422 



THE SOUTHERN PLANTER. 



railways have been invented for conveying 

 manure to tne fields, and carrying back the 

 crops. Machines for mowing and tending hay, 

 reaping, and digging, are now under trial. 

 Some have even undertaken to plough by 

 steam, and do not despair of success. The 

 great desire at present is to find means for 

 turning up the soil to a depth hitherto unheard 

 ' of, in order to give greater vigour to the arable 

 bed. Everywhere mechanical genius is mak- 

 ing exertions to carry into agriculture th'e 

 wonders it has elsewhere realized. 



These new processes are only new applica- 

 tions of old principles ; but there is one which 

 is at variance with all habits, and which en- 

 counters more opposition. I have already re- 

 marked how much the pasturage of cattle was 

 held in repute by the English farmer. The 

 new school does away with this mode of feed- 

 ing, and introduces permanent stall-feeding 

 (stabulation.) But thi3 improved stabulation 

 differs as much from the imperfect system prac- 

 tised upon the Continent, as the cultivated pas- 

 ture differs from the coarser pastures of our poor 

 districts. , Nothing is bolder, more ingenious, 

 more characteristic of the spirit of enterprize 

 among the English than the present system of 

 stabulation, such as has been first practised in 

 clay districts by the inventors, and which tends 

 to extend itself everywhere. 



Suppose a cattle-house, thoroughly aired* 

 usually constructed of open planking, with 

 mats of straw, which are raised or lowered at 

 pleasure for the purpose of sheltering the ani- 

 mals, 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 pieived 

 Avith holes, to allow their evacuations to fall 

 into a trench below. Beside them is a stone 

 trough, with abundance of water ; and others 

 contain an unlimited quantity of food. This 

 food is sometimes composed of chopped roots, 

 bruised beans, crushed oilcake ; sometimes a 

 mixture of chopped hay and straw and bruised 

 barley ; the whole more or less boiled in large 

 boilers, heated by the steam-engine, and fer- 

 mented some hours in closed vats. This ex- 

 traordinary food, the appearance of , which 

 confounds 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 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 constant 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 cat- 

 tle eat the straw. This manure is very rich, 

 owing to the quantity of oily substances con- 

 tained in the food of the animals, a portion of 

 which is not assimilated by digestion, notwith- 

 standing 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, 

 at is too often the case with the manure-heap 

 exposed in the farm-yards. A light sprinkling 

 of earth or other absorbent hinders or retards 

 the disengagement of ammonia, and its conse- 

 quent dissipation in the atmosphere. In en- 

 tering these sheds, the absence of smell is re- 

 markable. The manure in this way preserves 

 all the fertilizing elements which escape else- 

 where and poison the air, in place of fertiliz- 

 ing 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 confine- 

 ment ; provided 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 yards 

 square for a bullock — it is said that they thrive 

 excellently. Exercise in the open air, hith- 

 erto considered necessary, is now looked upon 

 as a loss, which shows itself by a diminution 

 in weight. 



One cannot help feeling sorry to see these 

 poor animals, whose congeners still cover the 

 immense pastures of Great Britain, thus de- 

 prived of their liberty, and prevented from 

 moving about, and in thinking that the day 

 may perhaps come when all the English cattle 

 which now enjoy the green pastures will be 

 shut up in melancholy cloisters, which they 

 will leave only for the slaughter-house. These 

 manufactories of meat, milk, and manure, where 

 the living animal is absolutely treated as a ma- 

 chine, have something about them revolting, like 

 a butcher's stall ; and after a visit to one of these 

 stalled prisons, where the process of making 

 the staple food of the English is so grossly 

 carried on, one takes a loathing at meat for 

 several days. But the great voice of neces- 

 sity speaks out. Every energy must be 

 used to feed that population which unceas- 

 ingly multiplies, and whose wants increase in 

 a greater ratio than their numbers. The cost 

 of producing meat must be lowered as much 

 as possible, in order to obtain a profit with the 

 new scale of prices. 



Adieu, then, to the pastoral scenes of which 

 England was so proud, and which poetry and 

 painting vied with each other to celebrate 



