are legitimate considerations forcowkeepers in towns, where both space and litter are valuable; but when they induce to the construction of inconvenient byres in farmsteads, they indicate parsimony in the landlord and ignorance in the architect; and every farmer who consults the wellbeing of his animals should never sanction such a plan. The truth is, the erection of confined structures is one of the many evils arising from being unacquainted with agriculture by those who sanction them, because they save a little outlay at first. Expenditure is a tangible object; but, in stinting the requisite accommodation in the farmstead, proprietors injure their own interests, for it has a considerable influence on the mind of the farmer when valuing the rent of the farm he wishes to occupy. Should you have occasion to fit up a byre for milk cows or feeding oxen, bear in mind that a small sum withheld at first, may cause a yearly loss of greater amount, by preventing the feeding cattle attaining the perfection which a comfortable lodging would promote, or the cows bearing the stout and healthy calves, which ample room would promote the growth of.

1140. The several apartments being thus prepared for the reception of all the sorts of cattle to be accommodated in the steading in winter, let us now dispose of all the cattle into their respective apartments; and for this purpose look at the plan of the steading, Plate II. The different classes of cattle are cows, calves of the year, one-year-olds, two-year-olds, bulls, heifers in calf, and extra cattle.

1141. Cows occupy the byre Q. Each should always occupy the stall she has been accustomed to, and will then go out and come into its own stall without interfering with any other. Cows thus learn to stand quietly in their stalls to the cattleman who feeds them, and the dairy-maid who milks them. The byre is furnished with a court l, water-trough w, and liquid manure-drain æ; the turnip store is at f.

1142. The servants' cows are accommodated in the byre Y, in the same range of building as the hammels N, fitted up in the same manner as the byre Q, and having a court, water-trough w, and liquidmanure drain x. This byre has no turnip

store, as the servants supply their own turnips.

1143. The calves of the year occupy the large court K. Where they are put all together male and female, strong and weak, but having plenty of trough room around two of the walls, they are all provided with abundance of food, without the fear of the stronger buffeting about the weaker. The shed they occupy at night is at D, with the straw-rack in it h, and in the centre of the court stands the straw-rack o, fig. 67, where straw is scarce, or figs. 68 and 69, where it is plenty. The turnip troughs are fitted up as in fig. 66, and extend along two of the walls. The watertrough is at w, it being essential for young stock to have water at will, and necessarily so, when they do not get as many turnips as they can eat; and when they do, young cattle are all the better from having it at command. The turnip-store for this court is at g; and a is the mouth of the liquidmanure drain, to carry off the superfluous water. The young creatures occupying this court, where is much traffic in going to and from the corn-barn C, soon become familiarised with the people of the barn, and frequently get pickings of corn.

1144. The court I is fitted up precisely with the same conveniences of feedingtroughs z, water-trough wc, straw-racks h and o, and turnip-store i, as the other court for the 1-year-olds.

1145. The 2-year olds, fattened for the butcher, occupy the hammels M, where are feeding-troughs z, liquid-manure drains æ, fodder in racks, in three of the corners of the sheds, and turnip-stores at e and f.

1146. When oxen are fattened in byres instead of hammels, the byres are fitted up, as I have said, in the same manner as those at Q and Y. Oxen usually stand in pairs in double stalls, with a small partition across the turnip-trough at each travis. When cattle are bound to the stake for the first time, they are apt to be restless for some days, and until they become reconciled to their confinement, which they will be very soon, provided they have plenty of food given them.

1147. Occasionally the cow stock re

quires to be renewed, one or two at a time, by young heifers; and as these, when in calf, are not fattened, they are put into hammels by themselves as at N, which are fitted up in precisely the same manner as those at M, with feeding-troughs z, strawracks in the corner of the sheds, liquidmanure drain x, and turnip-stores p and q. Each hammel will afford accommodation to those heifers in calf.

1148. The old cows, which these heifers are to supersede, are fattened in the hammels N.

1149. Bulls, young and old, occupy the hammels X, which are also fitted up with feeding-troughs z, water-troughs w, liquidmanure drains x, and racks in the corners of the sheds. More than one bull-calf may be reared together; but more than one bull which has served cows should never be intrusted together.

1150. It is the duty of the cattle-man to attend to all these cattle during the winter, and he assists in assorting them into their respective apartments.

1151. Having accommodated all the cattle, according to their kinds and ages, in their respective places in the steading, for the winter, let us attend to the treatment which each class should daily receive during their confinement from the cattleman; but it may be useful, in the first instance, to enumerate the nomenclature by which cattle are recognised, and to specify the particular duties of the cattle-man.

1152. The names given to cattle at their various ages are these:-A new-born animal of the ox-tribe is called a calf, a male being a bull-calf, a female a quey-calf, heifer-calf, or cow-calf; and a castrated male calf is a stot-calf, or simply a calf. Calf is applied to all young cattle until they attain one year old, when they are year-olds or yearlings,-year-old bull, year-old quey or heifer, year-old stot. Stot in some places is a bull of any age.

1153. In another year they are 2-yearold bull, 2-year-old quey or heifer, 2-yearold stot or steer. In England females are stirks from calves to 2-year-old, and males steers; in Scotland both young male and

female are stirks. The next year they are 3-year-old bull, in England 3-year-old female a heifer, in Scotland a 3-year-old quey, and a male is a 3-year-old stot or steer.

1154. When a quey bears a calf, it is a cow, both in Scotland and England. Next year the bulls are aged; the cows retain the name ever after, and the stots or steers are oxen, which they continue to be to any age. A cow or quey that has received the bull is served or bulled, and are then in calf, and in that state are in England in-calvers. A cow that suffers abortion slips its calf. A cow that has either missed being in calf, or has slipped calf, is eill; and one that has gone dry of milk is a yeld-cow. A cow giving milk is a milk or milch-cow. When 2 calves are born at one birth, they are twins; if three, trins. A quey calf of twins of bull and quey calves, is a free martin, and never produces young, but exhibits no marks of a hybrid or mule.

1158. The most personally laborious part of the duty of a cattle-man in winter is carrying straw in large bundles on his back to every part of the steading. It may easily be imagined, from this statement, that when the straw-barn is inconveniently placed, or at a considerable distance from the byres and hammels, the labour of the cattle-man must be very much increased; indeed, it is possible, from that circumstance alone, for him to require assistance to fulfil the duties he has to perform. An inconvenience of this kind may thus be the cause of incurring the expense of another man's wages for the winter.

1159. A convenient means of carrying straw is with a soft rope about the thickness of a finger, and 3 yards in length, furnished at one end with an iron ring, through which the other end slips easily along until it is tight enough to retain the bundle, when a simple loop-knot keeps good what it has got. Provided with 3 or 4 such ropes, the cattle-man can bundle the straw at his leisure in the barn, and have the bundles ready to remove when required. The iron ring permits the rope to free itself readily from the straw when the bundle is loosened.

1160. The dress of a cattle-man is worth attending to, as regards its appropriateness for his business. Having so much straw to carry on his back, a bonnet or round-crowned hat is the most convenient head-dress for him; but what is of more importance when he has charge of a bull, is to have his clothes of a sober hue, free of gaudy or strongly-contrasted colours, especially red, as that colour is peculiarly offensive to bulls. It is with red cloth and flags that the bulls in Spain are irritated to action at their celebrated bull-fights. Instances are in my remembrance of bulls turning upon their keepers, not because they were habited in red, but from some strongly contrasted bright colours. It was stated that the keeper of the celebrated bull Sirius, belonging to the late Mr Robertson of Ladykirk, wore a red nightcap on the day the bull attacked and killed him. On walking with a lady across a field, my own bullthe one represented in the plate of the Short-horn Bull, than which a more gentle and generous creature of his kind never existed-made towards us in an excited state; and for his excitement I could ascribe no other cause than the red shawl worn by the lady; for as soon as we left the field he resumed his wonted quietness. I observed him excited, on another occasion, in his hammel, when the cattle-man-an aged man, who had taken charge of him for years-attended him one Sunday forenoon in a new red nightcap, instead of his usual black hat.

Be the

cause of the disquietude in the animal what it may, it is prudential in a cattleman to be habited in a sober suit of clothes.

1161. Regularity of time in every thing

VOL. I.

done for them, is the chief secret in the successful treatment of cattle. Dumb creatures as they are, cattle soon understand any plan that affects themselves,— and the part of it to which they will reconcile themselves most quickly is regularity in the time of feeding; and any violation of regularity will soon cause them to show discontent. The regularity consists in giving the same sort of cattle the same kind of food at the same period of the day, each day in succession. The cattle-man cannot follow this regular course without the guidance of a watch; and if he has not one of his own, such is the importance of regularity in this matter, that no one should be selected a cattle-man until a watch is provided him.

1162. The cattle-man's day's work commences at break of day, and ends at nightfall, expanding the day with that of the season, until daybreak appears at 5 in the morning, and nightfall occurs at 6 in the evening; and after those hours he is not expected to work, excepting at 8 at night, when he examines, with a light, every court and byre, to see that the cattle are in health and comfort before he goes to bed. At every hour of daylight he does its stated work; and it is only in the morning and evening, as the day lengthens with the season as it advances, that any change in the time is allowable. As the same amount of work must be done every day, he has most to do in the least time

Fig. 83.

THE SQUAREMOUTHED SHOVEL.

1166. He then goes to the servants' cow-byre Y, and does the same piece of work for the cows there, and for the wives of the servants, who also milk their cows at this time. It may occupy him 5 minutes.

1167. He shuts the doors of both the byres, and leaves the half-doors into the courts open for the admission of fresh air.

1168. He goes to the fattening beasts in the hammels M, and always cleans out with a shovel the refuse of the turnips of the former meal, first from the same trough, beginning at one end of the range of troughs; and immediately that one trough is cleared out, he replenishes it with turnips from the turnip store at hand, the turnips being broken with one of the instruments in use. In this manner one hammel is supplied with turnips after another. This may occupy him 40 minutes.

1169. The byre and stable shovel is seen in fig. 83. It has a broad square mouth, to stretch across the

of the byre or the turnip troughs of the hammels and courts. Its helve is of wood, having a slight curve in it, to save the hands being dirtied when using it in shovelling dung.

Fig. 84.

1170. There are various ways of cutting or slicing turnips for cattle. An old sharp-edged spade will cut them in pieces well enough; but the turnips are either too much bruised, or the cut pieces are apt to start away. Any of the instruments made for the purpose is better-of which are several-and a choice may be made from them according to the quantityof the turnips to be sliced. Fig. 84 is one form of hand slicer. The cutting part consists of 2 steel-edged blades, which are slit halfand-half at their middle point, so as to penetrate each other, standing at right angles, forming the cross cutter a a a a. They are then embraced in a four-split palm, and riveted. The palm terminates in a short shanke, which is again inserted into the hooped end of a wooden handle b, which is finished with a crosshead c. The price of this instrument is 8s. 6d. The mode of using it is obvious. It is held by the hand in a vertical position; and when placed upon a turnip, one thrust downward cuts it into quarters. This instrument is also varied in its construction, being sometimes made with 3, and even with 4 blades, dividing the turnip into 6 or into 8 portions.

THE HAND TURNIP-CHOPPER, WITH CROSS BLADES.

1171. Another form of the same species of slice is represented by fig. 85. It has two blades a a; but they, instead of

crossing, stand parallel to each other, and therefore divide the turnips into three portions, resembling Fig. 85. slices, of considerable thickness, the middle one being 1 inch thick. In the construction of this cutter, a blunted stud is formed at the extremities of each blade, which project below the cutting edge about inch, serving as guards to save the cutting edges from receiving injury when they have passed through the turnip, by striking against any hard surface. These guards, it may be remarked, would form a useful addition to all this THE HAND TURNIP- class of cutters. The arm CHOPPER, WITH b of the blades rises to a PARALLEL BIADES. height of 9 inches. widening upward to 34 inches, to give freedom to the middle slice to fall out The two arms

coalesce above, and are then formed into the socket c, to receive the handle, which terminates in a crosshead.

1172. The lever turnip-slicer, fig. 86, is a more efficient instrument than either of these. It was contrived by Mr Wallace, Kirkconnell, as an improvement on a pre-existing machine of the same kind. It consists of a stock in 2 pieces, connected by an iron bar or strap a c, which is repeated on the opposite side, and the whole bolted together. The two pieces forming the sole are separated longitudinally from each other, so as, with the two side-straps of iron, to form a rectangular opening, bounded on the two ends by the parts of the sole, and on the two sides by the side-straps, which, to the extent of the opening, are thinned off to a sharp edge, and thus form the two exterior cutters. The sole is supported at a height of 2 feet upon 4 legs, and the lever de is jointed at d by means of a bolt passing through it and the ears of the side-straps. The lever is 4 feet in length, its breadth