The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-10-10 00:00:00

Agriculturr.

CATCHING SHEEP.—Never seize a sheep by the wool
on the back; it is very hurtful to the animal, par-
ticularly in warm weather, when he is large and fat.
The be 4 way to catch a-sheep is by the bind leg or by
the neck. The animal is easiest held by placing one
hand under the lower jaw and the other back of its can,
and slightly raising its head.—The Scottish Farmer.

CLEAN PIGSI AND DIRTY PlGS.—Pigs enjoy the repu-
tation of having a real liking for dirt; and, certainly,
the way in which they are kept on some farms would
show that their owners are determined to give them
aeople opportunities for etrrying out this liking. No
notion can, however, be more erroneous than tlis, as
none is certainly so productive of loss to the keeper.
Let any one not convinced of this try the two modes of
pig.keeping—the dirty and the clean—the food in both
cases, and other general treatment, being the same;
and the result will show him which of the two is the
best in the end. A great deal depends upon the mode
in which they are housed. Mr. Raines, of Mills, adopts
the following :—A large not-house is enclosed at the
sides, so as to be warm and dry. The floor is paved.
and sprinkled over with burnt clay, and ashee obtained
•by burning weeds. In this the pigs are fed; while for
resting and sleeping they have a compartment railed off
at the other end, and which is amply provided with
clean straw. In another case, the principle of bog
feeding has been applied, the pigs being kept in • pit,
into which the manure from the ox or cow stables and
the horse stables is pot: The pigs tread this down, and
enjoy themselves amazingly. In one case, where this
plan has been adopted, the farmer states that his pigs
"have given him a profit by their meat, and left the
dang—as good as guano—for nothing."—The Scottish
Farmer.

WitERR FAT AND FLESH COMIC FROM.—They come
from the earth and the atmosphere, collected by vegeta-
tion. Grua contains flesh; so does grain. The animal
system puts it on from these. Vegetation then is the
medium through which the animal world exists; it can
exist in no other way. When grass or grain is eaten,
the flesh constituents are retained in the system; so also
the faity substance, that is the starch and sugar, from
which fat is made. Some grains have more flesh than
others; so of the qualities that make.fat. In a hundred
parts of wheat, according to Piesse, are ten pounds of
flesh; in a hundred parts of oatmeal, nearly double that
amount. Hence oats are better for horses, on account
of their flesh-forming princip'e, rather than fat, as
muscle is what a horse wants. For fattening purposes,
however, corn and other grains are better. When flesh
itself is eaten, the system but appropriates what is
already formed, but would as readily take it from
vegetables, from flour. The flesh-making principle- or
the flesh itself, in its constituents—goes to form cheese
in the dairy; the starch, &c., butter. Hence it is that
some people assert that cream has little influence in
cheese, farther than to enrich it: for cheese and butter
are entirely distinct. The same kind of food is equally
good for the production of either. This is a point of
considerable interest, and is not yet fully explained—
indeed, it is yet in its infancy. And a plant us its dif.
ferent stages of growth has a different effect. The fat
. . . . . .

of the plant is 17eld in reserve for the seed; nothing is
wasted in leaves, wood, Ito.; the precious seed mast
have it. Hence, when this takes plaoe, the stalk is
comparatively worthless to what it is prior to the change.
And the fat cannot be appropriated so well in the seed
as when it is diffused through the italk. Tender herb-
age, therefore, is the beat; and when secured before the
direction of the oil takes place, so mush the better will
be the hay.—Bural World.