124 
Fattening Cattle—-Agricultural Advancement. 
broadcast sown the same day; I have, therefore 
little doubt that l shall most probably have a 
standing crop of wheat in place of a lodged one, 
or at least not so soon lodged, and that I shall 
escape the root falling from the spring frost. It 
is well known that in England an instrument 
called the presser is used in light soils to firm 
the ground, and also that sheep are often pastur¬ 
ed or driven over it for that purpose. Another 
advantage of this plan of sowing is, that all 
trouble and time of harrowing is saved ; and if 
sudden rain comes on, the sowing is stopped at 
once, without the risk of being half drowned ; 
the ground is also much more cloddy in winter, 
thus affording shelter to the young plants, and 
an excellent cover for grass seeds, if sown in a 
dry, bleak, frosty morning, without harrowing, 
by the decomposition and falling down or moul¬ 
dering of the ground, as the day advances, and 
the effects of the sun are felt on it. My expe¬ 
riment extended over two fields, comprehending 
about twenty acres; and I harrowed part of the 
one field and I think the part unharrowed 
looks better than the harrowed : however, time 
will show which has succeeded best. I was 
thrice stopped by rain during the sowing, but 
as I said above, felt no inconvenience from it. I 
shall be happy to hear any observations from 
yourself or correspondents. Perhaps it is no 
novelty, the experiment I have made; but in 
this part of the country drilling of wheat in the 
common way, and sowing eight or nine drills 
at a time, and then harrowing, is common 
enough, and I frequently do it myself; but to 
drill it by ploughing down five or six inches, 
as I have described, has not been tried before, 
and most people thought it was so deep it might 
be long of appearing. Indeed, some thought 
it would never appear, but none were prepared 
for the more rapid vegetation than the broad¬ 
cast, nor for its keeping the start it took at first 
and which I impute entirely to the firm soil in 
which it was planted suiting the grain better 
than the loose. My drill machine is fixed be¬ 
tween the stilts of the plough, and one horse is 
sufficient, the same man ploughing and sowing, 
and no harrowing being required considerable j 
labour is saved. As to the crop, that cannot be 
determined till harvest, but I am satisfied with 
the experiment so far as it has gone .—London 
Farmers Mag. 
Fattening Cattle.— I found to fatten a 
pair of good oxen at Ville Auburn, would take 
forty-five cart-loads of raves and a ton of hay. 
When the raves were done they give ground 
corn, with water enough added to form a paste; 
this they leave four or five days to become sour, 
and then dilute it with water, thicken it with 
cut chaff’, and give it to the oxen thrice a day. 
At Bassie, the same. They assert that oxen 
like it better for being sour, and that it answers 
better in fattening them. They eat about a bushel 
a day, weighing twenty two-pounds, and never 
give this and liquor without chopped hay. 
The droves I met coming to Paris, to the 
amount of twelve or fifteen hundred, were with 
few exceptions very fat—fatter than oxen are 
commonly seen in England in the spring. I 
handled many scores of them, and found them 
well fatted. 
At Limogen the same process, but with the 
addition of a leaven to the paste, to quicken the 
fermentation and make it quite sour. At first 
the oxen will not drink it, but they are starved 
to it; they usually take it the second day, and 
after they have begun like it much, and never 
leave a drop. 
Between Brice and Cressenne they use maize, 
and to make them fatten sooner and better they 
give them every night, and sometimes in a morn¬ 
ing, a ball of pork-grease as large as an apple. 
It increases the appetite, and the beasts perfectly 
devour their food after it, and their coats become 
smooth and shining. All here give salt plenti¬ 
fully.— Pott's Cyclopadia. 
Agricultural Advancement. —The great 
auxiliary of the Flemish farmer is the urine 
tank, wherein are collected not only the urine 
of cows and horses, but also the draining of the 
dung-hills. The urine tanks are generally 
sunk below the level of the ground, and have 
the sides built of brick, and the bottom paved: 
they are of various dimensions, according to the 
number of cows and horses on the farm. Attach¬ 
ed to the distilleries where many beasts are con¬ 
stantly kept to consume the refusewash, ther’e 
are very large urine tanks of an oblong shape, 
divided by partitions into different chambers, so 
that the liquor may be of the proper age when 
it is used, which some farmers think ought to be 
six months. Each chamber is about eight feet 
square and six or eight feet deep: these are 
sometimes vaulted over, but frequently only co¬ 
vered with loose boards. As urine and the 
emptyings of privies are sold wholesale and re¬ 
tail, there are many large tanks near the rivers 
and canals, where the dealers have sometimes 
great quantities in store. Some of these consist 
of many square pits like tan-pits,bricked round, 
and the inside covered with cement, which pre¬ 
vents loss by filtration. There is generally in 
a corner of each pit a graduated scale by 
which the number of barrels, or tons of liquid 
in the tank may be ascertained by observing the 
height of the surface. These tanks are gene¬ 
rally filled by boat loads brought from the large 
towns; and when the season arrives for sowing, 
in spring and autumn, the farmers come with 
