486 



On Box-feeding loith Linseed Comjwunds. 



cannot be obtained from the land. Now, in the boxes not only is 

 the largest quantity of manure obtained, but the whole of it is 

 preserved, none runs to waste, none is lost ; and all that is required 

 to be done, is to scatter a little fresh litter from time to time as 

 the bedding becomes ^vet or soiled. The cattle move about in 

 the boxes, and tread and tramp the whole down into a solid mass, 

 so close and compact as to prevent fermentation ; and when 

 this solid mass of fertilizing material is removed, at the end 

 of every two or three months, as the case may be, if it were 

 immediately applied to the land, perhaps the greatest amount of 

 productive energy of which the land is susceptible would thereby 

 be imparted to it. 



But, with house-feeding in the usual way, the management is 

 and must be different. The cattle are tied up in stalls, having 

 no more room allowed than is necessary for enabling them to lie 

 down, and fresh litter is supplied every second or third day, the 

 whole of the old bedding being then removed and carried to the 

 manure-heap ; in doing which it is impossible to prevent loss, 

 especially of the finer and more valuable portions. Then, unless 

 the manure-heap be kept covered in some way, it will be washed 

 by rain, and will heat and throw off its more volatile particles, and 

 the fertilizing qualities of the manure will thereby be greatly 

 reduced. Indeed, it is essential in order to preserve it in its 

 most effective state, that all manure should be protected from rain, 

 and from the action of the atmosphere, until the time arrives for 

 its application to the land ; and when removed, it ought to be 

 deposited on dry mould, ashes, or other absorbent, to receive the 

 drainings vt^hich escape from the heap. 



As regards manure, therefore, the mode of management in 

 connexion with box-feeding, appears to be decidedly preferable to 

 that in use for feeding, in stalls^ and I believe the boxes will like- 

 wise be found preferable in most other respects. They have 

 answered exceedingly well wherever they have been tried ; and 

 as example is in general of more weight than precept, I give at 

 the end an instance of the results of box-feeding obtained from 

 Mr. Warnes, and which he permits me thus to use. 



A great man of the present day, who seems to possess the 

 faculty, intuitively as it were, of seeing the truth at a glance, 

 however deep in the well it may be immerged, remarked on a 

 late occasion :■ — " I have long been telling my people that they 

 depend too much upon the barn-floor ; they should attend less to 

 the barn-floor, and more to feeding stock.'' Now this is prac- 

 tically the substance of all that can be said on the subject ; and if 

 our farmers will take the advice, and rely less exclusively upon 

 the barn-floor, and look to other objects as well — especially to 

 cattle-feeding, without which the barn-floor will after all be but 



