428 ECONOMY CF FARM ANIMALS. 



are, therefore, indispensable : it would be requisite to show, that a 



cow kept on a regimen abundant in point of quantity, but as poor as 

 possible in matters analogous to fat, will continue to maintain her 

 condition and yet yield milk abounding in cream ; and that it is 

 really possible, as some persons affirm, to fatten animals rapidly on 

 roots and tubers alone.* 



CHAPTER IX. 



OF THE ECONOMY OF THE ANIMALS ATTACHED TO A FARM 

 OF STOCK IN GENERAL, AND ITS RELATIONS WITH THE 

 PRODUCTION OF MANURE. 



Agricultural industry generally extends to the breeding and fat- 

 tening of cattle ; the breeding, or at all events the maintenance, of 

 horses ; the breeding and feeding of sheep and swine. The cir- 

 cumstances, indeed, in which the tiller of the ground sees himself 

 spared the necessity of attending to these matters, are rare excep- 

 tions to the general rule, and in fact only occur where it is easy to 

 obtain abundant supplies of manure from without, or in those few 

 favored spots where the fertility of the soil is such that it continues 

 to yield its increase without addition in the shape of manure. In 

 the vicinity of great centres of population, where dung can be bought 

 cheap, or of guano islands, where a cargo costs a trifle, and in some 

 tropical countries, large farming establishments may be found to- 

 tally without stock in the shape of sheep and horned cattle. But in 

 a general way the agriculturist is obliged to give himself up to the 

 care of flocks and herds of one description or another ; and, in fact, 

 we now know that there is a certain and very indispensable relation 

 to be maintained between the extent of surface under crop and the 

 number of cattle to be provided for, variable as regards farms dif- 

 ferently situated and circumstanced ; but invariable when circum- 

 stances are the same, and the system of management pursued is 

 similar in its principal features. 



The question as to whether the cultivation of grain or other use- 

 ful plants, or the rearing of cattle, is more profitable, which is often 

 agitated, must receive a diflferent solution in regard to each different 

 locality. In one place it may be more advantageous to breed cattle 

 or horses ; in another to rear or fatten them : here, the production 

 of milk, butter, and cheese, may be the best husbandry ; there, the 

 growth of hay, (as for miles round London on the north and west ;) 

 and again, wheat and the other cereal grasses may be the staples ot 



* Whoever would tr>' experiments in this direction, must be careful to mix his food; 

 one article alone never agrees. The Americans say, a pig will die upon ptmipkins and 

 upon apples alone • but he will live and fatten on a mixture of the two. I have my- 

 self seen scores of oxen fattened upon turnips, with a moderate allowance of straw or 

 bog-hay ; and have seen pigs get into admirable condition for the butcher op itUe mort 

 th%n potatoes.— Eno. £o. 



