452 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK in. 



To obviate this, their range should be limited, and where the enclosures 

 are large, they should, if possible, be divided up by hurdles, by which 

 means also the grass will be less trampled, and the cattle will have the 

 advantage of fresh pasture. As some horses will eat greedily when first 

 turned on to fresh pastures so greedily as to bring on indigestion, and 

 even to cause death it is advisable to gradually accustom them to green 

 food for some days before turning them out. 



The second method is customary on arable farms ; and, when pro- 

 perly conducted, is a most advantageous mode of disposing of green 

 crops not intended for hay. The horses are, however, too commonly 

 turned on the land to graze, and thus destroy a great deal more food 

 than they consume. Some farmers, indeed, argue that the vegetable 

 matter thus trodden into the soil, saturated with dung and urine, forms 

 a complete coat of manure without the labour of spreading ; but they 

 forget the advantage that would be derived from feeding double the 

 number of stock, and the return to the land of double the quantity of 

 dung. It is, in fact, a slovenly and wasteful practice, that cannot be too 

 much reprobated ; and it admits of less excuse, as it can be avoided by 

 hurdling off the quantity intended to be used each day, and giving it 

 cut, in cribs, or even on the ground. 



The third method is a more economical practice, so far as regards 

 consumption, than if the food were given cut in the field, but it is 

 attended with the expense of cartage to the homestead ; it is far 

 more profitable in respect of manure, for the fertilising properties of 

 the dung and urine, when these are dropped in detached portions upon 

 the land, are liable to become dissipated by the sun, whereas if dropped 

 on straw or litter they create a valuable manure and an abundance of it. 

 Horses also are more in readiness for their labour when kept in the 

 farm-yard than in the field ; they are cooler when under shelter, and are 

 less exposed to the annoyance of flies, than when abroad in hot weather. 

 The purer air of the fields is no doubt much better for the health of all 

 cattle, and they are found to feed better in the open air than when con- 

 fined ; but the superiority of the above mode, in regard to manure, is 

 incontestable. The only way, perhaps, in which soiling in the field 

 can, in that view, bear a comparison with it, is when the land under the 

 green crop is intended to be immediately ploughed and sown ; as, for 

 instance, when turnips follow tares, in which case, if there is sufficient 

 stock to eat off a large quantity at once, it may be advisable to feed 

 them on the ground, and plough the manure under, before its value is 

 exhausted. 



Experience has demonstrated the advantage of crushing and bruising 

 grain, and even of grinding it, and cutting or chopping fodder ; these 

 processes facilitate digestion by bringing the nutritious portions of 

 the food more completely in contact with the stomach, and thus 

 enabling them to pass with greater ease into the system and afford the 

 animal more sustenance, while to the farmer they are the means of 

 effecting a considerable saving considerable, if we only regard tbp 

 actual amount of hay, straw, &c., which is wasted when these ingredients 

 are given in their natural state ; considerable, if we look at the quantity 



