HUSBANDRY. 
tioned. It is then given in fmali proportions, three or 
more times in the day; a little hay or -ft raw being given 
them to enable them to chew the cud. 
Whatever the nature of the food may be that is em¬ 
ployed for the purpofe of fattening cattle in the yard or 
the flail, the greateft care is necefl'ary to fee that it is re¬ 
gularly given to them, that they have it in due propor¬ 
tion and fufficiently varied ; that pure water be amply 
provided, and that they have litter fo as to keep them dry 
and clean. 
The bufinefs of fattening houfe-lambs for the purpofe 
of early fale, is a practice that can only be undertaken 
with advantage in fituations near large towns, where 
there is a furficient demand for early lamb. In order to 
conduft this fort of fattening with profit and fuccefs, a 
lamb-houfe muft be provided. The ewes whofe lambs are 
adapted to this purpofe muff be carefully kept during 
the day-time in a warm pafture, and lioufed in the night. 
They (hould be fed with brewers’ grains, and good green 
rowen-hay, where there is not plenty of grafs, as it is of 
much confequence to keep them well before the time of 
lambing as well as afterwards. They ufually begin to 
lamb a little before Michaelmas ; and, when twenty or 
thirty lambs are dropped, they may be put into and con¬ 
fined in the houfe. It is neceffary to provide a proper 
fupply of calcined chalk, both in the lump and in pow¬ 
der, in order that the lambs, by licking it, may correct 
the fuperabundant acidity of the ftomach, and thereby pre¬ 
vent the tendency to loofenefs, and preferve themfelves in 
health. And, as they are apt to fuck any thing that comes 
in their way, a little clean wheat-ftraw (hould be put, 
with the ear-ends downwards, in a rack within their reach, 
for them to nibble and eat of. If there be pitch-marks 
on the ewes, they (hould alfo be clipped out. The foot- 
rot and fcab are likewife to be well guarded againft. 
The method of management that is ufually adopted in 
the fuckling-houfe is this : The mothers of the lambs are 
turned every night at eight o’clock into the lamb-houfe 
to their offspring. At lix o’clock in the morning they 
are fcparated from their lambs and turned into the paf- 
tures ; and at eight o’clock, fuch ewes as have loft their 
own lambs, and thofe ewes whofe lambs are fold, are 
brought in and held by the head till the lambs by turns 
fuck them clean ; they are then turned into the pafture; 
and at twelve o’clock the mothers of the lambs are driven 
from the paftures into the lamb-houfe for an hour, 
in the courfe of which time each lamb is fuckled by 
its mother. At four o’clock, all the ewes that have not 
lambs of their own are again brought.to the lamb-houfe, 
and held for the lambs to fuck; and at eight the mo¬ 
thers of the lambs are brought to them for the night. If 
an ewe gives more milk than its lamb will fuck, the fu- 
per,abundance is given to the twins, or to any other lamb 
whole mother may not be able to furnifh it with i'uffi- 
cient food. The (liepherd mull in this cafe hold the ewe,' 
or (lie would not fuller the ftrange lamb to fuck. From 
their timid nature, it is extremely effential that they (hould 
be kept free from every fpecies of unneceffary dillurb- 
ance. 
The lambs are retained in the houfes under this rae- 
fhod of feeding, till they are in a proper condition for the 
butcher; at which time fuch as are about eight weeks old, 
and fully fattened, are drawn out for the market, which 
in general fetch from two to four or five guineas a-piece, 
according as they are more early. December and the two 
lucceeding months are the dearelt; as at other feafons they 
feldom fetch more than one half the price. 
Of the CULTIVATION and MANAGEMENT of ARABLE 
LAND. 
Whatever be the nature and quality of the foil of 
which the farm conlifts, or the adaptation of corn o,r pulfe 
intended to be cultivated upon It, or whether for planta¬ 
tions of turnips, or other fpring food, for the provilion 
of cattle, (till it would be worfe than childiOi in the far- 
Vol.X. N0.681. 
mer to attempt to fow any of thefe articles, until he had 
got his land perfectly clean, and in a ftatO of mellownefs 
and pulverization, free from weeds, and fully charged 
with the principles and powers of vegetation. To obtain 
thefe defuable ends in the completed: manner, there ap¬ 
pears to be no certain alternative but thofe of ploughing 
and fallowing, and expofing the naked foil to the action 
of the different feafons,- and to the powerful influence of 
the fertilizing fun. Thefe operations are belt accom- 
plifhed by the fame foil taking a winter and fummer-fal- 
low in fucceflion ; but where this is not to be attained, 
on account of the crops in the ground, then fum- 
mer-fallowing is ever to he preferred, except for barley 
and other fpring corn. The great advantages which the 
foil receives by proper fallowing, are thus fatisfaftorily 
explained : The heavier particles of land, by being under 
different circumftances of the air and feafons thus fre¬ 
quently ftirred and turned over, are fo effedtually divided 
or feparated from each other, and broken down, that even 
in mod of the differ forts of ground, as well as thofe of 
the lighter kinds, there is a degree of pulverization and 
mellownefs effefled that could fcarcely have been induced 
by any other means; in confequence of which, the por¬ 
tions of vegetable matter that are prefent, and that may 
have been reduced into the carbonaceous date, with the 
calcareous, the argillaceous, and other earthy ingredients, 
and fuch metallic fubftances as may exift in the condition 
of oxyds or calces, become fo uniformly and fo exten- 
fively blended and incorporated, and the manures that 
are afterwards applied fo minutely intermixed.with them, 
that the fibrous roots of the growing crops, of whatever 
nature they may be, are enabled to penetrate and extend 
themfelves more fully, and of courfe to draw more regu¬ 
lar and varied, as well as more abundant, fupplies of nou- 
rifhment. And that, on account of the extreme divifion 
and pulverization that take place, and the great irregula¬ 
rity of furface which is produced in this way, the dews 
and light refrefhing rains that are fo frequently occurring 
in the early fpring months, are more capable of being ad¬ 
mitted-and diffufed through,and detained in, the hollows 
and interftices of the ground, and thus of contributing 
powerfully to the fupport of the crops in the more inci¬ 
pient ftages of vegetation. Alfo, by the repeated turn- 
ing-in and deftruftion of different forts of weeds, much 
vegetable faccharine matter may alfo be added, as well 
as the land improved by the putrefactive fermenta¬ 
tion that mull from thefe caufes be conftantly taking 
place. There are alfo other modes in which advantages 
may be gained, by the repeated turning over and break¬ 
ing down of the particles of foils ; as, from much of the 
atmqfpheric air being by fuch methods of hufbandry 
blended with the fine particles of the foils, and detained 
in the numerous hollows and cavities formed by fuch de¬ 
grees of pulverization, a larger proportion of oxygen may 
be fupplied, which, by its union with the Carbon and 
other inflammable materials that are moftiy contained in 
earths, may produce the carbonic or other acids, accord¬ 
ing to the circumftances of the cafes, in greater abun¬ 
dance, and in this manner aid the growth of vegetables 
in a high degree. And as the water, or moifture that is 
included in large quantities in the pores of foils in fuch 
powdery Hates, may undergo the procefs of decompofition 
more fully, by coming more minutely in contact with the 
portions of atmofpheric air that are covered up and im¬ 
prisoned with it in them, the fupplies of ammonia or vo¬ 
latile alkali, l^y the combination of its hydrogen with 
azot, may be more regular and copious, as weli as thol^ 
of nitre, by the more complete union of its luperabun- 
dant oxygen with Tome other portion of the abounding 
nitrogen, or azot of fuch air. And it lias likewife been 
fuggelted, that, as the atmofpheric airconfifts or is confti- 
tuted of oxygen, azot, and the fluid matter of heat, if 
the heat that caufes them to exift uncombined in theform 
of gafes be drawn away from them by tome other mate¬ 
rial while they are confined in the cavities of the foil, 
6 £ they 
