HUSBANDRY. 
5S4 
to working-horfes, and other cattle, will fuffice for tlieir 
maintenance. The artificial grafies or plants bell adapted 
to this purpofe, are, he fays, red-clover, tares, and faintfoin. 
None of thofe lucculent plants with large Items and leaves 
anfwer, he obferves, fo well to be depaltured as to be 
mown ; not only on account of the injury they receive 
in being bruited by the treading of cattle; but, by being 
conftantly cropped and kept Ihort, they are deprived of 
the nourilhment which they principally receive by their 
Items and leaves. Saintfoin is, he thinks, bell fuited to 
chalky or dry foils, and to the fouthern parts of Britain. 
It has often been tried without fuccefs in the northern 
parts of England, and in Scotland. Winter-tares have 
alfo been fown, but have not been found to anfwer any 
valuable purpofe. Clover and fummer-tares, therefore 
Ihould, he thinks, be the only plants of which the culti¬ 
vation on a large fcale Ihould in thefe parts be attempted; 
and every prudent farmer will take care to have a full 
fupply of them, as in the event of a fuperabundant quan¬ 
tity for green food, thefe crops are equally proper for 
hay. Tares Ihould always, he fays, accompany the cul¬ 
ture of clover, to fupply the deficiency of herbage between 
the firft and fecond cuttings of the clover. 
The quantity of manure that may be formed in this 
way, is probably, much greater than can be fuppofed by 
thole who have not aClually made a trial of the method; 
by fome French writers it is Hated, that from three or 
four hundred Iheep, kept in this mode, manure fufficient 
for nearly an acre of land may be daily procured; and 
the manures thus obtained, are likewife alferted to be pre¬ 
ferable to dung procured in the common method. Be- 
fides, the great walte that unavoidably mull take place in 
feeding olf Inch crops is prevented, and the whole of them 
immediately brought into ufe; and the manure thus pro¬ 
duced becomes of a fuperior quality, from the vail quan¬ 
tities of worms and other infeCts that are generated dur¬ 
ing the hot fummer-months. 
By means of covered llieep-folds, a great increafe might 
alfo be made annually to the Itock of manure. If this 
negleCled, but highly-beneficial, practice, were regularly 
employed here, as in many other countries, by having 
proper lheds and inclofures for the purpofe conllruCted, 
of any flight materials, near to the fold-yards, or other 
more convenient places of the farm, fo that the Iheep 
might have frelh air and fufficient liberty to run about, 
and at the fame time have the means of being Iheltered 
from rain, fnow, and the coldnefs of the winter-leafon, 
the advantages to the flock would likewife be confidera- 
ble, belides the great fupply of manure that mull be pro¬ 
vided. In order to promote the latter advantage, the 
bottoms or floorings of fuch lheds and inclofures Ihould 
be covered with fuch earthy materials as have been re¬ 
commended for the cattle-yards, and alfo littered upon 
in the fame manner ; all of which ought to be removed 
and cleared away to a heap, or the common dunglteads 
of the farm-yards, as often as they become perfectly fa- 
turated and blended with the dung and urine of the Iheep, 
and frelh materials of the lame kinds fupplied. In bad 
•weather it will be advantageous to keep them conftantly 
in thefe covered folds, and feed them with hay in Hand¬ 
ing racks : but >vhen it is fine they may be fulfered to go 
into the paltures in the day-time, and only be put into 
the folds during the night. The practice of keeping 
Iheep in covered folds is made ufe of in Flanders for the 
purpofe of railing manures with great fuccefs; and very 
dry land is lbmetimes employed for the bottoms of the 
folds inltead of litter. 
Where the noufe-lamb fyllem is carried on to an ex¬ 
tent, the preparing and littering of the lheds and yards, 
into which the ewes are put and the lambs kept and 
fuckled, might be praCtiled with great advantage in re- 
fpect to the production of manure, as animals under fuch 
kinds of management are conftantly found to void urine 
and dung in much larger quantities than in the ordinary 
courles of feeding 
By feeding off different green-crops on the land by 
Ihpep, bullocks, or other animals, much fertility may oc- 
cafionally likewife be given to the foil, at a cheap rate, 
as the expence of carriage is prevented, and a confidera- 
ble faving of manure thereby effected. Mr. Middleton 
feems of opinion, that by this mode of management the 
great lofs of urine and dung that unavoidably occurs in 
the other methods may be the moll effectually prevented ; 
for, fays he, “in the ftables, cow-houfes, lheds, fold-yards, 
and dunghills, even under the bell management, there is 
a great wafte, perhaps of half, including dung and urine ; 
under ordinary management three parts of this manure is 
loll; but in the foiling of tares, turnips, cole, clover, &c. 
in the fields, there is no lofs ; the whole is immediately 
applied, without the coll of carriage, to the enriching of 
the foil.” It is evident, however, that in this way there 
mull be much more wafte than is here fuppofed ; by eva¬ 
poration from the aCtion of the fun and wind over fo 
extenflve a furface, much of the valuable matters of ma¬ 
nure, in fuch lituations, mull be daily carried away; and 
the more fibrous or ligneous parts of the materials, which 
are rejected as food by the cattle, from their being thinly 
fcattered over a large l'pace, becoming dry and hard, mult 
be longer before they decay, or are rendered fit for the 
purpoies of manure, than where they are collected toge¬ 
ther in larger quantities and in more confined fituations. 
Another means of increaling manures to a very great 
extent, is by adopting fuch methods as may effectually 
prevent the foiljind urine of privies, and the various ani¬ 
mal and vegetable materials that are continually thrown 
into them, in cities and large towns, from being ul'e- 
lefsly retained in deep pits, or places conftruCted for the 
purpofe, or inconfiderately waffled away and walled, by 
being conveyed into rivers or ponds by fevvers and drains. 
It is llated, that, from want of fuitable modes of preferv- 
ing fuch fubftances, the annual lofs, in this country, is 
probably not lefs than five millions of cart-loads, which, 
if turned to the ufes of agriculture, would be worth to 
the cultivators of the foil two millions and a half, and 
to the community five millions, of pounds fterling! Travf. 
of the Sec. of Arts, vol. xvii. 
The moll eafy and covenient methods of preferving 
fubftances of this kind in the country would be, proba¬ 
bly, by having pits formed for the reception of them, as 
near as poffible to the dunglteads in farm-yards or other 
places, and prepared with floors of clay, or fome other 
material through which the liquid matters could not 
readily pafs ; thefe might be connected with the privies 
by proper drains, and have covers fitted to them, in or¬ 
der that a quantity of mould, peat-earth, faw-dult, lime. 
Hems of coarfe garden-plants, or other fubftances of the 
fame fort, might be occafionally placed in them, and re¬ 
moved, to be blended with the common dung-heaps, as 
often as they became fully reduced by putrefaction, and 
well faturated and impregnated. But in large towns or 
cities, where fuch manures are produced in great quan¬ 
tities, refervoirs or balins of large fizes Ihould be con- 
ItruCled, with floors of the above kind, and be connected 
with the privies of different parts, by means of fewers or 
drains. Such refervoirs ought to be fo fituated as to be 
capable of being emptied with eafe and facility, as often 
as neceffary, by perlons appointed for the purpofe, and 
their contents carried away in the night-time. Where 
there is the convenience of rivers, however, as in London, 
and many other populous cities and towns, a large pro¬ 
portion of fuch manures might, in molt cafes, be readily 
emptied from balms of this fort, formed on their banks 
for the purpofe, or perhaps from the extremities of the 
common fewers themfelves, by means of proper lluices, 
into covered boats or barges, and thus cheaply carried to 
a diftance, for the advantage of agriculture; a method, 
in lome refpeCls, praCtifed with fuccefs in Sweden. But, as 
this kind of manure is extremely liable, from the agitation 
of the carriage in which it is moved, to become fo liquid 
as to be conveyed with great difficulty, it is probable, 
that 
