Vlll PREFACE. 



some readers. With respect to the figure of the Cow in 

 the Frontispiece, the County of Suffolk has been retained 

 inaccurately ; the figure of one differently bred having 

 been substituted at the request of her proprietor, who has 

 also noted an accidental omission in the account of Pea 

 fowls ; namely, of the number of days during which the 

 hen sits. Now, the writer never having bred any of that 

 fancy stock, he has lately made inquiry, and is informed 

 that the pea-hen, like the turkey, is confined a month by 

 incubation. 



Two objects of practice, an ancient novelty, and a pre- 

 sent or actual one, have been omitted in their proper place ; 

 malt combs or dust, as a food to increase milk in cows, 

 and the use of the sympliytum asperum, or prickly comfrey, 

 as a general cattle, horse, sheep, and pig food. Feeding 

 cows with malt-dust is a very ancient, though never a very 

 general practice ; and it will be seen, in the section on 

 cows, that Mr. Cramp allowed a very small quantity ; a 

 caution to which I should incline, from the great portion of 

 dust necessarily mixed with the combs. With regard to 

 the comfrey, from the nourishing quality usually attributed 

 to the root, I should suppose the whole plant to be of a 

 feeding nature ; though I have generally observed, that 

 where quantity is so superabundant, quality is seldom or 

 never, in any degree, commensurate. Mr. Grant of the 

 Nursery, Lewisham, Kent, appears to have been the intro- 

 ducer of this abundant and easily-cultivated article of 

 cattle food, where specimens may be seen and obtained ; 

 and also at Mr. Gibbs' Nursery, Brompton. 



May, 1830. 



