work is to be done, their only rack-meat is bar ley-straw; a reserve of clover-hay being usually made against the hurry of seed-time. A bushel of corn in the most busy season is computed to be an ample allowance for each horse, and in more leisure times a much less quantity suffices. Oats and sometimes barley, when the latter is cheap and unsaleable, are given; but in this case the barley is generally malted, i. e. steeped and afterwards spread abroad for a few days, until it begin to vegetate, when it is given to the horses, and is supposed to be less heating than in its natural state. Chaff is universally mixed with horse corn; the great quantities of corn grown in this country afford in general a sufficiency of natural chaff; the chaff, or rather the awns of barley, which in some places are thrown as useless to the dunghill, are here in good esteem as provender. This method of keeping horses, which Mr. Marshal approves of in the Norfolk farmers, is practised, and probably has been so from time immemorial, in many places of the north of Scotland; and is found abundantly sufficient to enable them to go through the labor required. In summer they are in Norfolk kept out all night, generally in clover leys; and in summer their keep is generally clover only, a few tares excepted.

In the Annals of Agriculture, vol. iv., Mr. Young gives an account of the expenses of keeping horses; which, notwithstanding the vast numbers kept in the island, seem still to be very indeterminate, as the informations he received varied no less than on his own farm of the expense of horses kept from £8 to £25 a year. From accounts kept for no other purpose than that of agriculture he stated the average of the whole at £11 12s. 3d. On the discordant accounts he received, Mr. Young observes that many of the extra expenses depend on the extravagance of the servants; while some of the apparent savings depend either on their carelessness, or stealing provender from their beasts privately. He concludes, however, that the more exactly the expense of horses is examined into, the more advantageous will the use of oxen be found.' Every day's experience convinces me more and more of this. If horses kept for use alone, and not for show, have proved thus expensive to me, what must be the expense to those farmers who make their fat sleek teams an object of vanity? It is easier conceived than calculated.'

Notwithstanding all these strong arguments, urged by Mr. Young, Mr. Henry Harper, an eminent Lancashire farmer, in a comparative view of the expense of the purchase and keep of three horses and three oxen for one year, makes a balance of £44 Os. 6d. in favor of horses. But in the calculation he states 49s. per week, or £127 8s. a year, for gain by his horse team.

The Suffolk punch is a very useful animal for labor, according to Culley. Their color is mostly yellowish or sorrel, with a white ratch or blaze on their faces; the head large, ears wide, muzzle coarse, fore-end low, back long but very straight, sides flat, shoulders too far forward, hind quarters middling but rather high about the hips, legs round and short in the pasterns, deep

bellied and full in the flank. Here, perhaps, lies much of the merit of these horses; for we know, from observation and experience, that all deep-bellied horses carry their food long, and consequently are enabled to stand longer and harder days' works. However, certain it is that these horses do perform surprising days' works. It is well known that the Suffolk and Norfolk farmers plough more land in a day than any other people in the island; and these are the kind of horses every where used in those districts.'-Culley on Live Stock, p. 27.

Another horse in high repute for labor with the farmers in Scotland, and the north of England, is the Clydesdale: it is probably equal, says Mr. Cleghorn, to any other breed in Britain

Of the breeding and rearing of cattle.-These are reared for two different purposes, viz. for work, and for slaughter. For the former purpose Mr Marshal remarks that it is necessary to procure a breed without horns. This he thinks would be no disadvantage, as horn, though for merly an article of some request, is now of very little value. The horns are useless to cattle in their domestic state, though nature has bestowed them upon them as weapons of defence in their wild state; and our author is of opinion that it would be quite practicable to produce a hornless breed of black cattle as well as of sheep, which last has been done by attention and perseverance; and there are now many hornless breeds of sheep in Britain. Nay, he insists that there are already three or four breeds of hornless cattle in the island; and that there are many kinds of which numbers of individuals are hornless, and from these, by proper care and attention a breed might be formed. The first step is to select females; and, having observed their imperfections, to endeavour to correct them by a well chosen male.

The other properties of a perfect breed of black cattle for the purposes of the dairy as well as others, according to Mr. Marshal, are as follows:-1. The head small and clean, to lessen the quantity of offal. 2. The neck thin and clean, to lighten the fore end as well as to lessen the collar and make it sit close and easy to the animal in work. 3. The carcase large, the chest deep, and the bosom broad, with the ribs standing out full from the spine; to give strength of frame and constitution, and to admit of the intestines being lodged within the ribs. 4. The shoulders should be light of bone, and rounded off at the lower point, that the collar may be easy, but broad to give strength; and well covered with flesh for the greater ease of draught, as well as to furnish a desired point in fatting cattle. 5. The back ought to be wide and level throughout; the quarters long; the thighs thin, and standing narrow at the round bone; the udder large when full, but thin and loose when empty, to hold the greater quantity of milk; with large dug veins to fill it, and long elastic teats for drawing it off with greater ease. 6. The legs, below the knee and hock, straight, and of a middle length; their bones, in general, light and clean from fleshiness, but with the joints and sinews of a moderate size, for the purposes of strength and activity. 7. The flesh ought to be

mellow in the state of fleshiness, and firm in the state of fatness. 8. The hide mellow and of a middle thickness.

As the milk of cows is an article of great importance, it is an object to the husbandman, if possible, to prevent the waste of that useful fluid which in the common way of rearing calves is unavoidable. A method of bringing up these young animals at less expense is proposed by the duke of Northumberland. His plan is to make skimmed milk answer the purpose of that which is newly drawn from the teat; and which, he supposes, might answer the purpose at one-third of the expense of new milk. The articles to be added to the skimmed milk are treacle and the common linseed oil cake, ground very fine, and almost to an impalpable powder: the quantities of each being so small that to make thirty-two gallons would cost only sixpence, besides the skimmed milk. It mixes very readily, and almost intimately, with the milk, making it more rich and mucilaginous, without giving it any disagreeable taste. The recipe for making it is as follows:-Take one gallon of skimmed milk, and to about a pint of it add half an ounce of treacle, stirring it until it is well mixed; then take one ounce of linseed oil cake finely pulverised, and with the hand let it fall gradually in very small quantities into the milk, stirring it in the mean time with a spoon or ladle until it be thoroughly incorporated; then let the mixture be put into the other part of the milk, and the whole be made nearly as warm as new milk when it is first taken from the cow, and in that state it is fit for use. The quantity of the oil-cake powder may be increased as occasion requires, and as the calf becomes inured to its flavor.

On this subject Mr. Young remarks that, in rearing calves, there are two objects of great importance. 1. To bring them up without any milk at all; and, 2. To make skimmed milk answer the purpose of such as is newly milked or sucked from the cow. In consequence of premiums offered by the London Society, many attempts have been made to accomplish these desirable purposes; and Mr. Budel, of Wanborough in Surrey, was rewarded for an account of his method. This was to give the calves a gruel made of ground barley and oats. But Mr. Young, who tried this method with two calves, assures us that both of them died. When in Ireland he had an opportunity of purchasing calves at three days old from 1s. 8d. to 3s. each; by which he was led to repeat the experiment many times over. This he did in different ways, having collected various recipes. In consequence of these he tried hay tea, bean meal mixed with wheat flour, barley and oats ground nearly but not exactly in Mr. Budel's method; but the principal one was flax seed boiled into a jelly, and mixed with warm water: this being recommended more than all the rest. The result of all these trials was that, out of thirty calves, only three or four were reared; these few were brought up with barley and oatmeal, and a very small quantity of flax seed jelly: one only excepted, which at the desire of his coachman was brought up on a mixture of two-thirds of

skimmed milk and one-third of water, with a small addition of flax seed jelly well dissolved. The second object, namely, that of improving skimmed milk, according to the plan of the duke of Northumberland, seems to be the more practicable of the two. Mr. Young informs' us that it has answered well with him for two seasons; and two farmers to whom he communicated it gave likewise a favorable report.

In vol. iii. of the same work we are informed that the Cornwall farmers use the following method in rearing their calves:-They are taken from the cow from the fourth to the sixth day; after which they have raw milk from six to ten or fourteen days. After this they feed them with scalded skimmed milk and gruel made of shelled oats, from three quarts to four being given in the morning, and the same in the evening. The common family broth is thought to be better than the gruel. The proportion of gruel o broth is about one-third of the milk giver them. A little fine hay is set before them, which they soon begin to eat.'

In vol. v. of Bath Papers, we have an accoun by Mr. Crook of a remarkably successful expe riment in rearing calves without milk at all This gentleman, in 1787, weaned seventeer calves; in 1788, twenty-three; and in 1789 fifteen. In 1787 he bought three sacks of linseed, value £2 5s. which lasted the whole three years. One quart of it was put to six quarts of water; which, by boiling ten minutes, was reduced to a jelly; the calves were fed with this mixed with a small quantity of tea made by steeping the best hay in boiling water. By the use of this food three times a day, he says that his calves throve better than those of his neighbours which were reared with milk.-These unnatural kinds of food, however, are in many cases apt to produce a looseness, which in the end proves fatal to the calves. In Cornwall they remedy this sometimes by giving acorns as an astringent; sometimes by a cordial of which opium is the basis. In Norfolk the calves are reared with milk and turnips; sometimes with oats and bran mixed among the latter. Winter calves are allowed more milk than summer ones; but they are universally allowed new milk, or even to suck.

According to Parkinson there seem to be two distinct kinds of Welsh cattle. The large sort are of a brown color, with some white on the rump and shoulders,denoting a cross from the long horns, though in shape not the least resembling them. They are long in the legs, stand high according to their weight, are thin in the thigh, and rather narrow in the chine; their horns are white and turned upwards; they are light in flesh, and, next to the Devons, well formed for the yoke; have very good hoots, and walk light and nimble. The other sort is much more valuable; color black, with very little white; of a good useful form, short in the leg, with round deep bodies; the hide is rather thin, with short hair; they have a likely look and a good eye; and the bones though not very small, are neither large nc clumsy; and the cows are considered go milkers.' (Parkinson on Live Stock, vol. i. 135).

r Alderney cattle are much prized in England for the sake of their milk, which is rich, and not always small in quantity. The race is considered by competent judges as too delicate and tender to be propagated to any extent in Britain. Their color is mostly yellow, light red, or dark dun, with white or mottled faces; they have short horns, are small in size, and often ill shaped; yet are they fine in bone; and their beef, though high colored, is well flavored. Mr. Culley says he has seen some very useful cattle bred from a cross between an Alderney cow and a short horned bull. See Bos.

'Whatever be the breed,' says Mr. Culley, 'I presume that, to arrive at excellence, there is one form or shape essential to all, which form I shall attempt to give in the following description

of a bull.

The head of the bull should be rather long, and muzzle fine; his eyes lively and prominent; his ears long and thin; his horns white; his neck rising with a gentle curve from the shoulders, and small and fine where it joins the head; his shoulders moderately broad at the top, joining full to his chine and chest backwards, and to the neck-vane forwards; his bosom open; breast broad, and projecting well before his legs; his arms or fore thighs muscular, and tapering to his knee; his legs straight, clean, and very fine boned; his chine and chest so full as to leave no hollow behind the shoulders; the plates strong to keep his belly from sinking below the level of his breast; his back or loin broad, straight, and flat; his ribs rising above one another, in such a manner that the last rib shall be rather the highest, leaving only a small space to the hips or hooks, the whole forming a round or barrel-like carcase; his hips should be wide placed, round or globular, and a little higher than the back; the quarters (from the hip to the rump) long, and, instead of being square, as recommended by some, they should taper gradually from the hips backward, and the turls or pottbones not in the least protuberant; rumps close to the tail; the tail broad, well haired, and set on so high as to be in the same horizontal line with his back.' (Culley on Live Stock, p. 38.)

Of sheep. According to Culley there are fourteen different breeds of sheep in Great Britain, all of them readily distinguishable by their horns, or by being hornless, by the color of their faces and legs, and by the length and quality of their wool. Parkinson (on Live Stock, vol. i. p. 249) enumerates no fewer than thirty-seven breeds. Perhaps,' says the article Agriculture, Supplement to Encyclopædia Britannica, 'the most eligible mode of classification would be, to consider separately those races which are best adapted to enclosed arable land; those which occupy green hills, downs, and other tracts of moderate elevation; and, finally, such as inhabit the higher hills, and mountains. On the first description of land every sort of practicable improvement may be effected, though there the carcase has hitherto been the chief object; on the second, the carcase is smaller but the wool generally finer,-and it is probably with such sheep that the greatest improvements ought to be attempted on the

fleece; and, on the last division, the breeds are necessarily small and hardy, and, in regard to form and general properties, still almost in a state of nature. The improvement of sheep must mainly depend on the circumstances of every district, in regard to the food and shelter it affords them; and it is only where these indispensable requisites are abundantly provided by nature, or by human industry, that the most skilful management can be successful.

Culley gives, as in the case of cattle, his idea of the best general form of the male :-' His head,' he says, of the ram, 'should be fine and small, his nostrils wide and expanded, his eyes prominent, and rather bold or daring, ears thin, his collar full from his breast and shoulders, but tapering gradually all the way to where the neck and head join, which should be very fine and graceful, being perfectly free from any coarse leather hanging down; the shoulders broad and full, which must at the same time join so easy to the collar forward, and chine backward, as to leave not the least hollow in either place; the mutton upon his arm, or fore-thigh, must come quite to the knee; his legs upright, with a clean fine bone, being equally clear from superfluous skin and coarse hairy wool from the knee and hough downwards; the breast broad and well forward, which will keep his fore-legs at a proper wideness; his girth or chest full and deep, and, instead of a hollow behind the shoulders, that part by some called the fore-flank should be quite full; the back and loins broad, flat, and straight, from which the ribs must rise with a fine circular arch; his belly straight, the quarters long and full, with the mutton quite down to the hough, which should neither stand in nor out; his twist deep, wide, and full, which, with the broad breast, will keep his four legs open and upright; the whole body covered with a thin pelt, and that with fine, bright, soft wool. The nearer any breed of sheep comes up to the above description, the nearer they approach towards excellence of form.'

This kind of stock is highly advantageous to the farmer in various points of view: as supplying food and clothing, and as a means of improving the farm. See OVIS, SHEEP, and WOOL. The sheep of different counties excel in these different properties, and in some parts they have been much improved by crossing the breeds. Kent, in his Survey of Norfolk, observes, that there ought always to be some affinity or similitude between the animals which are crossed. It is, says he, a manifest incongruity to match a Norfolk and a Leicester sheep; or a Norfolk and a South Down; or any long-woolled sheep with a short-woolled; but a Leicestershire sheep may be matched, with some degree of propriety, with a Cottswold; and a South Down sheep with a Berkshire or a Herefordshire Ryland.

In the Survey of Staffordshire Mr. Pitt says, the Wiltshires crossed by a heavy ram have produced sheep, at little more than two years old, of forty pounds per quarter, and which have been sold to the butcher at £3 10s. each. The Dorsetshire breed, which are well made and compact, have often answered well, and are, in the opinion of some experienced farmers, equa

most the whole of the sheep kept on the upland farms of East Kent are the true Romney marsh breed; whose carcases and bones being large, and wool long and heavy, they require rich land and good keep to make them fat. Mr. Boys keeps no other than South Down sheep, and has every reason to be satisfied with them: his flock is about 1000, 400 of which are breeding ewes. In the isle of Sheppey the sheep are of the Romney marsh sort, true Rents. The soil being much inferior to Romney marsh, the sheep are somewhat smaller; and, from the same cause, their wool is lighter and finer. The wethers are fattened at three years old, then weighing from twenty to twenty-four pounds per quarter. The sheep mostly kept in the district of West Kent are the South Down sort, bought in wether lambs at the autumnal fairs on the Downs, Oc. tober 2nd. The usual practice with the lambs in the Romney marshes is that of sending them, about the beginning of September, to be kept by the neighbouring upland or hill farmers during the winter. They go in separate lots, being received at certain appointed places by the farmers, and driven to the houses or taken to the farms by their servants. They are then commonly put upon the stubbles or grattons, as they are called; but in some cases they have also pastures to run upon, though too little attention is, in general, paid to the changing of them; by which they suffer much, and are often greatly injured, especially such as are weakly and delicate. It is found that there is a prodigious benefit in keeping the lambs in winter, in such situations, in having the grounds dry and warm, instead of being of a cold, wet, clayey nature. Lambs should by no means be stocked along with the ewes, as the old sheep will constantly take the feed, and stench the land, by which the lambs may be greatly hurt. They should always be stocked separately, and the pastures be frequently changed, circumstances which are little regarded here. Some think that lambs do not thrive well on being put to grass, after having been fed on luxuriant food, such as turnips, old tares, rye-grass, &c. The price of the keeping of lambs in these cases is very different; some paying only 3s. 6d. the lamb, while others pay 5s.; and where no neat stock are kept they charge as high as from 6s. to 6s. 6d. the head, for the space of about six months. This is but a late advance; however it makes the price of keep a serious object. The loss of lambs in this system of winter management is occasionally considerable, but depends much on the nature of the season, as to mildness or severity, amounting in some cases to four or more in 100.

The tegs, or one-year old lambs, in this system are brought from the uplands, where they have been wintered too often in a low state of condition, for the supply of the marsh graziers, which enables them to keep more ewes and fattening sheep on the marsh lands. This is done about the beginning of April, when the upland farmers are indulged with a feast or treat at the expense of the graziers, as a recompense for their care and attention to the lambs, in which liberality has a great effect. As the flocks reach the marsh, they are put into the poorest pastures, at the rate of five to the acre, their old sheep being

just sold to make room for them. These are commonly the best conditioned tegs, in which there may sometimes be loss from the sudden transition from poor to too good keep, though they are not, in general, so subject to some sorts of disease as the old ones, on such changes being made in their food. The marsh sheep-graziers have lately been much in the practice of prevailing on the farmers to keep such flocks a fortnight, or even double that time, on turnips, which has the advantage of enabling them to double the stock on the same pastures during the summer; while, on the other hand, it is evident that, when they are so hard stocked early in the spring, they can neither have so luxuriant a growth nor be so full of grass. The pastures are likewise eased gradually, as the fat ewes or wethers are taken off, and their places supplied by the wether-tegs, while the ewe-tegs are suffered to remain on their original pastures until they are selected, or set for going to the rams. The wether tegs in the autumn are removed to the fatting, and the ewe-tegs to the breeding grounds, among the two and three yearling ewes. The wethers remain till July or August following, when, as they become fat, they are drawn out and sold to the butchers at the marsh markets, or sent to Smithfield. The two-yearling wethers, when fat, at this season weigh from twenty to twenty-eight pounds per quarter; and some of the largest and best fed a few pounds more. The old ewes, there called barrens, are put to fattening as soon as their milk is dried after the third lamb, which is at the age of four years, on some of the best lands; where they are placed, from two to three per acre, for the winter. These, in favorable winters, are sometimes made fat, and sold in the spring. The practice of fattening sheep on turnips, assisted by oil cake, corn, hay, saintfoin, &c., is greatly in use among the upland farmers of this county; not so much for the profit by feeding with those articles, as for the great improvement of the soil where the turnips are fed off. The manure from sheep fed on oil cake and turnips is reckoned very enriching to the land. A great number of fold flocks of lean sheep are kept by the farmers in the east part of the county, of from eight to twenty score. These are each attended by a shepherd, who removes the fold every morning to fresh ground, at six o'clock in summer, and at break of day in winter: the flock is then driven away to the most inferior keep at the first part of the morning, and is returned into the fold for two or three hours in the middle of the day, while the shepherd goes to dinner; in the afternoon it is gradually led to the best keep in the farm, that the sheep may return full fed to the fold in the evening. Great caution is necessary in feeding sheep on clover in summer, and on turnips in the first part of winter.

Mr. Robertson has inserted the following account of feeding ewes with early lambs in his Survey of Mid Lothian, as stated by an accurate observer. The number in all was sixty; fed off in four weeks the expense was £12. Thus each lamb cost 4s. The expense of twenty fed five weeks was £5 12s. 6d., or 5s. 74d. each lamb:Feeding on grass takes six weeks to feed off. The average rent of good grass may be £2 per