280 
The Agriculture of Staffordshire. 
5 to 6 P.Ji. Racked up with long straw for the night. 
In winter the cows are milked at 6.30 A.M. and 5.30 P.M. 
The " mixture " consists of cut straw, pulped roots, grains, and 
pressed yeast, mixed together in a damp state, and fermented in 
a heap ; it improves up to about 20 hours, after which it would 
become too dry from excessive heat and consequent evaporation. 
As the winter advances, and the cows get nearer calving and 
require more support, the quality of the " mixture " is improved. 
The whole herd of 130 head, when first tied up entlrelj^, eat daily, 
per head, 2 bushels of straw-chaff, 13 lbs. of roots, 15 lbs. of grains, 
and 1\ lb. of yeast ; in spring, ground oats, Indian corn, or rice 
meal takes the place of grains, the supply of which falls off as 
the brewing season at Burton comes to a close, towards the end 
of March. The food is improved so as to ensure having the cow 
in good condition, and therefore in good profit, at the time of 
calving. Hay is always given, instead of straw, three weeks 
previously. 
All sweet wheat-straw, not required for bedding, is cut into 
chaff; the two fodderings of uncut straw, given to promote 
digestion and chewing of the cud, are of oat and barley straw or 
pea haulm. 
Calves are never allowed to suck ; they have new milk, and 
nothing else, for three or four weeks. The quality is then re- 
duced, and wheat-flour, gruel, and dissolved linseed -cake are 
added ; the milk is reduced up to six or seven weeks old, when 
it is discontinued entirely ; the wheat and linseed porridge is 
given till about nine or ten weeks old, according to size and 
strength, and the calf then finds its own living in the best pas- 
tures, without help. Calves dropped in February are turned into 
small enclosures in April with a shed to run into, an indulgence 
which lasts only a few weeks. The young animals are removed 
into yards in good time in autumn, by the end of October, in 
average seasons. If allowed to continue in the pastures too long, 
they are exceedingly liable to " black leg," an inflammatory 
affection which attacks the strongest and most growing calves, 
and is locally called " speed," from the rapidity of the attack and 
its fatal result, within 24 hours. During the first winter the 
calves get 1 lb. of linseed-cake daily, in addition to the mixture ; 
a little salt is added as a preventive of the fatal malady referred 
to, with an occasional dose of 1 oz. of saltpetre, black antimony, 
resin, and sulphur, mixed in equal proportions. The mixture is 
made rather better for the calves than for cows ; they get two 
fodderings of oat-straw a day, and this diet is continued till the 
pastures are ready in May. The second winter they have three 
fodderings of straw and a mixture rather inferior to that of the 
milking-covvs. The third winter, being in calf, they are fed 
