STALL-FEEDING

Cattle kept in stables, and tied up separately, which have their food brought to them, are said to be stall-fed. The advantages of this mode of fattening cattle are very great, both to the farmer or feeder and to the public; because much le food is wasted, and a much greater quantity of manure is produced. The disadvantages are, that more manual labour is required for cutting and carrying the food from the field to the stable; and that the flesh of the animals, for want of exercise in the latter, is not considered so wholesome or high-flavoured as that of cattle which have pastured at large. To remedy this defect of stall-feed, mg, the most enlightened farmers, instead of rendering their cattle fixtures by tying them up to stakes, put two or three together in small yards, with a shed at one end, in which they can take exercise, shelter, or repose, according to their mclination. By this mode an equal quantity of manure is produced with le labour, and the flesh of the cattle is reckoned wholesome. When herbage plants 1142 STANZA. or gra es are cut over only two or three times in the course of a season, instead of being continually cropped by the bite of cattle during the whole summer, the amount of vegetable produce is found to be much greater, because the plant while growing perfects a sufficient number of leaves to nourish the root; and when this produce is given to cattle in racks, in stables, sheds, or small courts, much le of it is wasted than if it were eaten on the spot where it grew. Hence any given surface of cultivated land will produce a much greater quantity of butcher meat under crops to be mown than under herbage to be pastured; and stall-feeding, therefore, is one of the greatest modern improvements that has been introduced into husbandry. There can be little doubt that, with the progre of rural improvement, it will ultimately becoine universal; and then, and not till then, will the butcher meat of warm climates be equal to that of such climates as that of Britain. In warm climates, at present, cattle cannot be fattened by pasturing. [s. 1155]