The practice of stall-feeding, or keep ing the cattle in the house at every season of the year, and them, when prac ticable, with green food, where there is abundant litter, is considered by excel lent judges as the best method of turning to account the produce of the soil. Dou ble the usual quantity of manure also is thus produced; and the annoyance of the cattle in any great degree by flies and insects is e6ctually precluded. This plan has been long and extensively prac tised in Germany, and is making its way in England, under the encouragement of many judicious agriculturists. Not only may grass he thus employed for food more profitably than in any other way, but boiled roots may be used with ex treme advantage; with a view either to maintain or to fatten cattle ; and, ridicu lous as the idea of this management for a vast number of cattle and horses might at first appear, it is found capable of being performed, with the aid of a. steam engine, by one superannuated attendant. The roots may be permitted to retain their original form, or may be mashed and con verted into thick soup, as is deemed most eligible.
Cleanness and temperate warmth in the process. of fattening beasts for human food are of the utmost importance ; and it has been philosophically remarked, that analogy will lead us to conclude, what ob servation j ust i fie s from fact, that whatever tends to form in beasts a state of feeling, unirritated by fear, vexation, or pain, must tend to shorten the period necessary for advancing them to their maturity of size and excellence.
Sheep.
Towards the end of August, the annual purchase of wether lambs, for an estate on which regular flocks are not kept, gene rally takes place. These are justly pre ferred for stock to all others. The new Leicester have the advantage in competi tion with all the long-woolled breeds, and the South Down with all those of short or middling wools. For severe and moun tainous moors, the black-faced and coarse wooled Scotch sheep are by far to be pre ferred, being able to sustain the most ri gorous weather, and to live on the most Instead of putting sheep, after the above-mentioned purchases, to the highest feed, and pushing them to perfect fattening, the better way is to keep themtolerably well till March, and to be gin then to fattenthem, by which method they will be fit for sale at a season of more advanced price ; and upon this plan the purchase money is, with good manage ment, generally doubled, and the fleece found an additional clear advantage. Whatever be the nature of the stock, to wards the middle of May they should be turned into their summer-grass, and, in an inclosed farm, the division of the fields into different parcels intended to be fed is an object of great importance. It is justly thought, that in large parcels they do not thrive equally well as in small ones, and the waste of food is considera bly greater. It will be found, that in
flocks of from ten to twenty the same farru will keep considerably more than in one flock. Thy number should be appropri Med to each field, according to what it is enabled to carry, and suffered to remain, without any other change than what de pends upon the state of individuals from accident or season. They win thus inevi tably flourish. By adhering to the prac tice of folding, which, however, in certain eases may be necessary, much loss is of ten sustained ; much food is spoiled ; and injury arises from numbers being so close ly crowded together: and although the practice may be highly beneficial, as pre parative for corn, this advantage is often too dearly paid for. Another point of very considerable consequence with respect to sheep is the practice of close feeding. Even in pa.sturage shorn completely to the ground, the herbage is found rapidly to spring up ; and when drought is observed nearly to destroy the produce of fields treated in a different manner, by being permitted to run to bent, such as are ma naged in this close way are in comparison at least highly productive. In all plants cul tivated for pasture, the moment the seed stem runs,the grand effort of the system is directed to the formation of the seed ; and the way to produce the greatest abun dance of leaves,therefore, is to prevent the rising of these stems, which, by close feed ing, is of course effectually accomplished.
In the whole range of husbandry, per haps, the most perplexing point of ma nagement is the providing for flocks of sheep in the months of March and April. 'Turnips and hay are generally depended upon; but being frequently inadequate, rye is sometimes sown on purpose, and crops of wheat are also sometimes eaten down by them. All, however, is too fre quently folind insufficient, and they are perrnitted to run over the clover and pas tures of the farrn, committing great waste and damage. To prevent these evils, burnet should be cultivated by the farm er. It is a most hardy plant, and pre serves its green leaves through the win ter, and under deep snows vegetates with singular luxuriance. This will be an ad mirable feed for sheep in April, when turnips ought no longer to remain upon the ground. But kept grass on dry mea dow- and pasture, or what is called rouen, is preferable to every other dependance, and though consisting as it were of hay and grass in the same mouthful, being the autumnal growth at top, sheltering the more recent vegetation bencath,the sheep cat both together without the slightest hesitation, and are found to thrive upon it extremely. Ten ewes, with their lambs, may be supported throughout April on one acre of this rotten, and no cheaper mode of keeping a full stock in April can possibly be adopted.