Farming of Dorsetshire. 
411 
absorbents which are collected and protected from weather under 
the lengthened caves of the dung-roofs. About 40 or 50 beasts 
are fattened every year, being purchased in the fall, and fed upon 
swedes and oilcake, straw and bean-meal. The beasts are all tied 
up, standing upon floors of brick covered with cement. The 
swedes given them are cut into fine slices by Moody's turnip- 
cutter and intimately mixed with chaff, the meal and cake being 
strewed over this in a fine powder. During two seasons Mr. 
Huxtable tried the steaming of straw for his cattle, but found the 
practice injurious — the animals becoming relaxed, and the young 
stock becoming very delicate and doing ill when turned out to 
grass in the spring. Tlie process of steaming, however, it may 
be useful to dairymen to know, was found beneficial in the pro- 
duction of milk. The fatting sheep are now also tied ; they 
stand upon sparred floors through which the manure falls to be 
removed daily, the urine flowing towards the tank. Formerly 
the sheep were kept in boarded pens, as described in the Royal 
Agricultural Journal, vol. vi., but after some years' experience 
it has been found that the animals sicken when kept in this 
fashion, it is believed from the exhalations from the pit-manure 
beneath them. The present plan, which is Sir R. Simeon's of 
Swainster, Isle of Wight, has for four years been found successful. 
Mr. Huxtable employs the house only during the three or four 
months of the winter, as he finds that even fatting sheep do 
better upon the land. Oats are found to agree with the sheep 
better than oilcake, though of course the manure is not so 
valuable. The stock of sheep kept on this farm consist of a 
breeding flock of 300 ewes. The pen lambs are sold in their 
first year, and the old ewes are fattened. At the time of my 
visit there were 750 sheep on the farm. A great number of pigs 
are fattened. In summer they are kept in houses with boarded 
floors, with a small airing yard attached to each pen — a plan 
which is followed principally for the convenience of obtaining 
strawless dung, Avhich, being mixed with ashes, is used in the drill 
for turnips. From 900/. to 1000/. 'worth of pigs is sold off 
annually. 
The rotation is the five-field, the breadth of wheat having been 
gradually diminished to 52 acres, on account of the severe 
blights which have affected that crop, and which are ascribed to 
the elevation at which it is grown, as at the " West farm," 
three miles off", at an elevation of 350 feet only, wheat has been 
grown alternately for nine years with scarcely any blight, and 
with an annual yield averaging 8 to 9 sacks per acre. The best 
corn crop grown on the hill is oats. In chalking, the chalk 
beneath the soil has produced no benefit, but much has been 
derived from the chalk found 300 feet below the level of the 
