34 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



Feb. 



continue and extend it. The quantity of stock I now 

 have on boards (slats) is, 100 lambs, 60 sheep, 60 

 calves, 30 bullocks, 10 cows, and 200 pigs. I measured 

 the hoofs of the various animals, and arranged my 

 openings accordingly. For bullocks, the space be- 

 tween the slats or boards is IJ inches ; sheep, IJ 

 inches ; pigs, ditto ; small pigs and lambs, 1 inch ; 

 calves, 1 g inches. 



" One can not too highly appreciate the system on 

 heavy lands, where animals can not be profitably 

 folded during winter. The area allowed to each 

 animal and its feeding apparatus, is thus : 



Superficial feet. 



Small sheep, 8 



Large do 10 



Small bullocks, 30 to 40 



Large do 50 to CO 



Small pigs, 6 to 8 



Large do 9 to 11 



" Very much depends on the season and weather. 

 In cold weather, pigs and bullocks can scarcely be 

 packed too close, so long as there is room for them 

 to lie down comfortably. Sheep require a little more 

 room and ventilation. In fact it requires a nice ob- 

 servation to adjust the ventilation and temperature. 

 This is best done by a thermometer, because our own 

 feelings are not always a sufficient criterion. Every 

 cattle 6hed shouM feel as comfortable and warm as a 

 drawing room. The opening for ventilation should 

 be at the highest point. My bullocks are groomed 

 daily by a boj-, whose sole occupation it is. The 

 cost is about one farthing a head per week, and I am 

 sure it pays. [Pays the owner of the cattle, but not 

 the boy.] Before I leave the open boards, I should 

 say that the bars or planks may be either of straight 

 yellow deals [pine] or straight-grained hard wood. 

 The latter are to be preferred for heavy animals, as 

 they wear off the edges of deals. I should say that 

 we never sweep the floor ; but the animals are per- 

 fectly clean. Of course the manure is taken out at 

 once to the field, without the interventional expense 

 of a double carting, shooting, or turning over a dung 

 heap. The effect on the crops is unmistakable. I 

 am quite sure the system is very advantageous. It 

 is true we like a soft bed, and so do animals ; but our 

 medical advisers recommend a hard one. 



" There is a powerful development of muscles on 

 boards — so much so, that with fattening pigs not 

 bred on boafds, I have found some of them get capped 

 hocks. It is surprising how fast you may fatten 

 your pigs on these floors. They find it inconvenient 

 to run about, so divide their time between eating and 

 sleeping — a most agreeable operation for the account 

 book. My old bailiff admits that, on the turning-out 

 system, two-thirds of my farm would be required to 

 feed my animals ; now they make shift with one- 

 third. If you desire a good appetite for your ani- 

 mals, turn them out in the cold for exercise. On 

 asking the boy how tiiey got on, he replied : <0h, 

 sir, they get on properly well now, they come in so 

 hungry.' This settled the question in my mind ; 

 but those who doubt the facts, can make experiments. 

 There can be no doubt the animals are perfectly 

 healthy on these boards. Considering the confine- 

 ment and heat, this rather surprises me, especially 

 with pigs fed entirely on meal ; for the ammonia or 

 effluvia from under them, is powerful enough to dis- 

 color paint. The great difficulty I find, is in getting 

 a proper fixer of ammonia. I have used sulphuric 

 acid, ashes, and various matters, with a certain effect. 

 I hope the Irish peat charcoal will not be too dear ; 



I have a ton coming on trial. After all, I am in- 

 clined to think common salt, or the common dried 

 clav, is the cheapest fixer, and I have used a great 

 dea'l." 



Well dried and finely pulverized clay is one of the 

 best and cheapest absorbents of the gases from the 

 dung heap. In preparing nightsoil for transportation, 

 the Chinese have used dried clay for unknown ages. 

 To escape the attacks of flies, which in summer are 

 very troublesome to cattle, Mr. Mechi keeps his 

 stables dark. He says, "if you have ten million of 

 flies, not one will bite in the dark." Mr. M. has a 

 steam engine for grinding coarse grain, cutting straw 

 and turneps, and steaming food. 



Of course, if all farmers were to go extensively 

 into the production of meat, the market would soon 

 be overstocked and the article become valueless ; but 

 there is little danger of such a result. It is too easy 

 to skin the soil, as immense herds of buffaloes are 

 slaughtered for their hides and tongues alone, for 

 many to engage in any system of farming which re- 

 stores in manure as much of the elements of fertility 

 as is removed in crops. To purchase oil-cake or 

 guano enough to form 100 bushels of wheat or corn 

 for every 100 sold off the farm, is a policy not soon 

 to come into general favor in this country. But after 

 the virgin earth has parted with the raw material for 

 making bread and meat, to the depth of two feet, then 

 we shall begin to consider the supreme folly of 

 wasting fertilizers enough every year, as we now do, 

 to form one thousand million bushels of corn. This 

 immense loss is not likely to be any less during the 

 next twenty-five years ; and it will tell most against 

 the deepest tilled land, which now yields the best 

 crops, provided their earthy elements are not restored 

 to it. Unless it can be shown that each cubic foot 

 of soil contains an unlimited quantity of bones, or the 

 material to form them, it is easy to see that, to be 

 ever extracting phosphate of lime in grass, grain, 

 roots, cotton, hemp, sugar-cane, and tobacco, and 

 sending these products off the farm, must inevitably 

 consume all the bone-earth in the soil, within the 

 reach of any cultivated plants. Whatever minerals 

 American soils lose by leaching and in crops, must 

 some day bo restored to it, if not from Great Britian, 

 from the great deep, or some other source. Wo can 

 no better afford to cultivate 100 acres to grow 1000 

 bushels of wheat, than the farmers of England can. 

 Why, then, should we not attempt to increase our 

 average crops to twice the quantity per acre now har- 

 vested ? This can only be done by augmenting the 

 fertility of wheat fields ; and how can this be eftected 

 better than to pass grain, roots, and grass, through 

 meat-producing machinery — selling the meat, and 

 adding the manure to the land that needs it 1 



The different results obtained by feeding corn to 

 hogs and neat cattle in different parts of the United 

 States, are quite curious and instructive. We have 

 before us a letter from Mr. J. E. Dougk, of Potosi, 

 Grant county, Wisconsin, who says : "In October 

 last, I selected from my stock two pigs of the same 

 age, and apparently alike thrifty ; one, however, 

 weighed 2G0 lbs., and the other 247 lbs. Immedi- 

 ately after being weighed, they were put in different 

 apartments of the same house, kept dry and warm, 

 and led with great care forty days, when they were 

 weighed and slaughtered. The heaviest pig was 

 fed with com meal mixed stiff with cold water ; the 

 other with shelled corn, with a plenty of pure water 

 to drink. The one fed with meal consumed 425 lbs., 



