ceafed.-Or, perhaps, the foremost doubled himself, and get through, and, by ftruggling, got his head on the outfide of the other hurdle; thus it became a matter of life and death, and the weakest of course fell:-This gave the other an opportunity of extricating himself, and dragging about his dead partner. They were both found within ten yards of thefe hurdles. Let this be a leffon, in future, to beware of burdle places. If hurdles are found neceffary, mind that they be fastened at both top and bottom.

£. 32 10 O

Befides loffes by the weather, and fifty other leffer cafualties. All farmers must have fome ;-yet it feems unfashionable to talk of the hazard of Farming, or make use of the word lofs in calculations on agriculture.'.

1

Dec. 4, 1775. Laft week Jolly, one of the team, was taken with a violent fcouring. The Farrier has drenched and bled him, but he does not recover.

This is the 6th cafualty of working-cattle within nine months.

An ox ftrained

An ox lamed

An ox blowed

A bull furfeited

died.

three weeks.

dubious.

A cow died of the red water.

'A cow now fcours-her life doubtful.

Two large hogs hung, through mere cafualty.

Thirty acres of barley, thirty per cent. worfe for the weather, &c. &c. &c. &c. &c. &c.

What a collection of haggard evidences of the hazard of farming! But furely they can never be the ordinary cafualties of agriculture; they muft proceed from extraordinarily bad luck, or from bad management.

Let me endeavour to trace back their causes; and, if poffible, raife LESSONS ON FUTURE MANAGEMENT.

The ftrained ox.-This was done in Norwood-fields.-The two ox teams were hunting a fallow.-I remember I went up to them in the middle of the day.It was very hot.-This ox lolled the tongue a good deal;-he was in the weaker team. I ordered the plowman to go gently, and to bring home his plow at night; for I

N +

faw

faw that it was too ftrong work for them. He brought home his plow, with the ox in the condition mentioned the roth of NovEMBER: but whether he obeyed me in the other inftance or not, I am doubtful; I rather think the ox was purpofely over-drove; for oxen were then quite a new kick."-But this is prefumptive evidence

only.

What is to be learnt from this?

A young, flender ox, not in exercife, may be worked too hard, in a clofe field, on a hot day.

A fulky cruel fervant is dangerous.

Perhaps, an ox in collar can exert his ftrength more than in yoke.

The lame ox. This was caufed by a piece of flint getting between his claws, and infinuating itfelf into his foot.

• Perhaps, in future,-pick their feet every night.

The inflated ox. (See the Minute of the 17th of AUGUST.) This was evidently the carelessness of the carter.

• Memorandum. A THINKING SERVANT is very valuable; but rarely to be met with.

• The furfeited bull. This probably was caused by over-heating him the first day he was harneffed.

• In future-Ufe them gently, and break them in by degrees.

The bull in the red water. He was taken in time, and eafily cured,

• The ox which fcours. I am totally at a lofs for the caufe.-His food of late has been very good clover-and-rye-grafs hay. He has not worked harder than the reft of the team (which, look, and are very well), for he was always a flug. I am apprehenfive that he was fold as an ailing ox: his skin and coat were never kind;-and I recollect his frequently moaning, while he was in the house laft fpring; yet he never refused his meat, and worked tolerably.

Out of the four Gloucestershire oxen, two of them are remarkably plain; and this is the third.

In future,-Never truft to a dealer to buy in oxen.

The two borfes tined. The caufe was the carelessness of the carter, and the vicioufnefs of one of the horses.

• Memorandum. Careleffness is not easily guarded against; but a vicious horfe may be fold.

The lame borse. This was a wrench in the hip, by drawing mud out of a pond, and the caufe, ten to one-carelessness.

• The horse which went blind. The caufe feemed to be in Nature. Every means was taken to prevent the bad effect.

• The borse which died of age. Upwards of thirty years old.

• The cow which died of the red water. Being totally unacquainted with the nature of the disease or the remedy, I left the management entirely to the cow leech; through whofe carelessness, rather than mifmanagement, I believe the fuffered.

I have never fince left the care of a fick or lame brute wholly to the Leech or Farrier; for though I have not administered, I have attended the administrations ;—and have seen that the patient was not neglected,

• The

• The cow which fcours. I conjecture, that the disorder was caused by the quickness of tranfition from the low feed of the Common, to the rich fucculent after grass.

• In future,-Raife them from the Common to richer feed by degrees. Perhaps, turn them into the after-grafs, as foon as the -hay is out of the field, before the bite is got too long.

Perhaps, in future,-Never refuse two guineas for a scouring barener again.

• The hogs which were hung. I blame myself more in this inftance, than in all the reft.-Not for coupling hogs, generally; but for fuffering hogs, of their value, to remain in couples in acorn-time. But I have the pleasure of reflecting, that my motive was good neighbourhood; for Neighbour gave me to understand, that they were unwelcome guests in a field of his turnips. I therefore kept them in couples, though in the yard, to guard against that careleffness of fervants, which was the immediate cause of their death.

• In future,-Be the confequence what it may, clip, mark, and uncouple fuch as remain unfold, when the acorns begin to fail.

The barley. Had the feed been got into the ground three weeks or a month sooner, the dry weather would not have hurt it so much, and it might have been carried before the wet fet-in: but would it not have been truly ridiculous to have missed so favourable an opportunity of getting the land clean, in expeâation of fuch a dry fummer and wet harvest as may never happen again? The foil received a tilth equal to a fummer-fallow; its face now fhews the good effect : and were the fame circumstances to happen again I fhould most certainly act in the fame manner, and expect a tolerable summer, and tolerable harvest, and, of course, get-in my barley in tolerable time. • This article must therefore go to the fide of bad luck, not to that of bad management.

6

• Thus, of fixteen cafualties, feven originated in Nature, (without any apparent factitious caufe) and nine in pofitive or prefumptive careleffness.-Does not this prove,

THE HAZARD OF FARMING,

THE NECESSITY OF SELF-ATTENTION,

AND THE VALUE OF CAREFUL SERVANTS?

JULY 1777. The Reader may be well affured, that it cannot be pleafing to expose the above difagreeable facts. The Writer, however, should have blamed himfelf exceedingly, had he concealed them. The inferences drawn, he flatters himself, may ferve as hints to the inexperienced Agriculturift, and the facts themselves be useful to the industrious Farmer ;-by convincing the rack-rent Gentlemen of landed property, that there is baxard of farming as well as of play, and that ill-luck is not always at White's or Newmarket.'.

Jan. 16, 1776. The Scouring ox. The farrier first employed could not relieve him: I employed another. He told me that he was certain he could ftop it; but that fcouring cattle are fubject to relapfes, which generally carried them off precipitately; and that the only method of treatment is to get them in flesh as fast as poffible, and fell them off.

• He

He ordered him a drench every morning (a compound of powder and dried leaves, given in a quart of fresh human urine): as an addition, I defired that he might have a decoction of oak-bark given him in his water.

At the fortnight's end the fcouring ftopped;-he recovered his appetite; his hide loofened;-his eyes brightened;-and he recovered his cud :--but he was fo much reduced, that he could not rife without affistance; and though he eat well-dunged well-and looked well, he remained thus for a fortnight or three weeks. It was fix or eight men's business to get him up: he would not help himself in the leaft, until three or four days ago, when he began to get up with little help. But notwithstanding he eat half a trufs of hay a-day, he did not thrive; and although I wished him dead (he was fo low he would have taken more fatting and attendance than he would have been worth, when fat;-belides the risk of a relapfe) yet I was unwilling to give him up.

Early this morning he awoke me with lamentable groans.-I rung up the fervants:-they came, and told me that he was dying, for that he was "fwelled ready to burft." I bade them flab him behind the ribs: this eafed him for a while; but he foon began to well and moan as bad as ever. got up, and, feeing him in great agony, ordered him to be fluck.

I fent for the Farrier, and we have opened him. His heart, liver, entrails, and nutriment in each flate, bear every mark of perfect fanity; except that his entrails, inftead of rolling out, on his being opened, were tied faft to the coats of the vertebræ, and were obliged to be feparated from them by a knife-a fleth-like fubitance had formed;--and except that his maw was remarkably full of aliment, and was pierced by the knife with which he was ftabbed..

Perhaps, the adhesion of the vifcera accounts for his weakness, and for his diforder. Perhaps, the feveral members of the abdomen were rendered unable to perform their refpective functions properly, without the aid of medicine. The Butcher obferved, that this is a common cafe, when an ox has been trained, or has received a wrench in the back. This too brings on a fcouring; it therefore feems very clear, that a frain, or wrench, was the filt caufe of his diforder; and, from various circumstances, I am of opinion, it is of long ftanding, and brought to the crifis by time and hard-working.

But how is the fufllation, which was obviously the immediate caufe of his death, to be accounted for? His meat was clover-andrye-grafs hay; his drink, water, with a fmall quantity of the decoction of oak bark, to prevent a relapfe. But it was old hay which had been cut very full of fap, and got well into a large ftack; fo that it was dry, and rich to a high degree; and he eat it very greedily as he lay.'

We are forry we cannot follow our Author in his investigation of the caufe of this diforder.

Last year, N. 4. was fummer-tares, on an old clover-ley dunged. When in bloom, they were a beautiful crop, worth for verdage 41. or 5 1. an acre. They podded well; but the dry weather, perhaps, prevented many of them from filling.-The wet weather

fet in just as they were ready to be cut:-the heavy rains beat them flat to the ground, and the weeds foon became predominant :-they were obliged to be reaped during the rainy weather, and repeatedly turned to keep them from rotting on the ground-The reaping and turning did not coft lefs than 10 s. an acre; befides thedding ninetenths of the few which matured.

Laft week they were thrashed, and lo! the three acres produced eleven bufhels!

Is not this another pofitive evidence of the Hazard of Farming? -A crop dunged for, and which, with an ordinary feafon, would have yielded from 4 1. to 6 1. an acre, is but barely able to difcharge the expence of reaping and thrashing.

JUNE 23, 1777.

The fpring feed-time was moift, but not remarkably wet; the clouds referved their bounty for May and June.-The middle of May was very vet, and fo is the middle of June.-The last ten days have been (except one) uniformly rainy.-Laft night it poured for eight or nine hours perhaps, never fo much rain fell in fo little time.The wheats which are good are beaten into the ground;-the grafs which was cut, fwims in every furrow;-and the fallows are ready to flow out of the fields.-Low-land paftures are overflowed, and the flock obliged to be taken into the houfe to prevent their poaching.Work is now at a ftand; we cannot make hay, nor even weed.The teams cannot plow, nor can they carry out dung, even when it is fair, with any propriety. The ground was never fo wet fince Noah's flood. The fprings and rivers only may rejoice -The poor are ftarving for want of work.

Wheat, which a fortnight ago was worth ten pounds an acre, will not, except the weather at harvest prove favourable indeed, be worth harvesting; and clover, which was nearly made when the rains fet-in, will be reduced in its value more than half, if not totally fpoiled; for there are not as yet any figns of fair weather: the wind changes to every quarter, but the weather is invariably rainy,rainy, rainy!

Many other cafualties occur in thefe Minutes, which, for brevity, we omit. These are fufficient to convince any fenfible man that whoever does not include this clafs of expences in his calculations, commits a most effential error.

We meet with fo many interefting particulars in this volume relating to the economy of rural affairs, that we are induced to extend this Article to an unusual length.

In farming, fo many fervants are neceffary, that not only the fuccefs but the comfortable enjoyment of life, in a great measure, depends upon them. The man who, in that profeffion, knows not how to manage fervants properly, must be ruined, and ruined in the most comfortlefs way, without enjoying one ray of pleasure in going through life: this, therefore, is an object of the higheft importance, and ought to be studied with care; but, unfortunately, it requires fuch an intimate knowledge of the human heart, and the fprings that ufually influence the actions of men, as falls to the fhare of very few, early in

life.