C 237 ) 
MISCELLANEOUS COMMUNICATIONS AND NOTICES. 
I. — Stall Feeding. — Some Experiments carried on in the Farm- 
Yard at Belmont, in Cheshire, in the Winter 1844- 1 845. By 
James H. Lkigh. 
At the request of several of mj- friends I have been induced to send the 
following experiments to the Jounial of the Royal Agricultural Society, 
not as containing anything new, but in the hopes of giving some encou- 
ragement to my brother farmers to try fresh experiments, and to show 
that stall-feeding may be carried on at a much lighter expense tlian is 
usuallv supposed. No credit is due to me for the selection of the beasts 
— many were turned off dairy cows, which, not being in calf, were use- 
less there ; the Scots were the remainder of a lot from which I had been 
killing all the summer and autumn ; and the Welsh bullocks I bought 
when shooting in Wales early in September last. The Durham bullocks 
were a very fine set of beasts, four and five years old, and purchased in 
May; but I had scarcely got ihem home before they were attacked with 
the murrain, which they got w ell through, although it impeded their pro- 
gress at grass. They would have paid me well to have kept two or three 
weeks longer, but the case of pleuropneumonia occurring, frightened me, 
and I sold as soon as I could get the requisite notices prepared. The 
butchers were satisfied with their bargains; and, to use their own ex- 
pressions, they said " they died well." The cows would have consumed 
much more hay if it had been given to them ; but I do not think it would 
have been of advantage, as they would have left their cut stuff, or only 
picked the oil-cake out of it. The bullocks were perfectly satisfied, and 
upon the whole did well, the last lot particularly, as well as the heifers 
— the only complaint being that the butchers said they had given full Qd. 
a pound. 
On the 11th of November, 1844, I commenced feeding the first lot of 
beasts in the stalls regularly, having had them put up at night for ten 
or twelve days previously ; they consisted of eighteen Durham bullocks 
four and five years old, and ten cows of the short-horn breed which were 
barren and turned off from my dairy stock. I had them weighed on the 
above-mentioned dav, and each succeeding ^londav, until the day of 
sale. (See Table, No. 1.) 
They were fed four times in a day in the manner following :— The 
first thing in a morning cut oat-straw, with oil-cake and barley-meal ; 
and again at noon w rth the same food ; at two o'clock 20 lbs. of Swedish 
turnips ; and at night the morning feed was repeated, and about 2 lbs. 
of hay in the rack. They were turned out to water every morning about 
eleven o'clock. I purchased the oil-cake in Liverpool at 8/. the ton. 
The barley-meal cost me as near as possible, with expenses, Id. per lb. 
The turnips, hay, and oat-straw were grown on my own farm ; I there- 
fore estimate the cost at the average selling price in the neighbourhood. 
II 
