The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-04-08 00:00:00

glgriculturt.

MANUFACTURED CATTLE FOODS.—The great value
of Odaske as food for Stock, and the high price for
whish it sells, has led to many inquiries for a soh.
stitute. The possibility of manufacturing " • Cattle
Food," the selling price of which should be sufficiently
low to make it a cheaper food than Oilcake or our
common unmannfactured foods, is worth a little con.
sideration. As every proems of manufacture must
necessarily add to the cost of the raw material, it is
evident that it mast be far cheaper to use the raw
material as food, without patting it through any process
of mmufasture, unless this process gives rise to certain
things which may be included under one of the two
following heads. let.—That • certain portion of the
ingredients contained in the food, possess a value for
commercial purposes beyond that which they are worth
merelyas food ;and consequently enable the manufacturer
to sell the residue at a lower price as cattle food. 2nd.
—That by a certain process of manufacture, the elements
of food can be arranged so as to produce • feeding value
more than equivalent to the coat of manufacture. In
the manufacture of Oilcakes, we have examples of the
cost of manufacture being recovered in the high com-
mercial value of certain ingredient, contained in the
food. The wed crusher produces oil for commercial
purposes. The residue under the general term " Cake,"
is in much demand amongst agriculturists, either for
cattle food, or as manure. If however, this residue was
of no value, oil would still be produced. The seed
crusher it is true is enabled to sell his oil at a lower
price, on amount of the price which the farmer is willing
to give for the mike ; but it is the commercial demand
for oil, and not the sericulture demand for cake, which
gives rise to this branch of trade. Linseed oil Is generally
worth two or three times as mach as the seed containing
it, whi'e the cake is, weight for weight, cheaper than
the seed; the cost of manufacture is therefore recovered
in the price for which the oil will sell as an article of
commerce, and hence the manufactured cake is a cheaper
food than the seed in its natural state. If our common
feeding substances, such as beans, lentils, barley, locust
beans, ke., contained some ingredient of high commercial
value similar to oil, we should undoubtedly have a fair
basis for the manufacture of • food for cattle ; in the
absence of this, the manufacture of these or similar sub-
stances into " a Cattle Food," must depend for its
success upon the combination of the elements of the
foods into more nutritions compounds. The manufacturer
while admitting, is he would be compelled to do, that the
several ingredients contained in his food, such as starch,
sugar, oil, ko, could be purchased by the farmer at a
much lower price in the ordinary foods, must show, that
it would be worth while for farmers to give • higher
price for these substances, as they were combined in
mush better proportion, and possessed a greater nutritive
effect in the artificial than in the natural food. The
experiments on the feeding of various animals, which
have bum conducted for so many years Itothainsted, do
not hold out much hope of success in this direetion ; they
show that the Matins between the 'various *lamb et

food as they exist in the ordinary grains, are petfectly
Fuitable for the requiraments of the fattening animal,.
That the elements which form fat and felt, us they
exist in barley meal, are perfectly suitable for the pro-
duction of pork ; and that • food to he successfully
substituted for barley meat, should supply the same
elements in a cheaper form. From the above rem I rks,
it will be seen that the manufacture of " Cattle Foods,"
as • distini t branch of trade, is not likely to prove of
any service to agriculture. Tho production of most at
a low cost, will depend upon the liberal sopply of im-
ported fending substances, tm bo used in the untuann-
factored atate, anil not upon the preparation of them
toy an peculiar process of manitfactitre,-4 We entirely
concur with the whole of these reinarks.—ED. D. C. El
ACHICIATURK IN NORFOLK.—The weather has been
very wet of late in Norfolk, and the heavy rains have
improved the growing wheat crop on the light lands.
In some localities land has been renown with Talavera,
and other spring varieties. The bulk of the wheats in
Norfolk look well, but there is a greater deficiency or
plant than WWI at one time imagined. Bayley was to a
great extent got in in excellent order in February, but
the wet weather which has since prevailed has rendered
it possible to plant only small quantitien during
March. A few fine days would riermit the dry hinds
to be worked to advantage, but onstiff mails the remainder
of the crop will not be planted till season in very good
order. The grass crops have profited greatly by the
abundance of moisture, and only require a genial spring
to assume • great development. As regards the imme-
diately available keep for stock, the swedes hold out well,
but the triangolds, are, unfortnnntely, turning out un-
Benoit to rather a considerable extent.

FARMING IN prize essay on
Hampshire fanning, written by the Rev. W. Will moon.
Mr Blundell, of Burslotto., is cited as an example of
what a spirited tenant-farming can do in this district.
His farm consists of 150 acres of arable and 25 acres of
pasture land. He has thrown down all his hedges on
the amble land, The soil—a seedy loam with a " stiff
putty-like subsoil"—has been well drained. " Ile has
en regular eystem of rotation, bat his corps of wheat
follow in very close succession, end are taken any how
and anywhere, ii he thinks the land capable of producing
them. The result for twenty-nine years Is, tl,at he has
never failed in rearing • good crop in anything
like a favourable season, which shows that more
depends en season than on cultivation or rotation.
Ile las, however, this general scheme; two-
111th, of the whole farm wheat, one-fifth
potatoes, one-fifth oat., one fifth grass and
roots." For years Mr. Blundell has annually £3OO
worth of potatoes, and has besides grown 460 sacks of
wheat. "On the whole, the potatoes have been snore
profitable then the wheat, and yet the wheat has run
up to 52 buahels per acre and 63 Ilia per bushel." The
following new•unt of his adoption of the existing farm-
bstlliogs a useful lesson to farmers as well as
landowners:—" 31r. 131undelre farm-buildings ore well
worthy ce atts nt'on, though he has constnicted
nothing new. Finding here the usuel old barn, with
wooden wells and thatched roof, and sheds of the sante
construction, such as would he callsd in their original
state anything hut good, he did better than throw them
down and rebuild ; lie adapted, at very trifling expense,
eld remises to new circumstances. There is now no
farm-yard in the ordinary acceptation rf the term, no
cattle wondering about, no rough cowe, no poor pigs.
He censiders a farm-yard • bad place for a manure
store ...... ..To put 20 or 30 tons of straw into a yard,
to turn a few cows and pigs over it, and then as soon
as it is wet to cart it out, is held to be a wasteful
system, however common. Hew, then, are the cattle
housed and dung made? All the corn is thrashed
and dressed by the rick side with steam power, so the barn
is not wanted ; this, therefore, is conv rted into •
feeding-house; the mows are excavated two feet,
divided by moveable rails, the food is prepared on
the floor, on which also the carts ars backed, wl.cn
the dung is hassled out straight from the pits to the
field. Mr. Blundell considers no feeding-houses that
could be constructed for cattle equal to a barn, where
there is good height and ventilation. The bullocks are
not tied up ; they are littered deep with straw, and
from their birth to their death there they stay.
Whether growing or grazing, nothing can look better.
I saw two fat heifers there, one 17, the other 24 months
old, weighing respectively 30 and 40 score, and paving
for their keep 3s. U. per week throughout their bees.
In the preparation of cattle-food there is as little
trouble and expense as possible—no steaming, no cook-
ing for any animals; the roots are simply sliced for the
bullocks and pulped for the pigs." Dorset and Somerset
horned ewes—SO in number—are bought in the autumn,
and the lambs and ewes in the following year sold off
fat. Fat lambs are sold by Easter, and the ewes arc
all disposed of by May, and no sheep are kept on the
farm during the mummer. The usual stock on the farm
consists, besides the 60 ewes, of "11 buttocks up to fat.
besides dairy cows and young stock, 20 head in all; 20
pigs, 4 cart-horses, and a horse for odd jobs. His
ordinary staff for leanestl labour is 7 sues:, 4 women,
and 2 boys." It is stated "that the improving farmers
of Hants are for the most part new men, coming from
other parts." There are, however, exceptions, one of
whom, Mr. Richard Withers, jun., a tenant of one of
Lord Palmerston's farms, is mentioned. He follows
the old system of cultivation, hot does everything well,
deep ploughing, chalking, and clearing the land, and
gets good crops. The New Forest and the middle or
chalk districts are fully described. On the chalk every
sort of rotation is followed, one of the most important
of modern changes being the adoption of two successive
green crops, after which wheat and barley are grown
successively. This use been found very successful both
for growing corn and sheep food. The general prin-
ciple of all the rotations being that one-half the arable
land to be cropped with grain, and the other half with
green and root ciops. The chalk lend fanners of Hamp-
shire reckon to keep one sheep for every pound of rent
paid. Sheep are a main dependence. The farms are
large and leases are Few.ral, rents ranging from 13s. to
203. per acre. In II sl's there are sixteen persons using
the steam-plough, and in South Berke and the Western
portions of Surrey and Sussex there are fourteen more
such plonghs at work, but in Hampshire (excluding the
Isle of Wight) not one steam•plough has ewer been
bought or used. Mn. Wilkinson pointedly mentions as
a recently introduced improvement in smile parts of
the county, and still required in other parts, "the (ga-
p/Mutton of farm-yard dung to the wheat crop." For-
merly such manure was applied exclusively to the
turnips. Now, 'as the turnips, soluble superphosphate
will give the rapid start, and bones maintain the
growth, which these ravenous feeders once derived, at
much waste and cost, from black rotten dune