186 RURAL ECONOMY OF ENGLAND. 



to ventilation, and having the sheds thoroughly lighted 

 and clean, warm in winter, and cool in summer, protected 

 from variations in temperature, and from all that might 

 disturb or annoy the cows, which there live in a con- 

 stant state of ease and quiet very favourable to the 

 secretion of milk. 



The manure which accumulates in the trench is not 

 mixed with any kind of litter ; it has been thought much 

 more profitable to make the cattle eat the straw. This 

 manure is very rich, owing to the quantity of oily sub- 

 stances contained in the food of the animals, a portion of 

 which is not assimilated by digestion, notwithstanding all 

 the means used for that purpose. This manure is taken 

 out every three months, when required for use. In the 

 mean time, it is neither washed by rain nor dried by the 

 sun, as is too often the case with the manure-heap ex- 

 posed in the farmyards. A light sprinkling of earth or 

 other absorbent hinders or retards the disengagement of 

 ammonia, and its consequent dissipation in the atmo- 

 sphere. In entering these sheds, the absence of smell is 

 remarkable. The manure in this way preserves all the 

 fertilising elements which escape elsewhere and poison 

 the air, in place of fertilising the soil. Sometimes it is 

 employed in a solid state for cereals, sometimes diluted 

 with water, and applied in a liquid state to meadow- 

 land. 



Pigs, like oxen, are fed indoors, and upon perforated 

 flooring : their food is similar. Sheep alone are still fed 

 out of doors, but they also are immured as much as may 

 be. No bad effect upon the health of one or other has 

 yet been perceived from this strict confinement ; pro- 

 vided they enjoy constant pure air in their prison, and 

 have the necessary space to move about that is to say, 

 a yard square for a sheep or a pig, and two to three 



