Poultry. Use of Oilcake. 133 



supply of bulls to cross with the Galloways. On such a 

 farm as Olifton-on-Bowmont, which is permeated by 

 small streams and shallow burns, ducks and geese may 

 be economically kept, as they find much food for them- 

 selves. Turkeys are also kept, as when there is much 

 grass they can find a considerable supply of food from 

 the grass seeds. So far as I have been able to observe, 

 the poultry yard does not receive the amount of attention 

 that may profitably be bestowed on it. I need hardly 

 say that I offer these remarks, not for the benefit of pro- 

 fessional farmers who have been brought up to the 

 business from their youth, but for those who wish to 

 take to farming as an agreeable and interesting occupa- 

 tion, and who prefer a healthy country life to occiipations 

 of other kinds, and more especially for landlords who 

 are, willingly or unwillingly, farming portions of their 

 property. Ifeither of the last-named classes, I may 

 repeat, should, in my opinion, farm on the same lines as 

 professional fanners. One of these, an agriculturist of 

 great practical experience, for instance, when he went 

 over my farm before the change to Cheviot ewes, said 

 that he would, had he had the farm, spend £500 a year 

 on oilcake, and that he was certain it would pay to do 

 so. Then, as regards the system on which the land 

 should be farmed, I find a great difference of opinion, 

 which shows how unsettled men's minds are as to what 

 should best be done to contend most successfully with 

 these varying times, when our agriculture is liable to be 

 influenced by such a number of distant countries, which 

 send us now much agricultural produce, and threaten to 

 send us even increasing quantities. The reader will 

 find in Appendix VI. the details of the system pursued 

 as regards the stocking of the Clifton-on-Bowmont 

 farm. 



Before bringing this chapter to a close, I think that it 

 is desirable to observe that there never was a time in 

 our history when the landed interests in our country 

 should be more carefully guarded, and every incentive 



