346 On increasing our Supplies of Animal Food. 



the deduction on account of labour is so small, and the gross pro- 

 duce so considerable, that neither landlord nor farmer has any 

 interest in breaking them up. Land yielding 12 or 15 tons of 

 green food per acre yearly without any labour but that of repair- 

 ing the fences which divide it, destroying the docks and the 

 thistles which invade it, and supplying manure to maintain it, is 

 producing more at less expense than perhaps it could do in any 

 other condition. It is not in such cases as this, then, that our 

 comparison must be made : there is much poor pasturage in the 

 country, which lies nevertheless under a climate proper for arable 

 farming ; and it is about this that the question obtains. 



There is no doubt that over much of this which, though 

 drained, would not yield 30 tons of green food per acre in four 

 years, an equal quantity might, if it were properly cultivated, be 

 obtained in turnips and clover, with probably 2 tons of straw and 

 60 or 70 bushels of grain in the same time. Grass is probably 

 more nourishing per ton than turnips ; but when the one is con- 

 sumed in all weathers by unsheltered animals, and the other in 

 well-bedded houses, it maybe doubted whether the resultant pro- 

 duce of meat may not be about the same in either case — with a 

 clear balance of course of so much grain as food for man in favour 

 of arable culture. But this matter requires a detailed estimate,, 

 and this 1 shall endeavour to give, merely premising that the 

 above figures are not given without reason ; as on the farm I 

 write from, three quarters of which were formerly grass, a stock 

 of about 40 head of oxen fattening to 60 or 70 stones, and be- 

 tween 200 and 300 sheep fattening to 24 lbs. a quarter, 

 with 50 or 60 pigs, are now kept during winter, and about half 

 those numbers during summer, where formerly a herd of 25 cows 

 and about 20 yearling and 2 year-old heifers, with a few pigs, 

 were maintained in store condition; while, in addition to the 

 above, the land now permits an annual sale off it of about 4000 

 bushels of wheat. 



Grass-land worth 30s. per acre of annual rent may be supposed 

 to yield 8 tons of grass per acre per annum : and this may be believed 

 able, by careful consumption, to produce 9 imperial stones of beef : 

 or at 6<f. per lb. a money value per acre of 18/. 18s. in six years. 



The same land, broken up, would under good management, 

 yield during — 



The 1st year 25 cwt. of wheat straw 



2nd 24 tons of mangold wurzel 



3rd 25 cwt. of wheat straw 



4th 18 tons of Swedish turnips 



5th 20 cwt. of barley straw 



6th 10 tons of clover 

 Or 52 tons of green food, and 3£ tons of litter, in six years, beside the 

 produce of grain. 



