, 

 that has been exposed; its v,eight will pack 

 it dowTi sufficiently. After levelling it, plas- 

 ter is sown, and there all lay together till 

 immediately after harvest; it is then carted 

 to the field, on oat or barley stubble, pre- 



