HIGH FARMING. 185 



already remarked how much the pasturage of cattle was 

 held in repute by the English farmer. The new school 

 does away with this mode of feeding, and introduces 

 permanent stall-feeding (stabulation). But this improved 

 stabulation differs as much from the imperfect system 

 practised upon the Continent, as the cultivated pasture 

 differs from the coarser pastures of our poor districts. 

 Nothing is bolder, more ingenious, more characteristic of 

 the spirit of enterprise among the English than the pre- 

 sent system of stabulation, such as has been first prac- 

 tised in clay districts by the inventors, and which tends 

 to extend itself everywhere. 



Suppose a cattle-house, thoroughly aired,, usually con- 

 structed of open planking, with mats of straw, which are 

 raised or lowered at pleasure for the purpose of sheltering 

 the animals, in case of need, from the wind, sun, or rain. 

 The cattle, usually of the short-horned Durham breed, are 

 there shut up loose in boxes, where they remain till ready 

 for the shambles. The flooring under them is pierced 

 with holes, to allow their evacuations to fall into a 

 trench below. Beside them is a stone trough, with abun- 

 dance of water ; and others contain an unlimited quantity 

 of food. This food is sometimes composed of chopped 

 roots, bruised beans, crushed oilcake ; sometimes a mix- 

 ture of chopped hay and straw and bruised barley ; the 

 whole more or less boiled in large boilers, heated by the 

 steam-engine, and fermented some hours in closed vats. 

 This extraordinary food, the appearance of which con- 

 founds a French agriculturist, fattens the cattle with great 

 rapidity. Milch cows even may be submitted to this 

 seclusion. Examples of this stall-feeding are found even 

 in the counties most renowned for their dairies, those of 

 Cheshire and Gloucestershire. The animals are there 

 fed on green meat, and the strictest attention is paid 



