Breeding, Rearing, and Feeding Horses, Cattle, and Sheep. 27 
1 'f labour is high where rapid rotation of cropping is in practice, and such a 
system is also very exhaustive of the soil. I should, therefore, strongly 
recommend an increased cultivation of roots, as well as of grass and hay, and 
at least one grain-crop fewer in the rotation. I would also advise more stall- 
(ir box-feeding of cattle in summer as well as in winter, supplying corn and 
cake as auxiliary food. This would insure a much larger quantity of better 
manufe than is usually obtained, which, if returned to the land without waste, 
would produce larger crojjs thau now, at much less expense. The question of 
litter is an importiint one, but there are many ways of getting over this diffi- 
culty, such as by special construction of stalls, and the use of various absorb- 
ents as bedding. In any case, the manure thus made in summer would be 
tenfold more valuable than if dropped by the animals while grazing in the 
tield ; and the increased weight of crops that must follow would again enable 
the farmer to keep an increased number of stock, and in this way large and 
increasing returns from the farm would be obtained, until a very satisfactory 
maximum would be anived at. 
On many farms neither buildings nor fences are suitable for rearing horses. 
Stone dykes or thorn-hedges only are suitable as fences where a number of 
young colts are grazed together ; and during winter they must have suitable 
yards or boxes. Strong cold-bottomed soils, with plenty of shelter and good 
water, are, I should say, essential for the rearing of useful and sound-constitu- 
tioned horses of whatever breed. And if these requirements, together with 
suitable housing in winter, are not within reach of the breeder, he had better 
leave breedmg alone, and purchase from those who have the advantages 
spoken of. 
Farmers occupying strong clay-soils, and following the four-course shift, 
must of necessity purchase wintering or store-cattle, as, after providing for 
a haystack, the working- stock of the farm and a few milk-cows will consume 
the balance of the grass crop. The six-course rotation, with three white crops, 
also necessitates the . buying of store-cattle, as the farm will at least winter 
twice the number it will summer, according to the now common practice of 
feeding stock. There are few farms that are not adapted for either outdoor 
or indoor feeding of stock. And whenever stock can be fed, present circum- 
stances strongly recommend that they should also be bred, and the rotation of 
cropping made as suitable as possible for so doing. 
There are hundreds of thousands of sheep bred annually on holdings that 
do not embrace a single acre suited for fattening, and must therefore be sold 
to those whose lands and crops are suited for feeding, but who could not 
themselves breed the same class of sheep at double the cost. 
The present state of markets, coupled with the present high cost of labour, 
no doubt encourages the breeding of horses of almost all breeds, because such 
could be done on farms largely under grass, and worked at greatly less ex- 
pense than where breeding and feeding of cattle and sheep are practised ; as 
in the latter case root-crops must be cultivated largely, thus necessitating 
regular rotation, and heavy outlays for labour and manures. 
No one would consider it safe for farmers generally to go largely into breed- 
ing of horses. The demand must remain a limited one, and any very great 
increase in the number bred would necessarily cause a ruinous reduction of 
price, and an immediate return to the safer and more universal practice of 
breeding cattle and sheep. Horses bred and reared on a farm will do better 
on that farm than those that have been purchased or reared elsewhere. Ac- 
cording to this, every farmer ought — if at all convenient — to breed and rear 
horses for his own requirements. But I would say that I know of no circum- 
stances that would warrant farmers generally in adopting the breeding of agricul- 
tm-al horses, hacks, or hunters, as likely to prove more profitable than the 
breeding and feeding of cattle and sheep. 
