1076 



PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Part III. 



It was cultivated by the Romans, and highly prized by them as food. The body is six 

 inches long. 



7369. Of the deer (C^rvus L.) there are three species in cultivation in this country : 

 the stag, roe, and fallow deer. The latter are now almost exclusively cultivated in 

 parks, as articles of luxury, and, it is conceived, might answer to a small extent in 

 farming. 



7370. The stag (C. 'lephas L.,fig. 912. 0) is found in nearly all the temperate climates of Europe and 



912 



Asia, It is also found in North America, but attains its largest size in Siberia. From the branchiness of 

 its antlers, the elegance of its form and movements, and the strength of its limbs, it deservedly attracts 

 particular admiration, and may be regarded as a principal embellishment of the forest The stag is 

 remarkable for a fine eye, and an acute sense of smelling. His ear also is exquisitely sensible, and musical 

 sounds appear to possess over him the power of exciting complacency, if not rapture. His enemies not 

 unfrequently employ the shepherd's pipe to decoy him to his destruction ; and Playford, in his Introduc- 

 tion to Music, states that he once met a herd of twenty stags near Royston, which readily followed the 

 tones of a violin and bagpipe, played by their conductors, but stopped whenever the music was suspended. 

 Their whole progress from Yorkshire to Hampton Court was attended, and it was supposed extremely 

 facilitated, by these sounds. The stag is simple and unsuspicious, and employs no arts to avoid detection 

 or pursuit, until after having received considerable molestation. His food consists in winter of moss and 

 bark ; in spring, of the catkins of willow and hazel, and the flowers and buds of cornel ; in summer, of 

 the grain of rye, and the tender shoots of the alder; in autumn, of the leaves of brambles, and the flowers 

 of heath and broom. He eats with slowness, and ruminates with some considerable effort, in consequence 

 of the distance between the first stomach and the mouth. In March, generally, he sheds his antlers, 

 which are not completely renewed till August. He will live to between thirty and forty years of age, and 

 was formerly, amidst the other vulgar errors of antiquity, supposed capable of attaining most extra- 

 ordinary duration. The stag is supposed to have been introduced from France into England, where he 

 has latterly been made to give way to the fallow deer, an animal more gentle in its manners, and more 

 valuable as food. In some parts of Scotland he is yet to be found in his original wild state. A stag of 

 five years old is, in hunting, termed a hart ; the female, hinds ; and the young, fawns. 



7371. The roe (C. Caprfeolus L.,fig. 912. b) is the smallest of the deer tribes which are natives of F.urope: 

 it is generally of a reddish brown colour ; graceful, sprightly, and courageous, particularly cleanly, and 

 delighting in dry and mountainous situations : it leaves a strong scent behind it, but possesses such arts of 

 defence, that by various doublings and intermixtures of past with present emanations from its body it 

 frequently baffles the most experienced dogs, and remains in a state of security, while the full pack passes 

 almost close by its retreat, distinguishing it neither by sight nor smell. It differs from the stag in the con- 

 stancy of its attachment, and the parents and their young constitute a family, never associating with 

 strangers : two fawns are generally produced by the female at a birth, one of each sex, which, living 

 together, form a mutual and invincible attachment. When a new family is to be nursed, the former is 

 driven off to provide for itself, but returns again after a certain interval to the mother, whose former 

 affection is restored : a final separation speedily takes place, however, soon after this return, between the 

 fawns of the season preceding the last and their dam ; and the former remove to a distance, constituting 

 a distinct establishment, and rearing an offspring of their own. When the female is about to bring forth, 

 she secludes herself in some remote recess of the forest, from which she returns at the end of about ten 

 days with her fawns, just able slowly and weakly to follow her steps : in cases of danger she hides them 

 in a place deemed by her most secure from the enemy, and attracts the attention of the latter from them 

 to herself; happy, by her own perils or even destruction, to effect the security of her offspring. In winter, 

 these animals feed on brambles, broom, heath, and catkins ; and in spring they eat the young wood and 

 leaves of almost every species of tree, and are said to be so affected, as it were with intoxication, by the fer- 

 mentation of this food in their stomachs, that they will approach men and other enemies (whom they 

 generally shun with great care) without apprehension or suspicion. The flesh of these animals is excel- 

 lent, though after two years of age that of the males is ill-flavoured and tough. The roe exists now in no 

 part of Ireland, and, in Great Britain, only in a few districts of the Highlands. 



7372. Thefaliow deer {C. Dama L.,fig. 912. c) is in general much smaller than the stag ; but in Spain is 

 nearly equally large. In France and Germany it is rarely to be found, and it has never been known to 

 have existed in America. It has the elegance of the stag, connected with a much more tractable dispo- 

 sition. It sheds its antlers, which, as in the stag species, are peculiar to the male, every year ; is stated to 

 live to the age of twenty years, and arrives at its maturity in three ; it is by no means fastidious in its 

 food. 



7373. Deer husbandry. The author of the Agricultural Survey of the County qf Hertford observes, 

 that, " the Earl of Clarendon, justly considering that there is no more impropriety in converting one ani- 

 mal to profit than another, makes deer an object of husbandry. As soon as the rutting season is over, or 

 usually about the 10th of November, his lordship selects from the herd the weak ones, some of which 

 would probably die in the winter, and keeps them in a small yard that has a shed on one side, and a net 

 over the whole against pigeons, &c. ; the spot very warm, and well sheltered. Their antlers are imme- 

 diately sawn off, the place is well littered, and they are fed at a very small expense on pea-straw, hay, &c. 

 warmth making up for the want of better food. At times, during the winter, they have clover-hay cut 

 into chaff, and if they do not eat it well, a little salt is added. They have always plenty of water, and are 



