16, Mushroom-shed, in which the mushrooms are grown in Oldacre's manner. 17, Wood-yard, shaded by three elm trees. 18, Calf-pens. 19, Cow-house. 20, Tool-house. 21, Piggeries. 22, 23, 24, Places for fattening poultry, on Mowbray's plan, not, as usual, in coops. Between this and 25 is a privy for the head gardener. 25, Place for meat for the pigs, which is passed through a shoot to 26. 26, Two tanks sunk in the ground, covered with hinged flaps, the upper edges of which lap under the plate above, so as to shoot off the rain, for souring the food intended for the pigs. One tank, which is much smaller than the other, is used chiefly for milk and meal for the fattening pigs, and sows with pigs; and the other for the wash and other refuse from the house, for the store pigs, which, with the refuse from the gar den, apple-loft, &c., amply supplies the store pigs and sows, without any purchased food, except when they have pigs suck ing. The good effect of the fermentation or souring is ac counted for by chemists, who have found that it ruptures the ultimate particles of the meal or other food; a subject treated in detail in the Quarterly Journal of Agriculture, vol. vii. p. 445. According to the doctrine there laid down, the globules of meal, or farinaceous matter of the roots and seeds of plants, lie closely compacted together, within membranes so exqui sitely thin and transparent, that their texture is scarcely to be discerned with the most powerful microscope. Each farina ceous particle is, therefore, considered as enveloped in a vesicle, which it is necessary to burst, in order to allow the soluble or nutritious part to escape. This bursting is effected by boiling, or other modes of cookery; and also, to a certain extent, by the stomach, when too much food is not taken at a time: but it is also effected by the heat and decomposition produced by fermentation; and, hence, fermented food, like food which has been cooked, is more easily digested than uncooked or unfermented food. Plants are nourished by the ultimate particles of manure, in the same way that animals are nourished by the ultimate particles of food; and hence fermentation is as essen tial to the dunghill as cookery is to food. The young gar dener, as well as the young farmer, may learn from this the vast importance of fermentation, in preparing the food both for plants and animals.
