The journal of a naturalist / [Anon].

  • John Leonard Knapp
Date:
1829
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The journal of a naturalist / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    73/474 (page 49)
    or some grain crop: this affords no great supply to ploughed land, and is very injurious to their graz- ing grounds; but the answer generally is, “ that the corn must have manure, and the beast can take care of itself ;” and in many cases, I fear, from the starved appearance of the young cattle, that their best endeavours have afforded a very inadequate supply. | This picking of the field was formerly very ge- nerally resorted to in the midland counties; but the farmers at that time had a sufficient excuse in the scarcity of common fuel. The droppings of the cows were collected in heaps, and beaten into a mass with water; then pressed by the feet into moulds like bricks, by regular professional persons, called clatters (clodders) ; then dried in the sun, and stacked like peat, and a dry March for the clat-harvest was considered as very desirable. These answered very well for heating water for the dairy and uses of the farm back-kitchen, giving a steady, dull heat, without flame; but navigable canals, and other conveniences of a similar nature, have rendered the practice now unnecessary. With us this bad custom is declining, and probably in time will cease altogether,