TRACTS ON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, &c. 45 



Saint Helena than perhaps of any other establishment of the 

 British empire. 



I therefore entertain a sanguine hope that the breeders of 

 cattle may look to their own interests, and that they may at lengtli 

 listen to the voice of reason and experience, and immediately set 

 about guarding themselves and families from inevitable ruin, to 

 which they are every season exposed, merely through improvident 

 mana2:ement. 



But, if neither facts nor arguments will awaken them to a sense 

 of the evils incident to an entire dependence on pasture lands, 

 let them then duly reflect on the dreadful effects they will un- 

 doubtedly feel, if no precautions are taken, whenever it shall 

 please the Almighty disposer of all things to revisit Saint Helena 

 with another calamitous season similar to those which have been 

 sometimes experienced here : and particularly in the years 1791 

 and 1792. Alas! under our present circumstances, what would 

 be the consequence of such a visitation : Our stock of cattle may 

 be estimated at 20,000 pounds sterling. — Half this sum might be 

 irrecoverably lost : and as the effect of a diminution in the breed- 

 ing stock would long be felt by the proprietors, it is not too much 

 to say that the loss, consequent to so great a calamity, to them- 

 selves and families, would not be less than the full value of the 

 present stock of cattle. 



In page 76 of the Goat papers, it is proved that in four months 

 from the period of sowing oats, 36,320 pounds of green fodder 

 were obtained at Long Wood from an acre. Suppose 50 pounds 

 of this nutritious sustenance were allotted to each beast — one 

 acre w«uld feed two throughout the year — four for six months — 

 or eight for three months. 



Let the proprietors also consider the vast importance of having 

 their stock of working oxen maintained at all times in full 



