the most common distempers to which they are peculiarly liable.
I. With respect to food.
The first object in the article of food, is wholesomeness: wild cattle feed entirely on the green vegetables, which they find throughout the year. Similar nutriment should therefore, if possible, be procured for tame cattle, in all seasons; but such food can be found only among those plants, which are either constantly green, or arrive at maturity in the winter. Of all vegetable productions, the most exuberant, for this purpose, appears to be the cabbage, with its numerous varieties, of which we have already spoken: the disagreeable taste, which that plant is supposed to impart to milk, can be no reasonable objection to its use; as it may be obviated by boiling, or, still more effectually, by preparing it in certain vessels, of which we shall give a description, with a cut, under the head of Root-Steamer.
Turnips and carrots constitute the next article, and cannot be too forcibly recommended, especially as a winter food. So very great is the produce of the latter plant, that, according to the account of Mr. Arthur Young, twenty work-horses, four bullocks, and six milch-cows, were fed at Partington, in Yorkshire, for above five months, with carrots, the produce of three acres; nor did they, during that period, taste any other food, except a little hay. The milk, he farther adds, was excellent, and the refuse fattened thirty hogs, with very little additional food.
Potatoes and buck-wheat furnish a supply, equally excellent and wholesome. Horses are particularly fond of the latter, which also fattens poultry very speedily, while its blossoms afford a fragrant food for bees, at a period when the vegetable creation is, for the most part, stripped of its verdure. To these may be added, the plant, called whins, the utility of which, has but lately become generally known. They require, it is true, to be ground in a mill, before they are given to cattle, and do not materially ameliorate the ground, a circumstance considered as an objection to their culture; but, notwithstanding these apparent disadvantages, they produce an excellent and invigorating fodder, and constitute one of the cheapest articles of winter provision; as they continue green during the whole year, and will grow on the most indifferent soils.
Burnet, white beet, the Manged Wurzel, or root of scarcity, having been already mentioned, it is unnecessary again to point out their utility in feeding cattle.
There is another branch of the vegetable creation, usually denominated grasses, which contain a variety of species, that are particularly useful for this purpose, such as the Festuca ovina, or sheep's fescue; the Festuca rubra, creeping, or purple fescue; and the Holcus lanatus, meadow soft-grass; the physical properties of which, we shall notice hereafter. To this number belongs likewise the Astragalus glycyphillos, sweet milk-vetch, or wild liquorice-vetch, or milk-wort, as it is differently called; which, independently of its utility in affording a wholesome and nutritious winter-fodder, deserves every attention from the cultivator, as it will flourish luxuriantly on the most barren soil.—
