GENERAL FARM MANAGEMENT. 
307 
straw. Hence, a farm of 160 acres, under the system of rota¬ 
tion advocated in this paper, ought to maintain twenty head of 
stock, including a span of horses, and a mare, and a yoke of 
oxen, with thirty South-Down sheep, that the farmer may have 
a supply of nutritious mutton for his table, as well as a supply 
of wool for the market. ITow many of the cattle should be 
milch cows, and how many of them steers, will depend alto¬ 
gether upon the taste of the manager, as it leads him to manu¬ 
facture butter and cheese, or to breed animals for the market. 
The stock should be of a choice, though not of a fanciful kind, 
for a few excellent beasts are much preferable to a host of hun¬ 
gry “scalawags,” with which so many Wisconsin farms are 
infested. 
Treatment of Stock. —In England, soiling is extensively 
practiced in some places According to this system, the ani¬ 
mals are confined in stables or yards all summer, and fed on 
green fodder. Where land is high and labor low, as in that 
country, it may answer very well; but with us, where just the 
reverse is the case, I am afraid it would be found too expensive. 
Excluding, therefore, the consideration of this plan of feeding, 
the summer treatment of horses and cattle becomes very sim¬ 
ple, consisting entirely in providing them with plentiful pas¬ 
tures and abundance of good water, with an occasional allow¬ 
ance of a little salt. However, as the treatment of stock is 
an important subject, I shall, in order to be more explicit, treat 
in detail of the management of each kind, with reference, more 
particularly, to winter management. 
Horses. —He that would have a good horse, must use him 
pretty much as he would himself ; for though this animal is 
naturally strong and healthy, yet he is of delicate structure, 
and very liable, by abuse or mismanagement, to become weak 
or disabled. As a general thing, horses are fed too highly and 
driven too fast, than which nothing can be worse for their health 
and durability. If they are overfed with grain, they speedily 
become diseased, from the fact of the quality of their food 
