464 EEPOET ON THE TRANSIT OF STOCK. 



confinement, or taken from amongst others, renders their con- 

 veyance singly very difficult. The method commonly adopted 

 is to secure the animal's head to one of its fore feet with a rope 

 so closely as to impede any action beyond a limping walk. 

 Sometimes the animal's nose is secured with twiers, and if a 

 double rope be used, one man going before the beast, and another 

 following it, the transit is generally both quickly and comfort- 

 ably effected. For bulls, this latter method seems the only 

 safe one, and it ought always to be used. For ordinary fat 

 stock, the former being simpler, as requiring only one man, may 

 be preferred ; but certainly it is much better to inflict complete 

 restraint than to grant a liberty, which nearly always leads to 

 the overheating of the animal at the best, and in many cases to 

 downright fury, causing both danger and loss. 



The chief evils which attend the transit of fat cattle by road are 

 overheating and over-fatigue, the former frequently inducing a 

 state of body which, after the animal is slaughtered, shows itself in 

 the peculiar flabbiness — want of firmness — of the meat ; while 

 heavy animals often break down from sheer fatigue before they can 

 reach the market or shambles, and are of so much less value in 

 consequence. For these evils the remedy seems to be to drive them 

 not faster than one mile per hour, to prepare house-fed cattle by a 

 little daily exercise for a week or so previous to their journey, 

 never to walk them distances over 10 miles if possible, and to give 

 a little food and water once in five hours when on the way. For 

 store stock the evils of the road are not very great, unless in 

 extreme cases. So long as good quarters for the night can be 

 obtained, they will go on from day to day with little detriment 

 for many days together ; but if they are compelled to subsist on 

 what they can gather from a roadside or a bare field, and, still 

 more, if no shelter be provided during inclement weather, the 

 natural result is, that the animals rapidly lose condition, their 

 coats stare, and they take cold, which, it is to be feared, is often 

 the parent of many subsequent ills. The remedy, of course is 

 very simple — proper food and shelter, and no over-driving. "With 

 these, and for moderate distances, there are not many objections 

 to this mode of transit, and the time can scarcely be anticipated 

 when it will cease to be the chief means of local traffic. 



Shcejy. — The transit of sheep by road presents very few points 

 for remark. They are easily managed. A man, usually assisted 

 by a dog, which is, for this purpose, worth a couple of men, will 

 drive a flock of 200 or 300, and even sometimes as many as 500.. 

 They walk slowly — not much over one mile an hour — and fifteen 

 miles will be a fair day's journey. Like store cattle, they are- 

 generally only rested and fed during the night, and water is 

 generally found in abundance by the way if required, which,, 

 however, is but seldom. The distances which sheep are sent by 



