and thickness equal to that of the sole, but is reduced at the end e of a convenient size for the hand. It is furnished with a block of wood m, the lower face of which is studded with iron knobs, to prevent the turnip sliding from under it. The cutter blocks f g are made of castiron, and contain 8 cutters, which make the most convenient size of slice. In using this portable machine, the workman takes hold of the lever at e with his right hand, and, having raised it sufficiently high, throws a turnip into the cradle with the left hand. The lever is now brought down by the right hand, which, with a moderate impetus, and by means of the block m, sends the turnip down upon the cutters, through the openings of which it passes, while the cutters are dividing it, and the whole falls in uniform slices into a basket placed beneath. In most cases it is found more convenient to have a boy to throw in the turnips, to expedite the work. The cost of this machine is 30s.

1173. When this lever turnip-cutter is furnished with an additional set of cutting knives, six in number, fixed at right angles to those described above, the machine is rendered useful for cutting turnips for sheep; and it will cut them in long narrow parallelopipeds, well suited in shape for being taken into the mouths of sheep. It will thus be also a cheap instrument, not exceeding 40s. in price.

1174. From the hammels the cattleman proceeds to the large court K to the calves, cleans the turnip troughs of the refuse, supplies them with turnips from the store, breaking the turnips with one of the slicers, the lever one doing the work most quickly. The calves not being able to eat a large quantity of turnips, he may be occupied with them for 15 minutes.

1175. The year-olds in the other large court I then demand his care. The turnip troughs are cleared of refuse, fresh turnips are supplied from the store, and sliced with the machine. These larger animals requiring more turnips, he may be occupied among them about 25 minutes.

1176. The fattening oxen in the ham

mels receive, of course, as many turnips as they can eat,-and so ought the young beasts in the courts; but in case of a deficiency in the crop, the calves should have a full allowance, while the older stots and queys may be put upon short allowance. Rather than this, it would be better to purchase oil-cake for the fattening oxen, and give them fewer turnips, and let the younger beasts receive a full allowance.

1177. The bulls in the bammels X next receive his care. Their turnip troughs are cleaned out, and a few fresh turnips given them, and sliced with a hand instrument. The two hammels may engage him 10 minutes.

1178. The extra beasts feeding in the hammels N should next be attended to, by cleaning out their turnip trough, and giving them a fresh supply of sliced turnips, which will be most conveniently done by a hand instrument. These may take 10 minutes to be attended to.

1179. The heifers in calf in the hammels N should have no turnips in the morning, only a little fresh oat-straw. It may take 10 minutes to go for this to the straw-barn, and put it into the racks.

1180. Having thus given all the cattle at liberty their morning's ration of food, the cattle-man takes a bundle of fresh oatstraw from the straw-barn, returns with it to the byre Q, and gives a little to each of the cows to engage them, while he employs himself in removing all the dung and dirtied litter from the stalls and gutter, with the graip, shovel, and wheelbarrow, fig. 87, into the court, wheeling and spreading it equally over its surface, and sweeping the gutter and causeway clean with the besom. The work altogether may engage him 30 minutes.

1181. In like manner he gives the servants' cows a little fresh oat-straw, and cleans out their byre of dung and litter. In doing this he may be engaged 25 minutes.

1182. The wheel-barrow is shown in fig. 87, and is of the common form, with close-boarded bottom, sides, and back, and of a capacity sufficient to carry a good load of litter; but not of greater breadth

Fig. 87.

A WHEEL-BARROW.

1183. When the byres have thus been cleaned, he takes a bundle of litter from the straw-barn, and returns with it to the byre, and on clearing the troughs of the refuse fodder, and sprinkling it over the stalls for litter, they are ready for the reception of the turnips about to be given to the cows. After milking is finished by the dairymaid in the morning, the common practice is to give the cows, though heavy in calf, a feed of cold turnips into their empty stomachs, which I consider a very injudicious practice; and this is evinced by the fact of the foetus indicating unequivocal symptoms of its existence in the womb, as it does after a drink of cold water taken in the morning. I therefore prefer giving cows some fresh straw, to prepare their stomach for the turnips. Cows in calf never get as many turnips as they can eat, the object being not to fatten, but support them in a fair condition for calving; and were they fed fat, they would run the risk of losing their life at calving by inflammation, and their calves would be small. It is not easy to specify the number or weight of turnips that should be given to cows; but I conceive that of what a feeding ox would consume will suffice. After the troughs have been supplied with the requisite quantity of turnips sliced, and the same order of distribution, from stall to stall, daily observed, the stalls are littered with the straw the cattle-man brought with him; and on shutting the principal door, and leaving the other half-door open for air, he leaves them for a time to rest and chew their cud; for nothing irritates cows more than to go about them, or about the byre, and make a noise, while they are eating

*

1184. The turnips are supplied to the cows, either through the openings in the wall, or from the passage running along the heads of the stalls, or from the causeway by the stalls themselves, by whichever way the byre has been constructed. The most common practice of carrying the turnips is by the stalls in baskets, called sculls, which are hollow hemisphericalshaped baskets of willow, having an opening on each side, to take hold of the stout rim for handles. Sculls are made of the common basket-willow, or of iron wire.

1185. A wire basket is seen in fig. 88, where the rim a b c, forming its mouth, is Fig. 88.

THE WIRE TURNIP-BASKET.

a flat slip of iron of an inch in breadth, and the keel or bottom a dc is of the same dimensions and materials. Holes are punched through them, at about 3 inches apart from each other. The small iron rods are inserted through them, receiving a bend to suit the form of the basket, and the ends of those attached to the rim a b c are shouldered below, and fastened with a counter-sink rivet above. The spaces left at the ends of the keel, under the rim, at a and c, form the handles. The cost is about 2s. 6d. each, and with due care-such as the replacement of a rod now and then, when broken,-will last from 5 to 10 years. Were there two keels instead of one, the basket would stand steadier upon the ground to be filled with turnips.*

1186. The servants' cows are then littered for them to lie down and rest, the turnips being given to them by the servants themselves, in such quantities, and

at such time, as they think proper. The littering may occupy about 10 minutes.

1187. The supply of turnips to the servants' cows depends on the terms of the agreement made with the servants. When a specified number of cart-loads are given, the servant may not choose to give them to his cow during the earlier part of the winter, if she is dry; but if in milk, the servant's family give what quantity they choose from their own store. If the farmer has agreed to treat his servants' cows in the same manner as his own, the cattle-man takes charge of them as he does those of his master.

1188. The heifers in calf now get a few turnips, and they should be sliced with one of the hand instruments. This may occupy 10 minutes.

1189. The extra beasts feeding in the bammels N should now receive some fresh oat-straw as fodder. The time engaged in this may be about 10 minutes.

1190. All the cattle having now been fed, the next step the cattle-man takes is to supply the cattle in the hammels and courts with fodder and litter. He first pulls all the old fodder out of the racks and scatters it about as litter, and then supplies them with fresh oat-straw from the strawbarn. The litter straw is then taken from the straw-barn, and used to litter the courts and hammels in such quantity as is requisite at the time, dry, fresh, or frosty weather saving the usual quantity, and rainy weather requiring more than the usual quantity, to render the courts comfortable. This distribution of the straw may occupy about 30 minutes.

1191. Whatever be the state of the weather, whether cold or warm, wet or dry, the cows should now be turned into the court to enjoy the fresh air, lick themselves and one another, drink water from the trough, and bask in the sun. They should go out every day until they calve, except, perhaps, in a particularly stormy, cold wet day. One hour at least, and longer if fine, they should remain out.

1192. In loosening cows from the stalls, a plan requires to be pursued to prevent

confusion. Every cow, in the beginning of the season, should be put in the stall she has occupied since she first became an inmate of the byre; and she will always go to it, and no other, avoiding the least collision with the rest. In loosening them from the stalls, they should be so one by one, always beginning at the same end of the byre, and finishing at the other, and not indiscriminately. This will prevent impatience in each animal, and collision on the floor, and jamming in the doorway on going out,-accidents always injurious to animals with young.

1193. The servants' cows are let out into their court in the same manner. The two byres may in this way occupy 15 minutes.

1194. It is now time to give the fattening beasts in the hammels their mid-day ration of turnips; and in doing this it is as necessary to clear the turnip troughs of refuse as in the morning. The turnips should also be sliced. This may occupy 20 minutes.

1195. In enumerating all the portions of time mentioned in doing these various pieces of work by the cattle-man, it will be found to amount to 5 hours 5 minutes; and if he began his work at dawn, at 7 o'clock, the time now, after the fulfilment of so much of the day's labour, will be 5 minutes past 12 at noon. Farm labourers dine at 12 o'clock, so the cattle-man is thus ready for his dinner, both as regards time and the state of his work. Should the cattle-man find he has too little time to accomplish the amount of work indicated, he has the consolation of believing that, as the days lengthen after the 22d of December, he will have longer time to do the same quantity of work, and that he cannot possibly have more to do at any time.

1196. The cattle-man is entitled to rest one hour at dinner.

1197. Immediately after his dinnerhour is spent, the cattle-man goes to the straw-barn, and bundles as many windlings of straw, for supper, as there are cows or cattle in byres under his charge. A windling is a small bundle twisted and

fastened upon itself, and is about 10 lbs. in weight. He also makes up a few large bundles of fodder. Taking one of these last to the cow-byre, he places fodder into every stall.

1198. The cows are then returned from the court into the byre; and, to remove every temptation from even a greedy cow running up into another one's stall for the sake of snatching a little of her food, no green food should be lying in the troughs when they return to their stalls; and none should be given them immediately after returning to the byre, as the expectation of receiving it will render them impatient to leave the court, and make them restless in the stall until they receive it. This is contrary to usual practice, but it will suppress inordinate desire, prevent violation of discipline, and the necessity for correction. When subjected to regular discipline, cows soon obey it, and make no confusion, but conduct themselves peaceably. They should be bound to the stake in the same regular order they were loosened from it, from one end of the byre to the other, and the regularity provides against any cow being forgotten to be bound up.

1199. The servants' cows are returned into their byre in the same manner.

1200. He then replenishes the racks in the courts and bammels with fresh straw, strewing about the old fodder as litter; and he litters both with as much fresh straw from the barn as is requisite to render the ground comfortable to the cattle to lie down in the open air if they choose. In moonlight, many of the cattle choose to be out in the open air all night, even though rime should be deposited on their backs.

1201. He places the windlings in the byres in the proportion they are required by the cows, for their evening foddering; and he does this to avoid the danger of going into the straw-barn at night with a light.

1202. When the business with the straw in foddering and littering has been gone through, it is time to give the cows their second ration of turnips, to have them eaten up by the time the dairymaid returns

to the byre, at dusk, to milk them. Some people don't give cows when dry a second ration, but I think they require it for the support of their condition. The dairymaid closes the door of their byre.

1203. The fattening oxen in the hammels then receive their evening ration of turnips, having the troughs cleaned out, and the turnips sliced as on the former occasions, and the quantity given will depend on the state of the night; for if the moon shine through the greater part of the night, a larger allowance of turnips should be given, as cattle eat busily during moonlight. This is also a practice with sheep on turnips.

1204. The calves in the larger court K, and the young cattle in the other large court, receive their second ration of turnips sliced, immediately after the fattening beasts have been served. Although both these lots receive as many turnips as they can eat, their daily allowance may be given at two instead of three times, to save a little trouble. Where the turnip troughs, however, are not sufficiently extensive to contain the requisite quantity, without piling the turnips on one another in heaps, it will be necessary to afford a supply three times instead of twice; for where turnips are so piled up in the troughs, the cattle never fail to push over, if they can, upon the dung litter, every turnip they have bitten a piece off, to get to the fresher ones below, and thus cause waste.

1205. The extra beasts fattening in the hanımels N should be treated in the same manner as the young beasts.

1206. The young heifers in the hammels N, and the bulls in the hammels X, next receive their turnips; and as neither of them get as many as they can eat, their proportion is divided into two small meals, sliced, one served after all the rest in the morning, and the other after the rest in the evening. the evening. Both these classes depending much upon fodder for food, it should be of the sweetest and freshest straw, and supplied at least 3 times a day, morning, noon, and evening; and having water at command, and liberty to move about, they will maintain sufficient condition. The heifers and bulls are supplied from the turnip stores p and q.