674 



THE COMPLETE GRAZIER, 



BOOK VIII. 



a standard, 



cabbages may be thrown on one side to the young animals, while the 

 roots are given to the fattening or to the working cattle. 



In fig. 202 we give the plan and section of the cow-house or byre 

 adopted by Mr. Harvey at his celebrated farm near Glasgow, and 

 illustrated in a " Report oi the General Board of Health," from which 

 we take the drawing. 



Various modes are employed to secure cattle in their stalls, of 

 which the simplest are the following : To the partitions of the stalls 

 are fixed vertical rods or bars of iron, on each of which runs an iron 

 ring for attaching to the chain that passes round the neck of the 

 animal. The illustration (fig. 203) show two modes of fixing the rod to 

 the bars of the stall. When the common method of tying-up is 

 insufficient for the security of vicious beasts, another means must 

 be found. A fixed iron chain, by way of a halter, is fastened to 

 mortised into the front side of the manger and 

 the joist above. It is composed of two 

 parts : one of which has sixteen links, 

 and is two feet in length, measuring from 

 the staple ; the other, which contains 

 twenty -six links, measures about thirty- 

 nine inches, and serves as a collar. At 

 one end of this collar- chain there is a 

 ring, about an inch in diameter, and, at 

 the opposite extremity, a key three or 

 four inches in length, and having a hole 

 at its centre, by which it is joined to, 

 and freely plays in, the last link. The 

 first chain, which by one end is fixed to 

 the manger, is by the other connected 

 with a middle link of the collar-chain, 

 and thus forms two arms, which, being 

 thrown round the neck of . the beast, and 

 the key being thrust through the ring, 

 and placed on a bar across it, makes 

 a very secure fastening. 



Chains are objected to by many feeders, 

 because, in case of fire, it is impossible 



to free the animals, which hang back in their fright ; while, when 

 stout hempen ties are used, a man can pass along rapidly and free 

 the cattle with a single stroke of a knife. In box-feeding, the animals 

 are not fastened up at all, but remain loose, so that by tramping 

 about they may thoroughly mix and compress the manure. 



Cattle Boxes. As box-feeding is now pretty generally admitted to 

 be one of the best modes of deriving profit from cattle, we must not, in 

 our enumeration of farm-buildings, omit the requisite compartments 

 for carrying it on successfully. The boxes should be about nine or 

 ten feet square, and six feet in height, and divided one from another 

 by a brick wall to the height of two feet, and above by strong rails 

 about eighteen inches apart ; at the back should be a movable trough 



Fig. 203. 



a a, the travis or stall di- 

 vision, b b, an aperture cut in 

 the same, in the centre of which 

 an iron-bar, c c, is secured ; up 

 and down this har the cattle- 

 chain-ring, d, slides. 



In the other plan the bar 

 e e has bent ends, ff, so that it 

 projects from the surface of the 

 travis a a, the cattle chain- 

 ring sliding up and down the 

 bar e e. 



