LARGE COUNTRY VILLAS. 261 



vated and thoroughly manured ground ; a part of the clover, lucerne, or saint- 

 foin grown on it being used green, and the remainder made into hay. In 

 this case, also, litter must, in genei-al, be purchased, unless the cow be accus- 

 tomed to do without it ; which is practicable, as was proved in the Harleyan 

 dairy at Glasgow, though it is not, in our opinion, congenial to the animal. 

 A substitute for straw litter may sometimes be found in gardens, in the haulm 

 of peas and beans, and other stems and leaves which have borne crops; and 

 in some kinds of prunings, such as the clippings of hedges, which may be 

 dried in the summer time, and stacked for the purpose. In many gentle- 

 men's places in the country, the leaves of the trees in the plantations are 

 swept up when dry, and kept in an open shed for use as litter; and they not 

 only afford a soft and elastic bed for the cow, but the best of all manure for 

 the flower-garden. Market-gardeners and others, who are obliged to be 

 careful of everything, save from the rot-heap all that can be dried and turned 

 into litter, for both their horse and cow, and often do not require to purchase 

 straw at any period of the year. It sometimes happens that the kitchen- 

 garden belonging to a residence is too large for the present occupant ; in 

 which case the ground to spare cannot be more profitably occupied than with 

 lucerne, to be cut green as summer food for the cow, and with caiTots or 

 mangold wurtzel for her winter food. Whichever way the food and litter for 

 the cow may be produced, a paddock for her exercise may be considered 

 essential. The size of this enclosure, when exercise is the main object, will 

 depend chiefly on its shape. A square, roundish, or compact form, of limited 

 extent, affords little temptation to the cow to reach the boundary ; because 

 it is everywhere near to her, and comparatively equidistant. If the paddock 

 is to be square or round, therefore, it must be large. A long narrow paddock, 

 on the contrary, in which there is a turn, or in which trees are scattered in 

 such a manner as to conceal the farther end, may be small, as the conceal- 

 ment of its termination will induce the cow, every time she is turned out, to 

 find her way thither; and this she will be the more inclined to do, if there 

 shonld be a pond or a shed at the farther extremity. 



358. The soil of the paddocJc, if not naturally dry, ought to be rendered 

 thoroughly so, by both surface and under draining. Where the surface is 

 flat, and the soil is a strong clay, such as that common in the north of 

 London, underground drains should be inti-oduced at regular distances all 

 over the field ; and however extravagant it may seem, they ought not to be 

 farther apart, in many cases, than 5 or 6 feet. These drains need not be 

 either broad or deep ; and, if stones or bricks cannot be conveniently pro- 

 cured, they may be filled with faggot-wood from the thorn hedges. No 

 money laid out on a wet clayey soil will pay better than that expended in 

 forming drains. Where the soil is a clay, and not thoroughly drained, the 

 feet of the cow will sink into it during winter, which they do much more 

 deeply than the feet of the horse ; not only because they are much smaller in 

 proportion to the size of the animal, but from their being cloven ; while the 

 feet of the horse, being entire and larger, rest upon a greater breadth of 

 surface. This treading on a wet surface produces what is called poaching ; 

 and, when this is the case, all that part of the surface which sinks down under 

 the animal's feet is rendered unproductive, and the remaining part has its 

 productiveness greatly diminislied. Wherever a cow, therefore, is kept, and 

 the field in which she is turned out to take exercise is not dry, either naturally 



