20 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
ver eaten a bushel of grain. Last winter the yoke 
ate about 100 bushels of ruta baga. 
Respectfully your humble servant, 
J. Buei, Esq. URI TRACY. 
Rotary Pig Pasture. 
Jesse Buel, Esq.-Dear Sir,—The following is a 
description of a clover pasture for swine, which, in 
my opinion, where a situation is convenient for the 
same, with a warm soil, a portion of the farmers in¬ 
terest cannot be placed in a more profitable manner, 
than by having each successive year a fresh clover 
ley for his hogs. 
A, represents a 
field of grain of one 
acre or more, well 
stocked with clover. 
B, a field of the 
same size of corn 
or peas. 
D, a lane leading 
A, 
Wheat 
or 
rye. 
B, 
Peas 
or 
corn. 
c, 
Clover 
pasture. 
|> ' ’ 
r- '■ 
E 
D 
for 
hogs. 
C, a clover pasture 
from the hog-pen. 
The following year the lot A, will be the range for 
the hogs, and so on by a rotation of crops, the whole 
is constantly improving with the addition of the ma¬ 
nure from the piggery. New improvements in rota¬ 
tion I frequently hear of, such as stoves, steam-boilers, 
&c. their success has induced me to send you the 
above plan of a Rotary Hog Pasture. 
Yours respectfully. S. W. JEWETT. 
Weybridge , Vi. 20th Jan’y. 1838. 
EXTRACTS. 
Experiments in Feeding Sheep. 
[From the French of Daubenton .] 
I confined, in a small space, two sheep, about twen¬ 
ty inches high, (the height of most woolled animals in 
France.) By way of experiment I caused the sheep 
to be fed, during eight days, solely upon grass newly 
cut, and weighed before placed in their rack. Care 
was taken to pick up, and place in it back again, all 
that the sheep let fall, and to weigh that which they 
would not eat in consequence of its tying too tough, 
or because it possessed some bad quality. From this 
trial, frequently repeated, it appeared that a sheep of 
the middle stature eats about eight pounds of grass in 
a day. The same experiment, conducted with the 
same preciseness, in regard to the fodders of hay or 
straw, have proved, that a sheep of middling height 
likewise eats daily two pounds of hay, or two and a 
half pounds of straw. 
In order to ascertain how many pounds of grass go 
to one pound of hay, I caused the grass to be weigh¬ 
ed as soon as cut; it was theti spread on cloths ex¬ 
posed to the sun, so that none might be lost, though 
at the same time well dried. Being thus converted 
into hay, I found its weight reduced to one fourth; 
eight pounds of grass had only given two lbs. of hay.* 
Agriculturists know how many cart loads or trus¬ 
ses a field can produce ; consequently they can judge 
how many sheep it can maintain in hay or in grass. 
They have a rule thence for proportioning the number 
of their sheep to the quantity of pasture and fodder 
they can supply them with. 
Having determined the quantity of solid food essen¬ 
tial to the good regimen of the woolled kind, I made 
other experiments upon these animals, in order to 
know at what time they should drink. 
It is well known that they seldom drink when they 
feed upon fresh grass, but stand in want of water 
when fed on dry meal. Different opinions are pur¬ 
sued as to the proper time for watering them. In 
some countries they are taken to water once or twice 
every day; in others, not for one, two, three, four or 
even five days. By the following experiments I have 
endeavored to ascertain which of these regimens, so 
different from each other, is entitled to preference 
I shut up in a stable, in the depth of winter, asmal 
flock, of which all the sheep were marked with a num 
ber. They were kept, night and day, without being 
suffered to quit it, and fed with a mixture of straw 
and of hay, without any other aliment. Each day a 
shepherd carried in his arms, successfully, some sheep 
out of the stable, to let them drink in my presence, 
out of a vessel guaged at different heights, and then 
took them back into the stable, when they had either 
drank or refused to drink. 
By this method, I knew how much water the sheep 
had taken, when presented with it once, twice or 
thrice each day, or only once in two, three, four or 
five days. Most of the sheep in this little flock pass¬ 
ed a month in the stable without drinking: their ap¬ 
petite was always the same, and they experienced no 
other inconvenience than that of thirst, of which they 
gave evident proof by running to lick the moist lips of 
those carried back to the stable on return from drinking. 
The result of these experiments, which I cannot 
* The loss in curing hay depends upon the species oi grans, 
and the time at which it is cut. According to Sinclair's table, 
clover loses three fourths, timothy, when in flower, less than 
two thirds; and when cut in seed, but a little more titan one 
half.— Cond. Cult. 
tere detail, led me to conclude, that sheep, with no 
other nourishment than that of dry hay, and within 
reach of water, could pass days without drinking; 
3ut they would take a greater quantity of water the 
following day than if they had drank the evening be¬ 
fore ; this quantity increases to a certain degree if 
they have been deprived of water for many days to¬ 
gether. They are then tormented with thirst, for 
they are then eager to get a drop of water ; if they 
could find it in abundance they would drink too plen¬ 
tifully for their temperament, subject as they are to 
effusions of serosity, which produce mortal hydatides 
in the brain, and the rot, a disease no less fatal. 
The best plan is to drive the flock every day to the 
pond, and to make it pass slowly, without stopping 
there : by this method it will be found that the sheep 
who really want to drink will be the only ones who 
will drink. 
In countries w here water is scarce, it frequently 
lappens that, the pond is far distant, and the flock 
cannot be driven to it without being fatigued; in this 
case they may pass many days without drinking ; but 
when fed only on dry meal, it must not be delayed too 
’ong. 
This aliment differs much from fresh grass, in con¬ 
sequence of the loss of moisture by drying; yet sheep 
take daily the same quantity of solid food, whether in 
grass or in hay. In the experiments before mention¬ 
ed, I found their appetite perfectly equal, for they ate 
eight pounds of grass, or two corresponding pounds 
of hay, which I found to be the product of eight 
pounds of grass. The evaporation which is carried 
on during the making of the hay, takes off three 
fourths of the grass in fluid particles ; thus the sheep 
which eats two pounds of hay is deprived of six 
pounds of liquid aliment, which it would have had by 
eating eight pounds of grass. It supplies a part of 
this deficiency by drinking about three pounds of wa¬ 
ter when fed upon hay; but this water is not in suffi¬ 
cient quantity, and posssesses not the same quality, as 
the liquid of the grass evaporated in drying. 
There can be no doubt but this difference in regi¬ 
men is productive of bad effects. I shall mention 
some fruits of it, which are indeed too evident and 
too frequent. 
In countries where the snow remains upon the 
ground for one or two months, the cattle are reduced to 
dry fodder as long as it lasts ; then the weaker sheep, 
and chiefly the lambs, the sheep of the second year, 
the pregnant ewes, and those in milk, languish and 
drop off Shepherds denote this miserable state by 
saying, they melt their fat: |hey certainly grow very 
lean, and fall off in great numbers. 
I have often reflected upon the cause of this evil, 
and the means of preventing it. After having prose¬ 
cuted every inquiry I could think of, it appeared to me 
to arise solely from a change of diet too suddenly ef¬ 
fected. In one day the sheep are reduced from eight 
pounds of grass to two pounds of dry fodder and three 
pounds of water. They are thus deprived, therefore, 
all at once, of three-eights of their wonted nourish¬ 
ment, and these three-eights composed the half of the 
fluid part of it. 
According to my experience of the quantity of wa¬ 
ter taken by sheep, it appears that their drink can 
only supply one half of the liquid which grass con¬ 
tains more than hay. It would be dangerous to excite 
them to drink a greater quantity of water, because 
they are very subject to infiltrations. We must, there¬ 
fore, endeavor to 'supply them with at least a small 
quantity of fresh food every day, in order to correct 
the bad effects resulting from dry meat. 
The most sensible of these bad effects appears in 
the third stomach, composed in the interior of a great 
number of membraneous folds, detached from one 
another, although it is only from eight to ten inches 
in circumference when filled with air. During rumi¬ 
nation the food passes from the throat into this third 
stomach, and spreads among all the folds. I have 
there found it very frequently parched, and almost 
withered, in many sheep which I have dissected. 
This aliment, after having been ruminated, receives, 
in the third stomach of the sheep, and of other ani¬ 
mals that chew the cud, a preparation for digestion, 
which latter takes place only in the fourth stomach. 
The aliment is dry in the third stomach, not only when 
the animal is fed on dry meal, which has not furnished 
sufficient liquid, but also when attacked by some dis¬ 
ease causing too great heat, and consequently too great 
evaporation of the liquids necessary to digestion. In 
these cases, bad digestion, and the evils attending it, 
may be prevented by giving some green food at least 
once a day. 
At all times when the ground is not covered with 
snow, sheep find upon it sufficient fresh food to render 
it unnecessary to give them any in the rack with their 
dry meal, in a bad season. I have often stopped in 
the midst of a flock, in fields half covered with snow, 
when no grass whatever was to be seen ; the sheep, 
however, having their eyes near the ground, perceived 
the points of some leaves, and scratched with their 
feet to find more of the plant; they then seized it 
with their teeth, and sometimes pulled up the roots 
along with the leaves. But when the snow entirely 
covers the ground to a certain thickness, there is no 
other recourse than in the plants which are high 
enough to enable the sheep easily to remove the snow 
which covers them. 
[The writer then proceeds to recommend a species of 
hardy cabbage, which might be raised without sowing 
or transplanting, to be cultivated for the winter use of 
sheep. It is to be remarked, that when Daubenton 
wrote, neither the turnip nor beet culture had been in¬ 
troduced into French agriculture. The latter now fur¬ 
nishes them an abundant and an excellent succulent food 
f or the w in ter ke ep of sheep and other farm stock.] 
luneys 
received during the last month. 
lars not noticed. 
No Vols. 
23 
Md. 12 
Mass. 15 
Ky. 11 
Pa. 13 
Cl. 15 
Stans under Jive dol- 
Alfred, Alleg. 
Abingdon, 
Belleriea, 
Bardstown, 
Brownsville, 
Bristol, 
Bethany Cliureh, N.C. 7 
Bath, Steu. 
Bath, 
Brooklyn, 
Bethany, 
Bladensburgh, 
Buckingham, C.H. 
Brents ville, 
Chuckatuek, 
Canaan, 
Conneautville, 
Cortland Village, 
Coxsackie, Green 
Clarkson, 
Columbus, 
Centreville, 
Chestertown, 
Cheraw, 
Cleaveland, Osw 
Chelsea, 
Cooperstown, Ots. 
Catharines, Cht 
Dilworthstown, 
Elgin, 
Erwin, Steu. 
Edwardsburgh, 
East Fairfield, 
Eugene, 
E. Haddam, 
Frankfort, 
Farmington, 
Front Royal, Va. 5 
Goshen, Ora. 6 
Half Day, Illi. 8 
Haverstraw, Rock. 8 
Hughesville, Pa. 11 
Hillsdale, Col. 11 
Hadlyme, Ct. 12 
Hartford, Ct. 9 
Ives’ Store, Va. 11 
Jennings’ Ordinary, Va. 11 
Kirtland’s Mills, " O. 16 
Little-Falls, Herk. 10 
Leonardtown, Md. 10 
Lenox, Mass. 13 
Lima, Liv. 10 
Little Levels, Va. 23 
La Grange, Gene. 6 
Lousia, C.H. Va. 11 
Lawrenceville, Pa. 5 
Logan, Tomp. 11 
Lyons, Wayne, 14 
Leeds, Greene, 6 
No. Vols. 
Locke Berlin, Wayne, 
Marshall, Mieh. 
Milton, Uls. 
Middletown, N.J. 
Mechaniesville, Sar. 
Murfreesburgh, 
Middletown, Del. 
Tenn. 
12 
6 
14 
11 
12 
5 
5 
11 
Mansfield, 
Va. 
7 
N.H. 
5 
Mendon, 
Illi. 
6 
Mich. 
11 
Mendham, 
IN J. 
13 
Pa. 
6 
Naperville, 
Illi. 
21 
Va. 
5 
New-York city, 
25 
Va. 
16 
New-York Mills, One. 
11 
Va. 
Newbern, 
Va. 
11 
Va. 
5 
New-Holland, 
Pa. 
11 
Pa. 
5 
New-London, 
Ct. 
11 
Pa. 
11 
N T ew-Canaan, 
Ct. 
13 
16 
New-Market, 
Va. 
19 
20 
New-Haven, 
Ky. 
5 
Oh. 
8 
Nanjemoy, 
Md. 
11 
Oh. 
13 
North Lake, 
Mich. 
11 
Md. 
10 
Owego, Tio 
6 
Md. 
11 
Orange, C.H. 
Va. 
11 
S.Caro. 
22 
Orford, 
N.H. 
11 
11 
Office Tavern, 
Va. 
5 
Vt. 
5 
Philadelphia, 
52 
. 
9 
Pittsburg, 
Pa. 
11 
11 
Phillipsburgh, Ora. 
5 
Pa. 
12 
Penfield, 
O. 
10 
Illi. 
15 
Palestine, 
Illi. 
15 
5 
Poughkeepsie, Dutch. 
6 
Mich. 
7 
Portsmouth, 
N.H. 
22 
O. 
11 
Pikesville, 
Md. 
5 
Ia. 
12 
Plainfield, 
N.J 
5 
Ct. 
14 
Rahway, 
N.J. 
6 
Ky. 
20 
Rhinebeck, Dutch. 
25 
Ct. 
14 
Suffolk, 
Va. 
22 
Surry, C.H. 
Strasburgh, 
Southbridge, 
Savage, 
Shaftsbury, 
Stone Wall Mills, 
Shirly Village, 
St. Albans, 
Stockport, 
Salisbury, 
Timberville, 
Trenton, One. 
Uniontovvn, 
Union Bridge, 
Watertown, 
Washington city, 
West Bloomfield, 
Wellsboro - , 
Warsaw, 
Warren, 
West Springfield, 
Va. 
Va. 
Mass. 
Md. 
Vt. 
Va. 
Mass. 
Vt. 
Col. 
Ct. 
Va. 
Md. 
Md. 
Mass. 
D.C. 
Ont. 
Pa. 
Va. 
Vt. 
Mass. 
5 
24 
12 
11 
11 
5 
19 
27 
8 
6 
5 
10 
17 
8 
80 
10 
8 
8 
11 
11 
11 
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