So here
the matter dropped. Although our cattle are naturally hardy
they are bound to suffer from exposure to the weather. A
hundred cows under shelter will yield the same quantity of
milk through the winter as five hundred in the open air, at
half the cost. A large portion of the hay we strew about the
pastures for the cattle, is trodden underfoot and spoilt
instead of being eaten; and if rain falls, the whole is
spoilt. Calculate the loss of milk, the cost of cartage over
a wide range of land, the damage done to the pastures by the
trampling of heavy cattle in wet weather, all caused by the
want of a few sheds, which it is impossible to have under
the present system, and you will appreciate the position of
a farmer holding under landlords who are careless as to the
future, and merely live from hand to mouth.
"There is another improvement, which I offered to make at my
own expense. I asked permission to dam up a little stream,
dig some trenches, and irrigate the fields, by which I could
have doubled the produce both in quantity and quality. You
will hardly imagine the answer I received. The monks
declared the extraordinary fertility which would result from
the irrigation, would be a sort of violence done to nature,
by which in the end the soil could not fail to be
impoverished. What could I reply to such reasoning? These
good fathers only think of nursing their income.
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