Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

44 CATTLE.
impoverishment, becoming fattened for the butcher in a few months,
after being placed on some of the rich summer pastures of Islay,
Lewis, or Skye.
The cows were housed during the winter ; the litter was never
removed from them, but fresh layers of straw were Occasionally laid
down, and so the floor rose with the accumulation of dung and litter,
until the season of spreading it upon the land, when it was taken
away.
The peculiarity of the climate, and the want of inclosed lands, and
the want, too, of forethought in the farmer, were the chief causes of
this wretched system of winter* starvation. The rapidity of vegetation
in the latter part of the spring is astonishing in these islands. A
good pasture can scarcely be left a fortnight without growing high
and rank ; and even the unenclosed, and marshy, and heathy grounds,
are comparatively luxuriant. In consequence of this, the farmer fully
stocked, or overstocked, even this pasture. He crowded his fields
at the rate of six or eight beasts, or more, to an acre. From their
natural aptitude to fatten, they got into tolerable condition, but not
such as they might have attained. Winter, however,' succeeded to
summer : no provision had been made for it, except for the cows
and the beasts that were not properly fed even in the summer, languished
and starved in the winter.
The Hebrides, however, have partaken of that improvement in
agriculture of which we -shall have frequently to speak when describing
the different districts of Scotland. "In the island of Islay, the
following is the general system of management among the better
kind of farmers, and the account will apply to the Hebrides generally,
and to Argyleshire.
The calves generally are dropped from the 1st of February to the
middle of April. All are reared ; and for three or four months are
allowed to suck three times in the. day, but are not permitted to
draw any great quantity at a time. In summer, all the cattle are
pastured ; the calves are sent to their dams twice a day, and the
strippings, or last part of the milk, is taken away by the dairy-maid.
The calves are separated from their dams two or three weeks before
the cast-cows are sent to the cattle-tryst at the end of October, the
greater part of them being driven as far as the Lowland districts,
whence they gradually find their way to the central and southern
counties of England.
The calves are housed in the beginning of November, and are
highly fed on hay and .roots (for the raising of which the soil and
climate are admirably adapted) until the month of May. When
there is plenty of keep, the breeding cows are housed in November,
but . in general they are kept out until three or four weeks before
calving. In May the whole cattle are turned out to pasture, and, if
it is practicable, those of different ages are kept separate ; while, by
;