26 



are all their animals kept up and fed in houses, but the mix- 

 ture called " vrassin' consists of the flour of nitrogenous 

 grain mixed together with roots; and there is little doubt 

 that the high price of meat in England, which has a less 

 population per square mile than the Netherlands, is in part 

 owing to one of the three sources of waste and loss indicated 

 by Professor Liebig. At all events, the value of nitrogenous 

 manures, the necessity of warmth to animals during the time 

 of feeding^ and the use of those vegetables which contain 

 nitrogen, must ever remain as fixed principles in Agriculture, 

 Without principles, says Cullen, deduced from analytical 

 reasoning, experience is a useless and blind guide. Move- 

 able sheds are now used for keeping sheep warm during feed- 

 ing, so that there shall be no loss to the land from the tread- 

 ing of these animals. Or, what is still preferable, one-third 

 to one-half of the turnips may be drawn off, and by giving 

 oil-cake or barley to the sheep which consume the other half 

 on the land, as good barley and seeds may be obtained as if 

 all the turnips had been eaten on the land. 



A severe loss frequently occurring to agriculturists is the 

 destruction of the red and white clover crop, the cultivation 

 of which is of so much importance, that every exertion 

 should be made to secure a full crop ; for upon its success 

 depends the number of sheep to be sustained during the sum- 

 mer, the quantity of fodder for horses in the winter, and the 

 ensuing corn crop is materially influenced by the weight of 

 the produce consumed on the land. There is, however; in 

 this climate no plant more difficult of culture in the early 

 periods of its growth, or which so frequently fails in its pro- 

 gress towards maturity, or of which by repetition the land is 

 said to be so soon tired. Upon the Magnesian Limestone 

 nearly one-half of the red clover sown, fails, (200 acres out 

 of 450). Upon the Chalk wolds of Yorkshire, owing to 

 frequent failures, many farmers have given over sowing red 

 clover, while the white clover is very often only half a crop ' 



