302 THE COMPLETE FARMER 



thus be improved : and grass seeds should be sown upon the 

 burnt spots, that no part may be vacant of grass. 



Sheep, calves, and horses, unless they are worked, it is 

 said, require no water in their pastures. The want of water 

 induces them to feed in the night, when the dew is on and 

 the grass the more nutritious. Cows however want pure 

 water. 



In pastures which are on side-hills, water may generally 

 be obtained by digging horizontally into the side of the hill, 

 till it is found, and then carrying it out with a pipe. — 

 Deane. 



' We learn from English writers on agriculture, that three 

 modes have been adopted in Great Britain for consuming 

 clover and other herbage plants by pasturing. These are 

 tethering, or fastening the feeding animal to a stake, hurd- 

 ling, and free pasturage. In the Agricultural Report of 

 Aberdeenshire, it is stated that there are some cases in which 

 the plan of tethering can be practised with more profit than 

 even soiling. In the neighborhood of Peterhead, for in- 

 stance, they tether milch cows on their grass fields, in a 

 regular and systematic method, moving each tether forward 

 in a straight line, not above one foot at a time, so as to pre- 

 vent the cows from treading on the grass that is to be eaten; 

 care being always taken to move the tether forward, like a 

 person cutting clover with a scythe, from one end of the field 

 to the other. In this way, a greater number of cows can be 

 kept on tbe same quantity of grass than by any other plan, 

 except where it grows high enough to be cut and given them 

 green in houses. In one instance, the system was carried to 

 great perfection by a gentleman who kept a few sheep upon 

 longer tethers, following the cows. Sometimes also he 

 tethered horses afterwards upon the same field, which pre- 

 vented any possible waste, for the tufts of grass produced by 

 the dung of one species of animal will be eaten by those of 

 another kind without reluctance. This mode was peculiarly 

 calculated for the cow-feeders in Peterhead; as from the 

 smallness of their holdings they could not keep servants to 

 cut or horses to carry home the grass to their houses, to be 

 consumed in a green state. 



' In hurdling off' clover or herbage crops, a portion of the 

 field is inclosed by hurdles, [movable wooden fences] in 

 which sheep are confined, and as the crop is consumed the 

 pen is changed to a fresh place, until the whole is fed off. 

 This practice is very extensively adopted at Holkham, [Eng.] 



