276 
Farming of Havipshirc. 
iolium is also a favourite ; it comes early, and is followed by 
carrots in the same season, Durin<r August the carrots are 
thinned by hand-pullin<;, instead of hoeing, and thus furnish 12 
tons of food per acre. The main crop, when lifted, weighs from 
18 to 20 tons. 
Mr. Blundell's farm-buildings are well worthy of attention, 
though he has constructed nothing new. Finding here the usual 
old barn, with wooden walls and thatched roof, and sheds of the 
same construction, such as would be called in their original state 
anything but good, he did better than throw them down and 
rebuild : he adapted, at a very trifling expense, old premises to 
new circumstances. There is now no farmyard in the ordinary 
acceptation of the term, no cattle wandering about, no rough 
cows, no poor pigs. He considers a farmyard a bad place 
either for a manure store or for the random intercourse of 
cattle. The rain washes the ammonia away, sun dries it up, 
wind blows it off ; under any atmospheric circumstances it is 
lost. The cattle in summer are teased by flies, in winter 
they stand and shiver. To put 20 or 30 tons of straw into a 
yard, to turn a few cows and pigs over it, and then as soon as 
it is wet to cart it out, is held to be a wasteful system, how- 
ever common. How, then, are the cattle housed and the dung 
made ? All the corn is threshed and dressed by the rick-side 
with steam power, so the barn is not wanted : this, therefore, is 
converted into a feeding-house ; the rats are turned out and the 
cattle in ; the mows are excavated 2 feet, divided by moveable 
rails, the food is prepared on the floor, on which also the carts are 
backed, when the dung is hauled out straight from the pits to 
the field. Mr. Blundell considers no feeding-houses that could 
be constructed for cattle equal to a barn, where there is good 
height and ventilation. The bullocks are not tied up ; they are 
littered deep with straw, and from tlieir birth to their death there 
they stay. Whether growing or grazing, nothing can look better. 
I saw two fat heifers tliere, one 17, the other 24 months old, 
weighing respectively 30 and 40 score, and paying for their 
keep 3.S. 3fZ. per week throughout their lives. In the pre- 
paration of cattle-food there is as little trouble and expense as 
possible — no steaming, no cooking for any animals : the roots 
are simply sliced for the bullocks and pulped for the pigs. The 
horse-stables deserve also to be mentioned : they are free from 
all smell whatever. Under the horses are pits, filled up to the 
level of the floor with earth, which is trodden as hard as a stone, 
and upon this the usual litter. All urine is absorbed, for liquid 
will penetrate porous earth, however hard. The horses thrive 
excellently : their lives are said to be prolonged for three years; 
and unquestionably foul air is a fruitful source of disease and of 
