| 
44—1846.] 
THE AGRICULTURAL GAZETTE. 733 
is serviceable to the disease ; so we would recommend 
that the land be finely and deeply pulverised, and to 
delay the sowing until it is satisfactory under that head; 
and we feel confident that the most legitimate crop of 
Turnips is secured by having the land in a high state 
of cultivation, and not being too early with the sowing. 
“We have also had the soiling of cattle brought 
under our notice, but as there was no competition, and 
being only partially carried out, the award has not been 
made ; also in the stock of cattle, which although good, 
there being no competition, the premium has not been 
awarded on this occasion. We cannot dismiss the 
subject to which we have so often reverted without 
tendering our best wishes for the cause of agriculture 
in the district ; and that sound outlays of. improvement 
may be earried out, for the mutual good of landlord, 
tenant, and labourer ; and in every locality connected 
with it, whatever be the laws, whatever be the adverse 
visitation of crops, a good feeling may be kept up, for 
each to meet them in a legitimate manner.” 
Rebis, 
The Science and Practice of Agriculture, By Thomas 
Skilling, agriculturist to the Board of Education, &c. 
Dublin : J. M-Glashan, 21, D'Olier-street. 
A vmry sensible, practical, and useful little volume. Its 
object is the imp of Irish agriculture, and its 
author aims at this in’a manner very likely to he suc- 
cessful. 
After considering in the first few chapters of his 
work the history of Farm Cultivation in various times 
and places, he comes to the condition of the art in Ire- 
land at the present time ; and in a series of well-written 
chapters he points out the errors chargeable on the 
system as it at present stands. These are: the nume- 
rous ditches and embankments suffered to encumber 
the land—the not sufficiently draining and drying the 
land—the not trenching and deepening the soil—ex- 
hausting the land by a succession of erops—the not fol- 
lowing out a regular rotation of cropping— not cultiva- 
ing green crops—notkeepinga sufficient number of cattle 
—keepivg too many horses— the not collecting and ap- 
plying a sufficiency of manure—the suffering the land 
to be overrun with weeds—and lastly, as a climax to 
this calendar of bad farming, “ our ignorance, indoleuce, 
and other bad habits.” 
ell ! if Mr. Skillingshall succeed in correcting all these 
faults, his little book will certainly have worked wonders. 
And some of them it is well qualified to remedy ; its 
readers, for instance, cannot plead “ignorance” as an 
excuse for their mismanagement. 
As a specimen of the wayin which the work is drawn 
up, we give an extract on an important subject :— ` 
“ The Seventh Error—the not Keeping a Sufficient 
Number of Cattle.—This subject is intimately con- 
nected with the last. Green crops and cattle ought 
never to be separate, We have before alluded to the 
importance of these crops as the best source of manure, 
We shall now be a little more minute upon the subject. 
It has been fully ascertained that a cow well fed through 
the year in the house, with the assistance of a pig or 
two, the solid and liquid excrements being properly 
mixed and preserved, will make 25 tons of rich dung. 
But this quantity is sufficient to manure a statute acre 
of land for almost any erop. "Therefore, we estimate a 
cow to manure am acre. We shall presently show that 
the proper quantity of cattle on small farms where no 
horses ave kept, onght to be, a cow to every two British 
acres; and in such case, one-half of the farm may be 
manured every year from its own resources. This will, 
of course, soon bring it up, and keep it in the highest 
condition, Green cropping and house-feeding, there- 
fore, excels all other systems, so far as manuring and 
the condition of: the land is concerned. Next, as to 
actual and direct profit, we shall show that it is equally 
exeellent. ^ From very considerable experience and 
minute observation, we have ascertained that an ave- 
vage cow, well fed in the house during the year, summer 
and winter, will produce eight quarts of milk in the 
day; and we eannot be far astray in estimating the 
value of the milk at 2d. per quart, whether it be sold 
new. churned for butter, or made into cheese. Now, 
at this rate the cow’s produce in the year will be 
247, Gs. 8d. ; and this we call an average sum. But 
any milch cow, fairly fed, will be worth 1s. per day— 
18%. 5s: per year, This is what we consider the lowest 
estimate. We have heard of 407. per year; but these 
are exaggerated or extreme cases. There ean be no 
question, however, that an uncommon y good cow, un- 
commonly well fed, will yield an astonishing produce in 
the year, perhaps all that has been stated; but these 
can only be e instanees, The lowest sum we have 
mentioned may be made in’ almost every ease. ow, 
if a cobtier or labourer can keep a cow on an Irish acre 
of land, which has been fully proved, and suppose he 
pays for that and his cottage 57. annually, he can have 
no difficulty, by the sale of his overplus butter, to pay 
his rent ; then, with'the remaining produce of cow and 
field, with atleast one good pig in the year, he and his 
family may live very conifortably, if they can obtain 
any out-labour at-all, with fair wages. ' The additional 
advantages of a cow are to such a class a. blessing, 
rather than being confined to the uncertain day's work, 
andlow'and precarious wages. Butif the cow is worth 
is. per day, and if the man would only attend her and 
cultivate the acre, he“ would secure himself 7s. per 
week through the year. | Under these cireumstances we 
would ask; How could the condition of the labourin, 
classes, the poor eottiers, be improved so readily an 
at a fair rate, on which they may keep a cow anda pig ? 
and where will we find the extensive farm in Ireland, 
that there are not as many odds and ends, as many 
useless fences and waste about it as would give each of 
the necessary labourers this quantity without loss. 
“ But it will be said, If you do this, it will render 
them lazy and careless about further work; aud then 
there will be a want of labourers for the large farms. 
This very common assertion we would distinetly deny. 
We never brutalise a man by rendering him comfort- 
able and independent ; we give him more exalted ideas 
aud a desire to become more independent still. 
* But to return. to our subject. et us take more 
than an acre of land, and where more cows are kept 
—say eight statute acres—on which, according to our 
estimate, four cows ought to be, and we shall take the 
lowest estimated value of a cow, 18/. 5s. per year ; we 
get the sum of 737. Divide this by the number of acres, 
and we have 9/. 2s. 6d. per acre from the cows alone, 
—not to speak of the crops that may be sold from land 
in such high condition, as it must be, when so much 
manure is continually being added. We put it to any 
cultivator of grain crops, whether it be in his power to 
produce any such acreable sum over the whole farm, 
as the cows alone will do in this case, This estimate, 
will hold good with all small farms, where the proper 
quantity of cattle and no horses are kept. 
* [t may be necessary here to remark, that these 
estimates are not taken in a loose, ehancy, or incorrect 
manner; they are the results of experience and close 
observation during many years, in all of which time the 
produce and value were regularly noted down, under 
various eireumstances, change of soil, food, and cattle 
at all times house-fed. These accounts are still forth- 
coming, if required. Farmers will say, that even 187. 
is a large sum fora cow to make in the year. They 
think the thing incredible, because they have never 
experienced a well-fed cow or what she can produce. 
There is an essential difference between a cow milking 
about half the year, and another milking the whole year 
round. It is only the house-fed cow will stand to the 
pailthrough the year. When we speak of a cow to 
two British aeres, we mean that to be the proportion 
where no horses are kept; but on large iarms, where 
horses are necessary, or on any farm, the horses make 
an essential difference. As with regard to the stock of 
cows, every horse displaces two cows; and the ratio 
will then be as British to Irish measure; that is, on 
horse farms a cow to two Irish acres. 
“Besides their manure and milk, there is another 
source of emolument arising from the keep and judicious 
management of cattle. When the cow becomes old she 
can be fattened, or sold at calving, and some of her 
progeny may take her place. There ought to be on 
every well-regulated farm a rotation of cattle as well as 
a rotation of crops. No farmer ought to lay out money 
on the, purchase of cattle if he can at all avoid it. There 
ought to be, according to the size of the farm, a certain 
number of calves reared every year ; the same number 
one year old, two years old, and three years old ; the 
latter with calf, to take the place of the old cows dis- 
posed of, or to besent to market for sale. The bullocks 
for the plough and the stalls, Ifsuch judicious manage- 
ment be carried out, even in a small way, with the 
addition of what is raised by the pigs, it will form a very 
important item in the farmer's profits. This ought all 
to find its way to the savings’ bank to portion the 
daughters, or educate and advance the sons, The 
capability of keeping pigs will always depend upon the 
quantity of cattle ; as whey and buttermilk will always 
form an important portion of their food. 
“This great error—the want of cattle on the culti- 
vated land, and of house-feeding—is by no means con- 
fined to Ireland ; it prevails through the United King- 
dom, and perhaps the world, In the best cultivated 
distriets of England and Scotland there is a lamentable 
neglect on this head. The consequence is, the great 
poverty of the land, and the rage for foreign and ex- 
traneous manures ; but those farmers will yet find out 
the error of their ways, 
** As the entire success of the system we recommend 
depends upon the manner in which the cattle are fed, 
whether in the fields or in the house, and as great igno- 
rance and difference of opinion prevail upon the sub- 
ject, it may be necessary to offer a few remarks upon it 
here. Like most other matters of controversy, we find 
the party who knows least of the subject most perti- 
naeious, This is particularly the case with the farmers 
of the old school, on the subject of house-feeding. They 
have not tried it, and yet "they condemn it. Certain 
assertions, or what are termed arguments, have been 
advanced against house-feedin: ; but not a single fact 
to support them. It is only necessary to refer to. a few 
of these statements to show their absurdity. 
“<The house,’ say these sages, ‘is not the natural 
situation for cattle ; they ought to be in the open air, in 
the open fields.’ *It induces delicacy and want of 
health, and q y they must deteriorate in their 
milking and fattening properties ; and that, ‘young 
cattle reared in the house are never so hardy avd valu- 
able as stock reared in the fields? We shall take the first 
of these assertions: that a cow kept chiefly in the house 
is not in her natural state ; and we would ask, what the 
natural state of a cow is? and who has ever seen the 
phenomenon? The wild cattle in Chillingham-park are 
nof in their natural state ; they are confined in an inelo- 
sure, on a particular soil and pasture ; the only ap- 
proach to the natural state is, that they have cover and 
| shelter in the woods and plantations summer and 
Our farmers have been used to treat their 
cattle in a certain common way, and this they cali the 
natural state. By the pasture system they cannot re- 
main in the open fields during winter with any advan- 
tage or profit. They have, in the best situations, only 
four or five months in the summer good and abundant 
Grass in the fields; in the autumn it fails ; and they 
must be artificially fed in the winter, and housed. 
Even during the summer the immense majority of the 
cattle are badly fed ; confined on poor pasture ; tied 
perhaps by the horns or legs; fretting in a circle, in a 
half-starved. condition ; and in the winter and spring 
months, under the inclemency- of the weather on a 
bleak hill side, eagerly searching over the bare fields 
and ditch sides for a scanty bite of unwholesome Grass 
or weeds. Surely this can be nothing approaching to 
the natural state or inclinations of these animale. 
Where we would suppose cattle to be found in their 
natural state, is in the immense prairies of the American 
continent ; roving at pleasure amidst the most luxu- 
riant herbage, with the cover and shelter of the mag- 
nificent forests at all times and seasons. And we 
will maintain that cattle properly house-fed approach 
nearer to this state than our half-starved pasture stock; 
the former having always plenty of good food, and shel- 
ter from the cold in winter and the san in summer, 
The cow is an animal that requires very little exercise 
indeed ; her structure and formation proves that ; her 
better qualities will always be developed by food and rest. 
* We come to the next objection against house-feeding, 
‘that it produces delicacy and bad health. This is 
also a gratuitous assumption, which all experience and 
common observation negative. Of course, if an animal 
be delicate, it must be from want of health ; some dis- 
arrangement of the organic structure, which will imme- 
diately show itself by the loss of condition. But house- 
fed cattle, of all others, rapidly acquire aud show con- 
dition ; the accumulation of flesh, fat, and milk, if the 
animal is in the latter condition, goes on more rapidly 
in the house than in the field; and what but health 
could induce such a state of things! What an enor- 
mous quantity of flesh has been added to the eonsump- 
tion of the United Kingdom by house-feeding ! It is 
now admitted that a beast cannot be thoroughly fat- 
tened—finished off—on the best pasture withont bein, 
for atime fed in the house. The first-rate cattle that 
are annually exhibited at the Smithfield and other 
shows are all house-fed. If, therefore, house-feeding 
be ungrateful to the animals, and induces disease, how 
do these things come to pass? It is the badly fed and 
kept pasture cattle that are in low condition, delicate, 
and liable to disease. For one complaint that is brought 
jon and induced by house-feeding and high condition, ten 
arise from starvation and bad keep in the fields, 
“There is a very common opinion abroad, not only 
among farmers, but it has been promulgated by theo- 
retical writers, that a cow on pasture will give more 
mik and butter, and of better quality, than a cow house- 
fed. This idea, like the others, has arisen from igno- 
rance—the not knowing what a house fed cow can ac- 
tually, produce ; or estimating from cases where the 
cattle in the house were not properly treated. But 
there isan old saying, and a true one, that, * It is by the 
head the cow gives the milk ;’ or, in other words, her 
milking qualities will be in proportion to her food and 
treatment. A cow well fed in the house will do better 
than one badly fed out; and one well fed in the field 
will beat another badly fed inside. There are certain 
seasons when the feeding will be of very different quali- 
ties in respect of milk and butter. We believe there 
is no better food for producing these than the natural 
Grasses that spring up in dry ground in the months of 
May, June, July, and August. A cow pasturing upon 
these, and during this time, will beat a cow fed in the 
house on a worse description of food ; but let the same 
description of Grass be cut and given to the cow inside, 
she will milk equally well." The cow, well fed on pas- 
ture, may run a-head of the cow inside during the 
summer months, but in the autumn and winter the 
latter will catch and distance her competitor. S 
* With regard to another opinion, that * young cattle. 
reared in the house are never so hardy or valuable as 
the same deseription reared and pastured in the fields." 
There is more ground for this opinion than for any of 
the others, though it is formed in misconception. The 
fact seems to be, that they are equally geod in their 
line. The house-reared cow is decidedly better for 
house-feeding afterwards, and more valuable than the 
cow reared at pasture; but by no means so useful or 
valuable if sent out to pasture, and on a worse descrip- 
tion of food than it has been used to. -It will go back, 
at least for a time, until it be inured to hardships, 
whereas the poorly fed young animal, if brought into 
the house, will thrive rapidly, on better food and treat- 
ment. It is on this principle that, in both the animal 
and vegetable creation, we bring animals or plants from 
a poor to a rich soil. We seldom succeed in an oppo- 
site course, The Connaught man brought to Hamp- 
shire, will thrive and swell out amazingly on the pud- 
ding and bacon ; but the Hampshire man in Connaught, 
will shrink and shrivel up on the Zwmpers.” 
Miscellaneous. 
Inslance “of Grass-land broken up.—Although the 
last party alluded to succeeded to his “heart's con- 
tent," the following is a more signal instance of that 
success which, with favourable seasons and opportunity, 
reward the activity and perseverance of intelligent men. 
This farmer has in the years 1844 and 1845 broken up 
more than 40 acres of very poor pasture land, situated 
