here to the hair in the hinder and under parts of the body with a large blunt knife; and this attention is more necessary at the beginning of the season than afterwards, as the freshness of the stems, and the juiciness of the roots of the turnips, and the greediness which all cattle evince for them at first, cause a looseness in their bowels. He should observe the first indication of lice on their skins in the early part of the spring: these may be easily destroyed, by applying to the affected parts a solution of mercurial ointment; but, if neglected, they will cause much uneasiness to the cattle, making their hair peel off, and exposing to view an unsightly skin: and he may handle them frequently on every part of their body, as they are very fond of being handled when they are rising in condition, and in order also "to accustom them to the too frequent intrusion of man," (which Mr Loudon deprecates), as cattle, when they have been accustomed to be handled, will stand better, and show themselves more satisfactorily to the buyer; and there is something so winning in a gentle disposition in powerful animals, caused by good treatment, that a buyer will prefer them, when they have to be driven a distance upon the road; and the butchers in the neighbourhood will also prefer them, as they will walk peaceably to the shambles, without the risk of being raised to a frenzy. All these constitute the minutiae of the business of feeding cattle on turnips in winter, and trifling as they may appear, attention to them will amply repay, in the shape of prime beef and docile cattle, all the extra labour bestowed. The whole may be easily accomplished by any man who regulates his movements by the watch; and the man who has the charge of cattle in winter that will do this, whether he is seen by his master or not, is an inestimable servant.

The quantity of turnips which feeding cattle will consume, as stated by most writers, nearly accords with our own experience; namely, that about one ton will be consumed every week by an ox of from 60 to 70 stones, or about one acre of a fair crop of turnips in six months. Thirty-three double horse cartloads of turnips, each weighing from 16 cwt. to 18 cwt., are a good crop on light sharp lands. We have frequently had that

Q 2

quantity. An acre of good turnips, with straw, not in the immediate neighbourhood of a town, will fetch L. 5; and an ox that has been well kept all his days will increase 20 stones in six months, which, at 6s. 6d. per stone, will produce L. 6, 10s. If the second growth of grass has continued fresh till the latter part of autumn, cattle may be soon enough put up to feed by the first of November; but if the grass fail sooner, which it will in most seasons do, the middle of October is late enough for putting them up to feed. White globe turnips are an excellent juicy food for cattle till the new year, after which should follow the yellow or green tops, for two months longer, and then the Swedish turnips will finish the season. If the Swedish turnips have been stored up before the second growth of the stem has made its appearance in spring, they may be taken out quite fresh till the beginning of June. Since the cultivation of the potato has increased so rapidly, within these few years, many people now feed their cattle on it in spring, either wholly or mixed with turnips. When cattle are fed on potatoes, attention ought to be paid after feeding, for fear of internal swelling. When observed at first, the swelling may be allayed by pouring down the throat a bottleful or less of common whale oil, which will check the fermentation, and operate as a purgative. Should any of the young cattle or the feeding beasts in the byre choke on a piece of turnip, for those fed in hammels never or very seldom do so, the best expedient is to use the probang at once, rather than permit the throat of the poor animal to be squeezed in attempting to push the piece of turnip up or down, and so inflaming the throat. The probang may be used with great success, by causing the animal to be forcibly held by superior strength, with its neck and mouth stretched forward, and whilst one is pushing the instrument gently down, another is directing the end of it down the gullet on the outside of the neck. When the object of obstruction is pushed down into the stomach, let the instrument be gently drawn out, and if, during the operation, the animal forcibly twists its head about, the instrument should instantly be let go. Feeding cattle will eat very little straw; but they ought to have abundance of litter at all times.

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Before concluding, we may say a few words on the comparative merits of feeding cattle in hammels and byres. Our decided predilection is in favour of hammels. In them the cattle are at perfect liberty to roam about, if disposed for exercise they are exposed to all the sunshine there may be in a winter day, and the very rain which falls on their backs titillates the skin, and causes them to lick and clean themselves; they are comfortably warm in their shed among an abundance of straw in the coarsest night, and cattle will never suffer from cold, when they have a comfortable shelter to which they can repair at will; they can come and go to their food whenever they please, night and day, and their meat being constantly in the open air, it will be always fresh and sweet; and their feet and hair when they come to travel are quite able to bear the hardness of the road, and the coldness of the air. These are all advantages which no byre can confer. Nor are the hammels so expensive in their original erection as many represent them to be. We have seen a range of them, consisting of five divisions, capable of feeding twenty large oxen, erected for L. 20; but these had no regular roof. The roofing of all buildings is the most expensive part of them. The roof of those to which we refer, consisted of trees laid across as beams about a foot asunder, the space between them being filled up with the branches of the spruce and Scots fir. Such a place was a choice one for stacking pease or beans upon. often appropriated; or it was covered with straw roped down, which was used as bedding for the cattle in the first part of the succeeding season, when fresh straw was put in its stead. In the hammels which faced the south, the cattle were well fed and comfortably lodged, and no byre could have afforded so much accommodation at the same expense.

To this purpose it was

H. S.

ON A COMBINATION OF GRASSES FOR ALTERNATE HUSBANDRY.

By Mr PATRICK SHIRREFF, Mungoswells. ·

IN the beginning of April 1828, the following quantities and kinds of seeds, viz. 140 lb. of red clover (Trifolium pratense), 65 lb. of white (Trifolium repens), 28 lb. of yellow (Medicago lupulina), 2 bushels rye-grass (Lolium perenne), 8 bushels cock's-foot (Dactylis glomerata), 4 bushels hard fescue (Festuca duriuscula), 85 lb. cat's-tail (Phleum pratense, major), were mixed together, and sown on 14 Scotch or 17-656 imperial acres of land; at the same time, 10 lb. of red clover, 5 lb. of white, 2 lb. of yellow, and 2 bushels of rye-grass seeds, were sown on one Scotch acre near the centre of the field on which the former mixture of seeds was sown. The soil is a heavy but not a clay loam, incumbent on a retentive subsoil: at the period in question it was in a high state of cultivation, and sustaining a crop of spring-sown wheat a few days above ground. To guard against mistakes, I myself mixed and sowed the seeds, which were rolled with a heavy roller. On reaping the wheat crop, the grass plants were thickly set in the ground; they grew vigorously, and in autumn were depastured with cattle, when the ground was in a dry state. The grasses were sown for pasturage, but circumstances ultimately induced me to devote them to the scythe.

On the 1st of May 1829, the field presented a fair appearance, and the ridges sown with the seeds of clover and rye-grass, from the early growth of the latter, were seemingly clothed with the most herbage; the clover soon overtopped the rye-grass, and the ridges might have been distinguished by their colour from the rest of the field, as far as the eye could discern objects. Before the end of the month, the crop from the general mixture of seeds, equalled in height that from clover and ryegrass. The culms of cock's-foot, hard fescue, and cat's-tail, rose in succession, and greatly exceeded in height those from red clover.

The mowers began to cut down the crop on the 29th of June. At this time the seeds of rye-grass were matured, while red clover, cock's-foot, hard fescue, and cat's-tail were shedding their blos

soms. To a casual observer, the crop on the ridges sown with the seeds of clover and rye-grass indicated extreme luxuriance, and seemed to exceed in weight that on the rest of the field; but, on close inspection, the prostrate state of these ridges was evidently owing to the clover having overpowered the rye-grass, and been beaten down by the weather, while, on the other part of the field, the high and numerous culms of cock's-foot, and cat's-tail in particular, supported and concealed from view the strength of the red clover. The hay-crop, from clover and rye-grass, was found to be thinnest on the ground, lightest on the scythe, and inferior both in quantity and quality of produce. The second crop or aftermath of the mixed grasses, both in earliness and quantity of produce, was superior to that of the clover and rye grass. In the middle of August, a portion of the aftermath from both crops was cut, and the produce of the third crop of the mixed grasses was still superior to the clover and rye-grass. Towards the end of October, the aftermath, springing from time to time from the second cutting of clover and rye-grass, obtained a superiority in colour, and perhaps also in produce, over that on the other parts of the field, a circumstance which I attribute to the young foliage of rye-grass enduring cold better than that of cock's-foot, fescue, and cat's-tail, and to a peculiarity of growing to a late period in the season, which some varieties of rye-grass possess.

The rye-grass seed sown in the experiment is much esteemed in this neighbourhood, and known by the name of Dickson's variety. The quantity of half a bushel of rye-grass, with a mixture of clover-seeds, has been found by experience to be an ample allowance for a Scotch acre of land, when the seed is of fine quality and highly dressed, as was the case in the present instance. The rye-grass was conspicuous for growing early in spring, as well as late in autumn, and remaining comparatively unproductive in the summer months.

The cock's foot, throughout the season, put forth new leaves with rapidity after being cut with the scythe, and produced culms to the hay-crop only: the fescue planted thinly, and also grew rapidly after being cut; the cat's-tail was later in producing flower-stalks than the other grasses used in the experiment, and after being cut, did not put forth new leaves so rapidly as the