1211. In thus minutely detailing the duties of the cattle-man, my object has been to show you rather how the turnips and fodder should be distributed relatively than absolutely; but whatever hour and minute the cattle-man finds, from experience, he can devote to each portion of his work, you should see that he performs the same operation at the same time every day. By paying strict attention to time, the cattle will be ready for and expect their wonted meals at the appointed times, and will not complain until they arrive. Complaints from his stock should be distressing to every farmer's ears; for he may be assured they will not complain until they feel hunger; and if allowed to hunger, they will not only lose condition, but render themselves, by discontent, less capable of acquiring it when the food happens to be fully given. Wherever you hear lowings from cattle, you may safely conIclude that matters are conducted there in an irregular manner. The cattle-man's rule is a simple one, and easily remembered:-Give food and fodder to cattle at fixed times, and dispense them in a fixed routine. I had a striking instance of the bad effects of irregular attention to cattle. An old staid labourer was appointed to take charge of cattle, and was quite able and willing to undertake the task. He got his own way at first, as I had observed many labouring men display great ingenuity in arranging their work. Lowings were soon heard from the stock in all quarters, both in and out of doors, which intimated the want of regularity in the cattle-man; whilst the poor creature himself was constantly in a state of bustle and uneasiness. To put an end to this disorderly state of things, I apportioned his entire day's work by his own watch; and on implicitly following the plan, he not only soon satisfied the wants of every animal committed to his charge, but had abundant leisure to lend a hand at any thing that required his temporary assistance. His old heart overflowed with gratitude when he found the way of making all his creatures happy; and his kindness to them was so undeviating, they would have done whatever he liked. A man better suited, by temper and genius, for the occupation I never saw.

1212. You may regard all these minute

details, on the treatment of cattle, frivolous and unnecessary: but they are not so; and your own interest will soon tell you, that where a number of minutiæ have to be attended to, unless taken in order, they are apt to be forgotten altogether, or attended to in a hasty manner; and none of these conditions, you will also admit, are conducive to correct management. Observe the number of minute things a cattleman has to attend to. He has various classes of cattle under his charge-cows, fattening beasts, young steers, calves, heifers, bulls, and extra beasts besides; and he has to keep them all clean in their various places of abode, and supply them with food and fodder three times in a short winter's day of 7 or 8 hours. Is it possible to attend to all these particulars, as they should be, without a matured plan of conduct? The cattle-man requires a plan for his own sake; for were he to do every thing when the idea just struck him, his mind, being guided by no rule, would be as prone to forget as to remember what he had to do. The injurious effects upon the condition of animals of irregular attendance upon them, seem to render a concocted plan necessary to be adopted. Before you can see the full force of this observation, you would require to be told that food, fodder, and litter, given to cattle in an irregular manner,-such as too much at one time and too little at another, frequently one day, and seldom another,-surfeiting them at one time, hungering them at another, and keeping them neither clean nor dirty, never fails to prevent them acquiring that fine condition which good management always secures.

1213. Let us reduce the results of bad

management to figures. Suppose you have three sets of beasts, of different ages, each containing 20 beasts, that is, 60 in all, and they get as many turnips as they can eat. Suppose that each of these beasts acquires only half a pound less live weight every day than they would under the most proper management, and this would incur a loss of 30 lbs. a day of live weight, which, over 180 days of the fattening season, will make the loss amount to 5400 lbs. of live weight, or, according to the common rules of computation, 3240 lbs., or 231 stones of dead weight at 6s. the stone, £69, 6s., a sum equal to more than five times the

The

wages received by the cattle man. question, then, resolves itself into this whether it is not for your interest to save this sum annually, by making your cattleman attend your cattle according to a regular plan, the form of which is in your own power to adopt and pursue?

1214. What I have just stated applies to the fattening of ordinary cattle, but selected cattle may be desired to be fattened to attain a particular object. You may have, for instance, a pair of very fine oxen, which you are desirous of exhibiting at a particular show. They should have a hammel comfortably fitted up for themselves, and your ingenuity will be taxed to render it as convenient and comfortable as possible, which you will the better be able to do, after determining on the sorts of food you wish to give them. You will present a choice of food, and, therefore, will provide a trough for sliced Swedish turnipsa manger for linseed-meal-another for bruised oats-a third for compound-a rack for hay-and a trough for water. There should be abundance of straw for litter and warmth, and daily dressing of the skin to keep it clean, as fat oxen can reach but few parts of their body with their tongue. But all these appliances will avail nothing, if a regulated attention is not bestowed by the cattle-man. The cattle have as much as they can eat, but then what they eat should be administered with judgment, if you wish to attain a particular end. It will not suffice to set an adequate portion of each sort of food daily before them, to be taken at will; one or more of the kinds will have to be given at stated times, that each may possess the freshness of novelty and variety, and thereby be eaten with relish. Every particular thus demands attention, and affords sufficient exercise to the judgment; and if this is in the case with particular animals, the necessity for attending in a similar manner on cattle in ordinary circumstances cannot but be impressed on your mind.

1215. Much has been said on the propriety of wisping and currying cows and fattening oxen in the byre, and much may be said in recommendation of the practice, were the cattle always confined to the byre; but animals which are at

liberty a part of the day do not require artificial dressing, except when in high condition, inasmuch as they can dress their own, and one another's skin, much better than any cattle-man. With cattle constantly confined in the byre, it seems indispensable for their good health to brush their skin daily; and I believe no better instrument can be used for the purpose than an old curry-comb, assisted with a wisp of straw. Currying should only be performed on the cattle when not at food; and this should be strictly enjoined, for people, who have charge of animals, have a strong propensity to dress and fondle them when at food; from no desire to torment them, but chiefly because they will then be in a quiet mood. Still the process has a tendency to irritate some cattle, and please others so much as to make them desist eating, and on that account should be prevented. Many other animals are never more jealous of being approached than when eating their food, -as exemplified by the growl of a dog, and the scowl of a horse.

1216. From the commencement of the season to the end of the year, white turnips alone are used; after which, to the end of the winter season, the yellows are brought into requisition, or swedes, where the yellows are not cultivated.

1217. When turnips are brought from the field in a dirty state, which will be the case in wet weather from clayey soil, they ought to be washed in tubs of water, and, as long as the dirt is fresh, they will be the more easily cleansed. Washing is not so troublesome and expensive a business as may at first seem. A field-worker, having a large tub of water placed beside a store about to be filled with turnips, takes them up one by one with a small fork, and dashing them about in the water for an instant, pulls them off against the edge of the store or barrow; and this she does much faster than the cattle-man wheels them away and slices them for the beasts. A friend of mine used a very curious mode of washing turnips. Whenever any of the fields of his farm, along which passed the lade that conducted the water from the dam to the thrashing-mill, were in turnips, he caused the lade to be filled pretty full of water, by making a damming in it in the par

ticular field, according to the fall of the ground. The turnips were then topped and tailed, and plunged into the lade, from a cart when the distance was considerable, and from a hand-barrow, carried by field-workers, when near. The damming in the field being cut, and the sluice at the mill a little opened, the current of water floated the turnips to the steading, where they were taken out from behind the grating of the sluice, and carried to the stores in barrows. When the turnips were very dirty, they were washed in the lade by a person pushing them about with a pole. That some provision for cleaning turnips is sometimes necessary, is certain; for I have seen very fine cattle eating turnips in such a state that the dirt actually bedaubed them to the very eyes, which the tops, being left on, had assisted much in doing. Surely no one will say that filth, in any shape, is beneficial to cattle; not that they dislike to lick earth at times, but they do so, in their own way, to rectify acidity in the stomach.

1218. When turnips have not been stored, and are brought from the field as required, they will probably be in a frozen state at times, when, even if sliced by any of the instruments in use, they will be masticated by the cattle with difficulty; and frozen turnips never fail to chill cattle, which is indicated by the staring coat. Means should therefore be used to thaw frozen turnips, and the most available is to put them for a time in tubs of cold water. This process is attended with much more expense than storing them in the proper

season.

1219. It is supposed that an ox, which attains a weight of 70 stones imperial at the end of the season, consumes in fattening a double horse-load of turnips per week; and, as carts are usually loaded at fieldwork in winter, the weight of a load may be estimated at about 15 cwt.; so that the ox will consume about 2 cwt. or 16 stones 2 lbs. a day, or 5 stones 5 lbs. at each of 3 meals, and about 19 tons during the season of 26 weeks. The calves may consume, or 8 stones, and the 2-yearolds, or 12 stones a day; cows receiving one-third of the oxen, 5 stones 5 lbs.

a day. Each scullful contains about 37 lbs. These comparative quantities are given from no authenticated data, for I believe no comparative trials, with different ages of cattle, have ever been made, but merely from what people imagine to be near the truth; and such an estimate should be made at the beginning of every season, that you may know whether there are turnips enough to serve the stock. It was correctly ascertained by Mr Stephenson, Whitelaw, East Lothian, in a careful experiment of feeding 18 oxen of 42 stones, that they consumed 10 stones 2 lbs. on an average each of turnips daily;* and Mr Boswell Irvine of Kingcausie, found that oxen of 43 stones consumed only 9 stones of turnips each daily. This discrepancy between the two statements might be explained, perhaps, if we knew every particular of the treatment in the two cases. Taking 9 stones as the average quantity of turnips consumed every day by oxen of 42 stones, and taking it for granted that oxen consume food nearly in the proportion of their weight, the result will be very nearly what is stated above by guess, nearly 16 stones per day, by cattle of 70 stones.

1220. Cows are kept on every species of farm, On carse though for very different purposes. supplying milk to the farmer and his servants. and pastoral farms they are merely useful in On dairy farms they afford butter and cheese for sale. On some farms near large towns, they supply sweet and butter milk for sale. And on farms of mixed husbandry, they are kept for the purpose of producing calves.

1221. On carse and pastoral farms, cows receive only a few turnips in winter, when they are dry, and are kept on from year to year; but where the farmer supplies milk to his work-people, as a part of their wages, they are disposed of in the yeld state, and others in milk, or at the calving, bought in to fill their place, and these receive a large allowance of turnips, with perhaps a little hay. On such farms, little regard is paid to the breed of the cow, the circumstance of a good milker being the only criterion of excellence.

1222. On true dairy farms, the winter season is unfavourable to the making of butter and cheese for sale. The cows are in calf during this season, and receive raw turnips and hay until they calve. As soon as they calve they receive prepared food.

1223. The food is prepared in this manner :Topped and tailed, though not washed turnips

are put into a large boiler until it is about half filled, and a few handfuls of salt strewn over them. The boiler is then filled and heaped up with cut hay; as much water is poured into it as nearly to fill it; a board is placed upon the hay, and the fire is then kindled in the furnace. By this process the turnips are boiled soft, and the hay steamed or stewed; and in about three hours the mess is ready to be put into a cooler, the hay undermost, the turnips above it, and the water from the turnips poured over both, and they all remain in it until parted amongst the

Cows.

1224. The Cooler.-The cooler is an oblong box, fig. 90, having the sides perpendicular, and the ends bevelled, and provided with two wheels, Fig. 90.

THE COOLER FOR A BYRE.

mounted on a bent axle, which passes under the bottom of the box, and two handles, for the purpose of moving the cooler to where it is wanted. The cooler may be constructed of any dimensions, to suit the size of the dairy; and one 6 feet long, 2 feet wide, 24 feet deep, will contain as much food as will serve 20 cows at one meal.

1225. Before serving out the mess to the cows, the cooler is either wheeled into the byre, or to its door from the boiling-house. The turnips are broken and mashed with a small graip, against one of the bevelled ends of the cooler,-the one next the handles being the more convenient of the two to stand at. While a portion of the turnips is thus broken, it is mixed with a little of the hay, well shaken up, and the turnip water. A proportion to each cow is put into a small tub, receiving a little of broken oil-cake, bruised linseed, or bean meal, and emptied into its feeding-trough in the byre. A prepared mess of this description is given to the cow twice a day, morning and afternoon. Should the mess be rather warm, it will easily be cooled by the addition of cold water into the cooler.

rollers, which bring forward the substance to be cut, and also, from the velocity of their motion, regulate the length of the cut. Two forms of the machine exist, the essential difference of which is, that, in the one, the cutters are placed upon the cylinder with a large angle of obliquity to the axis, generally about 35°, and are therefore bent and twisted until their edges form an oblique section of the cylinder, while the box, or the orifice through which the substance is protruded for being cut, lies parallel to the axis of the feeding rollers. In the other variety, the knives are placed parallel to the axis of the cylinder, and therefore straight in the edge; while the cutting-box is elongated into a nozzle, and is twisted to an angle of 15° with the axis of the feeding rollers. I prefer this latter variety, because the knives, being straight, are easily taken off and put on, and sharpened by any common smith or carpenter, and twisted knives are generally very heavy to work.

1227. The cylinder straw-cutter with straight knives, as constructed by Mr James Slight, Edinburgh, at prices from £7, 10s. to £8, 10s., is represented by fig. 91, being a view in perspective of the machine. The machine is made entirely of iron, chiefly cast-iron. The two side-frames a a, are connected together by the stretcher bolts b, one being formed of the bedplate c, which is bolted to a projecting bracket, and carries the cheeks or frame of the feedingrollers. The lower roller carries upon its axle the driving-wheel g, and also the feeding-wheel, which works into its equal wheel i, fitted upon the axle of the upper roller. In

the apex of the side-frames, bearings are formed for the axle of the cutter-wheels k, which form the skeleton cylinder, and whose axle carries also the driving-pinion l, acting upon the wheel g. Intermediate between the feeding-rollers and the cutter-wheels is placed the twisted cuttingbox or nozzle m, bolted to the roller-frame. On the further end of the cutter-wheel axle the fly-wheel n is fixed; and on the near end of the same the winch-handle o, by which the machine is worked. The feeding-trough p is hooked to the roller-frame at the mouth, and supported behind by the jointed foot q. The cutters r are made of the finest steel, backed with iron. The cutters are fixed upon the cylinders, each with two screw-bolts, as seen at r, passing through the ring of the wheel, and they are placed slightly eccentric to it; the cutting-edge being about inch more distant from the centre than the back. To secure the regular feed of the rollers, the lower one turns in fixed bearings; but the other is at liberty to rise and fall in the fork of the roller-frame. In order further to secure a uniform pressure on this roller, a bridge is inserted in the fork, resting on both journals of the roller. A compensation lever o has its forked fulcra through a strap, which is hooked on to pins in the roller-frame; and it thus bears upon the bridge at both sides by means of the forked end. A weight w is appended to the extremity of the lever, which, thus arranged, keeps a uniform pressure on the upper roller, while it is always at liberty to rise or fall

* Prize Essays of the Highland and

according to the thickness of the feed which the rollers are receiving.

1228. The Canadian Straw-cutter.-Besides this machine, I shall give a figure of a simple and efficient straw-cutter, which has been imported from Canada, as its name implies, and which is preferred by some persons to any other kind. A description of this machine was sent from Canada by Mr Fergusson of Woodhill, now of Fergus, Upper Canada, to the Highland and Agricultural Society, in whose Transactions it was first published; but the present figure is taken from the machine as made by Mr Slight, Edinburgh, who has greatly improved the construction of the cutting cylinder. Fig. 92 is a view in perspective of this machine. It consists of a wooden frame, of which a a a a are the four posts, the front pair being higher than the back pair. These are connected by two side-rails, one of which is seen at b, and a cross-rail c, which last serves also to support the bottom of the feeding-spout. The posts are further connected by four light stay-rails below; and the frame, when thus joined, supports the rollers at the front. The feeding-spout is d. The acting part of this strawcutter consists of the cutting cylinder e, armed with cutters or knives; its axle runs in plummerblocks, bolted upon the posts, and carries likewise the wheel f. The pressure cylinder g is a plain cylinder of hardwood, beech or elm, turned true upon an iron axle, which runs in plummerblocks similar to the former, and carries no wheel, but revolves by simple contact with the cutting cylinder. The pressure cylinder is furnished with a pair of adjusting screws at h h, which act upon the plummer-blocks of the cylinder, and afford the means of regulating the pressure of the one cylinder upon the other. The shaft i, which has also its plummer-blocks, carries at one end a pinion, which acts upon the wheel ƒ, while, at the other end, it carries the fly-wheel 7. The winch handle m is also attached to the shaft i, and serves to put the machine in motion.