Farming of Oxfordshire, 
241 
should a farmer have no grass-land for his cows, he might 
venture to stall two or three during the summer, and steal for 
them and the calves a little grocn food from the well-supplied 
sheep. Though young stock afford less trouble Avhere there are 
plentv of meadows, on arable farms they need never be turned 
out till they are fit for the butcher. Should the farmer's heart 
fail when he contemplates the expenses of stall-feeding, he will 
find nothing more selling than a carefully selected lot of young 
stock. 
There are some agriculturists who manifest a great deal of 
judgment in the manufacture of their farmyard manure without 
going to any heavy expense in keeping oxen. The yard is well 
littered every morning with barley, oat, or bean straw, and from 
nine to twelve is occupied by ewes. When they leave, a lot of 
pigs, which have been confined in styes, are fed with roots or 
corn strewed over the ground, and of course the straw is then 
well rooted over. The dung from the stables and styes is care- 
fully spread, and by this means a very useful lot of manure is 
produced. When tlie manure is taken from tlie yard and laid in 
heaps, if not required for immediate use, the carts should pass 
over the heap, and the whole be covered with chalk, mould, 
road- scrapings, or some heavy material. On all clay soil, long 
unfermented dung is best, as then it acts mechanically as well as 
chemically. The power of such soils to absorb and retain manure 
having been fully proved, will dispel the natural apprehension 
that much of the goodness of - the autumn manuring is washed 
away By the winter rains. In the north of Oxfordshire the farm- 
yard manure is mostly applied for the root-crops, vetches, and 
beans. In the south principally for wheat. It would be better 
to dung for the preceding crops of beans and clover. By 
dressing the young seeds a larger amount of hay is produced, 
and the clover roots much enlarged, which will be sure to benefit 
the following wheat crop. 
Very often there is the common waste of liquid manure. The 
drainage from the yard first forms a pond, and then escapes to 
the nearest ditch. On many farms, especially where pigs are 
fed, the liquid manure is collected in tanks, and applied with 
great effect to the grass-grounds. In other cases the drainage 
flows over a little bit of pasture by the homestead ; but on many 
farms the liquid manure might be made with little trouble to 
irrigate a considerable piece of ground. A successful instance 
of this may be seen at Twelve Acre Farm, Eynsnam, where a 
Bickford meadow has recently been formed, and is watered by 
the drainage from the yards without the assistance of a stream or 
spring of water. 
It will be gleaned from what has been already stated that the 
