blade. The most proper season for this business is early in the spring. The rush roots should be carried off to form a compost, and the hod holes, or cavities, filled level to the surface of the land with soil, and hay seeds be sown therein."

ORCHARDS.-P. 13. "Considering how well adapted to fruit trees, both the soil and climate are in many parts of the country, there has been a very great neglect in respect to the planting of orchards."

This remark, so far as relates to the paucity of orchard grounds in Cheshire, is strikingly just. But whether this privation is owing altogether to neglect, or whether the natural economy (the climature, soil, or subsoil) of Cheshire, as of Lancashire (which in many respects have a close resemblance of each other) is unfriendly to orchard fruits, is not for me to determinine, here.

HORSES. See the section Working Animals, p. 24, for. information on this subject.

SHEEP. On this subject, likewise, Mr. W's information is narrowly circumscribed.-P. 23. "There is not any generally fixed breed of sheep in Cheshire; each common or waste maintains a few; but on the forest of Delamere great numbers are kept. The wool of the forest sheep is fine; it sold in 1792 as high as thirty shillings the tod of twenty pounds; but last year did not reach twenty-six shillings; and some was sold as low as a guinea."

P. 29. "The Dairy-being the main object, there are very few sheep kept on the farms in Cheshire; what are kept, the farmers are supplied with chiefly from the Welch and Scotch markets, and from the neighbouring counties of Salop, Derby, &c. In general, no more sheep are kept on the farms, than can be supported by running in the stubbles, and picking the fallows.""

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Cheshire, as has been said, resembles Lancashire, in this and many other particulars. A traveller might pass through them without observing a sheep. The forest and. common sheep of Cheshire are similar to those of Shropshire; namely, a fine wooled variety of the ancient stock of the kingdom.

CATTLE.—Breed.—To this subject Mr. Wedge has paid more attention; and speaks of it, with a degree of intelligence.

P. 29. "There is no species of cattle which is peculiar to this county, and that being the case, the nature of the breed is scarcely to be described. The long-horned Lancashire, the Yorkshire short-horned or Holderness,

the Derbyshire, the Shropshire, the Staffordshire, the Welch, Irish, Scotch, and the new Leicestershire cattle, have at different times been introduced in different parts of the county, and the present stock of dairy cows is a mixture of all these breeds. It is impossible to say which of the intermixed breeds are the most approved of as milkers, milk being the general object. To describe the variety of opinions on this head, would be almost an endless task." P. 30. "The milking cows of Cheshire will not, it is thought, weigh more than seven scores per quarter, on the average, when fattened; their prevailing colours are red, brindled, and pied; with almost universally " finched,” or white backs."

These two passages may seem to be at variance :—the first asserts that there is no established breed in the county; while the latter tends to do away that idea. And, in speaking of "Improvements," toward the end of the volume, the Reporter expresses a doubt of whether the existing breed is capable of any improvement; and, contrary to his usual practice, enters at some length into the general subject, in a manner that will not be well relished by refined breeders.

P. 64. In the present breed of milch-cattle (profitable as they undoubtedly are) the general opinion seems to be, that there is very little room for improvement: considerable attention having already been paid to them. That there is some room for improvement, must be admitted; it has probably, however, no great degree of reference either to bone or offal. We have noticed before, that the milch cattle of Cheshire are frequently continued as milkers to too great an age, before they are slaughtered; but we are at the same time inclined to think, when the eattle of this county are properly fattened, and killed at a proper age, that our roasting pieces are not inferior in flavour, &c. &c. to those of any other breed of cattle in the kingdom. Much has been said about a waste of the produce of the land, in the production of bones and offal,— perhaps it is so. It cannot be denied, that improvement, inay be made in the general breed of, almost, every county in the kingdom; but still refinements may be carried too far; nor is it judiciously promoting the ends of such improvements, to induce the country to expect a greater degree of success than what, in general practice, is commonly attainable. The professed objects of fashionable breeders are, to lessen the quantity of bone and internal fat, reduce the weight of inferior pieces, and add to

the

the bulk and quality of the prime joints; such as rumps, sirloins, &c. &c. We admit (for the sake of argument, what is doubtful) that these objects have been attained; but has it been shewn, or can it be proved, that, at the same time, when the quantity of bone and offal have been reduced, that there has been, upon the whole, a greater acquisition of prime flesh and fat produced at less expence, than what is attained in the common practice of the kingdom at large? If such proofs can be adduced, they will certainly promote the ends in view much more effectually, than the assertions of interested individuals."

Had Mr. W. argued that "fashionable breeders" have been doing more for graziers than for dairymen, and that fashionable graziers have been wasting more sustenance on superfluous fat, than unfashionable breeders and graziers ever did on superfluous bone and offal,-his arguments might have been considered as more revalent, in a Report of a Dairy County.

Choice of Cows.-P. 30. “The size, form, and produc tion of the udder, is more attended to than the figure and bulk of the beast: and it seems to be universally allowed, that there is very little, if any, connection between utility for the dairy, and the much extolled points of fashionable breeders, as to shape, beauty, &c. Where larger, and what are called finer shaped breeds, have been tried, they do not in general appear to have answered so well as those smaller hardy ones before described. The general prac tice in breeding here, is to cross; and it seems to be admitted, that such cows as are bred “ upon the land," are found to answer best; for when a purchased cow happens to have been bred upon poorer land than what she is brought to, it is generally not till the second year, at the earliest, that she comes to her full milk." Again" The points which are generally thought to indicate a good milker, we believe, are as follows, viz. a large thin-skinned udder, large milk-veins, shallow and light fore quarters, wide loins, a thin thigh, a white horn, a long thin head, a brisk and lively eye, fine and clean about the chap and throat; and, notwithstanding some of these points will be allowed, in feeding cattle, to be good ones, yet, upon the whole, a good milker is generally ill-shaped. These indications, as a general ruie to judge by, like all other general rules, have many exceptions. It is found, however, by experience, that those cows which possess an aptitude to fatten, very seldom, if ever, are profitable

milkers."

The Rearing of Cows.-P. 31. "When calves to keep up the dairies are home bred, they are generally reared from the best milkers; and this is the case with respect to bull calves, as well as heifers. Those which are reared are generally calved in February or March, and are kept on the cows most commonly for about three weeks; afterwards they are fed with warm green whey, scalded whey, and butter-milk mixed, or hard fleetings: of the latter food, about five quarts are given at a meal to each calf. With the green whey, water is frequently mixed, and either oatmeal, wheat, or bean flour, is added; about a quart of meal or flour is generally thought to be enough to mix with forty or fifty quarts of liquid, which is sufficient for a meal for ten calves: if flax seed is given, a quart of boiled seed is added to the whey, &c. for a like number of calves; oatmeal gruel, and butter-milk, with a little skimmed milk mixed in it, are also frequently used for the same purpose: some one of these foods is given night and morning; but at the latter part of the time only once a day, with few exceptions, till, and for some time after, the calves are turned out to grass, and continued in the whole for ten or twelve weeks. The first winter a good pasture is reserved for the calves, and a little hay is given to them night and morning, as soon as hard weather sets in. The second winter their dry food is straw, having an open shed occasionally to shelter under, near their pasture; they are, however, frequently foddered with straw in the open fields.

"The summer following, the heifers, at two years old off, are put to the bull. During the third winter, in some parts of the county, they lie out in the fields till near calving time; in other parts of the county, the heifers are tied up at the same time as the milking cows are: in both cases, they are fed with straw night and morning, till about a month before calving: hay is afterwards given during the whole of the time they continue to be housed, and sometimes crushed oats when they calve early."

The Management of Cows.-P. 32. "They are taken up into the cow houses about the middle of November, or as soon as the weather begins to be bad. It is commonly intended that the cows should be permitted to go dry, about ten weeks before the time of their calving; as it is thought to render them less profitable the ensuing season if kept to their milk too long.

"The usual dry foods are, wheat, barley, and oat straw, hay, and crushed oats; the two former kinds of straw are

found

found to make cows go dry much sooner than the latter; and another generally allowed effect, attributed to such straw, is, that more than the usual time will be required to churn the cream of cows when so fed; but wheat straw is esteemed much more wholesome than barley straw, and as having less of those effects attending it. Those cows, which, at the time of housing, are not expected to calve till rather late in the spring, are fed with oat straw, and sometimes hay, during the time they are milked; afterwards either wheat or barley straw is given to them. The forward in calf cows, on the contrary, when taken up, are put either to wheat or barley straw, as circumstances may suit; and oat straw is not given to them till the whole of the other straw is consumed. This, however, depends upon the price of markets for grain. The straw fodder is continued in either case, till about three or four weeks before the time the cows are expected to calve: when hay is given to them, the quantity is from two to two and a half (?) per week, per cow. From the time the cows have calved till they are turned out to grass, some ground or crushed oats are given them twice a day, generally, from twenty to twenty-five quarts per week to each cow. In years when hay has been scarce, many farmers have given chopped straw, and a little corn mixed in it, with two small fodderings only of hay per day, and occasionally a foddering of straw at night.

"The cows are turned into an 'outlet' (a bare pasture field near the buildings) about ten o'clock in the morning, and housed again about four in the afternoon, the winter through; but have no fodder in the outlet. It is the practice of many, after the cows have been turned into the outlet, as soon as they shew a desire of being taken up again, they are let into the yard, and housed; and this in very cold, or in wet weather, must be a much better practice, than suffering them, as is usually done, to stand shivering with cold in a field without shelter,

"Turning the cows out to grass in good condition, is a matter much attended to, in order that they may, as the term is, start well;' for if a cow is not in good condition when turned out to grass, or has been too much dried with barley straw, it is a long time before she gets into

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full milk."

P. 33. "The quantity of land sufficient to keep one cow the whole year, must of course vary with the quality and produce of different soils; and the size and nature of the beast, probably on the average, having reference to

D +

the