158 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK i. 



tion in order to augment or diminish the proportions of some of these 

 classes of animals at certain periods of the year, otherwise a part of 

 the produce will run to waste. 



On this it is, however, to be observed, that where a great variety of 

 animals are allowed to go at large in the same pasture, they rarely feed 

 with that quietness that is necessary to ensure their thriving. One 

 class, or description of beasts, is inclined to feed or to pla}% while 

 others are mostly at rest ; and thus they mutually tease and disturb each 

 other, and this inconvenience is materially augmented, if any kind of 

 penning, or confinement, is attempted. Hence, also, it is obvious that 

 the practice of intermixing various kinds of live stock is productive of 

 evils that are, in many instances, greater than those resulting from the 

 waste of food intended to be prevented. There is, indeed, no doubt 

 that by heavy stocking the grass will be kept short, and will conse- 

 quently be more palatable to the animals that feed on it than if it were 

 allowed to grow to a considerable length ; but as animals that are to be 

 fattened must not only have sweet food, but also an abundant quantity, 

 it seems scarcely possible to unite both these advantages with an indis- 

 criminate mixture of stock ; it may, therefore, be generally prudent to 

 confine the practice to neat cattle and sheep. 



Much depends on whether the farmer is able to eat down his pastures 

 tolerably bare in late autumn or earty winter by store stock. If he is, 

 it is an advantage to have a lot of grass left on the pastures when the 

 fat stock are sold off. If he is not, it is better, as the writer has good 

 reason to know, to stock rather heavily with fattening cattle, and sup- 

 plement the grass with cake. In this way, indeed, the pastures improve 

 year after year, and will carry more cattle. 



The following remarks by a " Practical Farmer," in the pages of the 

 " Mark Lane Express," will be useful : 



" There is no department of a farmer's business that requires so 

 much of his attention and matured judgment as the management of his 

 stock. The anxieties of the winter are now over, and the adaptation 

 of his stock to their pastures now claims his chief care. This is a 

 question of no ordinary course. The state and condition of his stock, 

 and the nature, fertility, and fruitfulness of his pastures, are alike 

 equally requiring his notice. These must be in a state to suit each 

 other. The condition of the stock to be depastured upon them must 

 be in accordance with the ' strength ' and richness of the pasture. To 

 ' lay on ' stock in poor or weak condition upon a rich or strong pasture, 

 is certainly a very dangerous course, if not a destructive one. Good 

 land must be stocked with good animals, or at least animals in a safe 

 and healthy state. Poor or lean stock may thrive on rich soils, if not 

 too abruptly put upon them, or on fast-growing fruitful pasturage, 

 should a favourable season produce such on a poor soil. 



" The art or science of grazing is no simple one, let the querulous 

 and the despiser say what they may. The politician has the cares of 

 government upon him ; the banker, his issues, his notes, and his drafts ; 

 the merchant, his goods, his trade, and his credit ; the manufacturer, 

 his material, his orders, his patterns, his fabrics, and his workmen ; 



