424 
Breaking up Grass-Land. 
It should be observed that the cost of breast-ploug-hing and 
burning, low as it is, need not be regarded as an extra expense, 
for the land received no horse-ploughing, which on this land may 
be valued at from 155. to '20*. per acre for each time of ploughing. 
The object in not horse-ploughing the land was the preservation 
of its solidity. On so very heavy a clay this may seem a hazardous 
omission, but the result proved it otherwise. 
It is evident that in this old grass-land there must have been 
a great abundance of vegetable fibre, or the land could not thus 
have been burnt for four years successively. Old arable-land 
would not contain enough vegetable matter, and could not be so 
treated. 
The burnt soil evidently acted as a manure ; and it is on this 
very farm that occurred a signal instance of the success of burnt 
soil, which was published by me in this Journal (vi. p. 477). 
I have heard of some cases in which burnt clay or mould have 
failed as a manure, but of many in which that manure has fully 
succeeded. 
Pusey, Nov. 29, 1848. 
XXII. — Manageynent of Cattle. Ey Hall W. Keary, of 
Longlands, Holkham, Norfolk. 
Prize Essay. 
The management of cattle in a country like England must 
always be a matter of importance, not only to the breeder and 
grazier, but to the community at large, for upon the successful 
breeding, rearing, and fattening of those animals the possibility of 
supplying our daily increasing population with animal food mainly 
depends. If we notice the scarcity of neat stock which undoubt- 
edlv exists in the kingdom at the present moment, it behoves us 
to turn our attention more deeply to this subject, and to endeavour 
to ascertain whether improvements in breed and modes of fattening 
may not assist in some measure to mitigate the evil of so serious 
a magnitude. It will be my object in the following pages to 
describe, as clearly as I can, the qualifications of our various 
breeds, and the several modes of management with which I am 
acquainted ; and, having had for some years an opportunity of 
observing the management of many difierent breeds of cattle in 
various districts of the kingdom, I hope I may not be thought pre- 
sumptuous in competing for the premium offered by the Society. 
1 purpose, in tlie first instance, to notice the three kinds of 
stock countenanced by the Society, viz., Short-horns, Herefords, 
and Devons, and will begin with the Short-horns, which have 
