AGRICULTURE. 



cure ah adequate stock of winter main- 

 tenace. Whatever food is used for this 

 purpose besides hay, the latter is always 

 to be implied, and from seven to fourteen 

 pounds a day should always be allowed 

 to each beast. For hastening- the process 

 of fattening an ox, linseed cake has been 

 found superior to every other article. Its 

 price, however, of late years has been 

 more than proportional to this advantage. 

 Carrots complete their fattening with a 

 nearly equal degree of celerity ; and an 

 ox will eat a sixth part of his weight of 

 this root everyday; at which rate an ox 

 of sixty stone may be supported by the 

 produce of an acre of these roots for up- 

 wards of five months. Two beasts, of the 

 weight just mentioned, if half fat 

 when put to carrots, might become com- 

 pletely so by consuming the produce of 

 nn acre. Cabbages are but little inferior 

 for the purpose to carrots and oil cake. 

 An ox will eat of them nearly one fifth of 

 his weight. Turnips are the most common 

 description of winter food, but possess 

 not the same fattening quality with the 

 substances enumerated ; and, being a 

 crop susceptible of various injuries, are 

 much less to be relied on than many 

 others. Of these the consumption of 

 twenty -five ton is deemed necessary to 

 fatten a beast of about sixty stone. 



In consequence of eating succulent 

 plants, and particularly clover, beasts are 

 apt to swell greatly and very dangerous- 

 ly, in which case driving them about 

 with great rapidity is often practised with 

 success, though a still more effectual 

 method is, to stab them between the ribs 

 and hip bone, to the depth of about four 

 inches. A flexible tube has also been 

 frequently passed through the mouth into 

 the gullet, by which the air, which causes 

 this disease, is easily discharged. 



The practice of stall-feeding, or keep- 

 ingthe cattle in the house at every season 

 of the year, and feeding them, when prac- 

 ticable, with green food, where there is 

 abundant litter, is considered by excel- 

 lent judges as the best method of turning 

 to account the produce of the soil. Dou- 

 ble the usual quantity of manure also is 

 thus produced; and the annoyance of 

 the cattle in any great degree by flies 

 and insects is effectually precluded. This 

 plan has been long and extensively prac- 

 tised in Germany, and is making its wav 

 ,n England, under the encouragement of 

 :nany judicious agriculturists. Not only 

 may grass be thus employed for food 

 more profitably than in any other way, 

 'toiled roots mav be used with ex- 



treme advantage, with a view either to 

 maintain or to fatten cattle ; and, ridicu- 

 lous as the idea of this management for a 

 vast number of cattle and horses might at 

 first appear, it is found capable of being 

 performed with the aid of a steam engine, 

 by one superannuated attendant. The 

 roots may be permitted to retain their 

 original form, or may be mashed and con- 

 verted into thick soup, as is deemed most 

 eligible. 



Cleanness and temperate warmth in the 

 process of fattening beasts for human 

 food are of the utmost importance ; and 

 it has been philosophically remarked, that 

 analogy will lead ustoconclude, what ob- 

 servation justifies from fact, that whatever 

 tends to form in beasts a state of feeling, 

 unirritated by fear, vexation, or pain, 

 must tend to shorten the period necessary 

 for advancing them to their maturity of 

 size and excellence. 



Sheep. 



Towards the end of August, the annual 

 purchase of wether lambs, for an estate 

 on which regular flocks are not kept, ge- 

 nerally takes place. These are justly pre- 

 ferred for stock to all others. The new 

 Leicester have the advantage in compe- 

 tition with all the long-wooled breeds, and 

 the South Down with all those of short 

 or middling wools. For severe and moun- 

 tainous moors, the black-faced andcoarse- 

 wooled Scotch sheep are by far to be pre- 

 ferred, being able to sustain the most ri- 

 gorous weather, and to live on the most 

 scanty food. Instead of putting sheep, 

 after the above mentioned purchases, to 

 the highest feed, and pushing them to 

 perfect fattening, the better way is to 

 keep them tolerably well till March, and 

 to begin then to fatten them, by which me- 

 thod they will be fit for sale at a season of 

 more advanced price ; and upon this plan 

 the purchase money is, with good ma- 

 nagement, generally doubled, and the 

 fleece found an additional clear advantage. 

 Whatever be the nature of the stock, to- 

 wards the middle of May they should be 

 turned into their summer-grass, and, in 

 an inclosed farm, the division of the fields 

 into different parcels intended to be fed 

 is an object of great importance. It is 

 justly thought, that in large parcels they 

 do not thrive equally well as in small 

 ones, and the waste of food is considera- 

 bly greater. It will be found, that in 

 flocks of from ten to twenty the same farm 

 will keep considerably more than in one 

 flock. The number should be approprl- 



