478 REPORT OX THE TRANSIT OF STOCK. 



cattle in similar circumstances apply with greater force to them, 

 and need not be advanced here, as this case may be considered 

 an exceptional one. We therefore leave the horses to take care 

 of themselves, and turn to 



Cattle — perhaps the most important group in this mode of con- 

 veyance. The animals are walked into trucks (sufficiently well 

 known in appearance) from a stage. These trucks are made in 

 three sizes, usually to hold (officially) eight, ten, and twelve cattle 

 respectively ; but as they are charged for by a mileage rate, — 

 generally from 5d. to 6d. per mile, — the practice is to put as many 

 beasts into them as can be packed, the only difference made by 

 the railway company being between half and full trucks — that 

 is, if the number of animals does not exceed the official half- 

 number of the truck, a certain reduction is made in the charge ; 

 but if a whole truck be taken, the company takes no notice of 

 whether there be only the official number put into it, or half as 

 many more. 



Cattle are ordinarily conveyed by goods trains, which, in- 

 cluding stoppages, average a speed of from eighteen to twenty miles 

 an hour. But between certain stations, where cattle traffic is 

 large, special through trains are sometimes run, which, travelling 

 at about thirty miles an hour, shorten the period of transit very 

 much. As these, however, are exceptions to the general rule, 

 the ordinary character of cattle transit is not much affected by 

 them. 



After the cattle are placed in the trucks aud the doors closed 

 on them, nothing more is done until the doors are opened again 

 at their journey's end. They are never offered either food or 

 water by the way, and the only change in the monotony of their 

 journey consists of the stoppages and shuntings at the various 

 stations along their route ; indeed, it may with truth be said that 

 the fact of the occupants of these trucks being alive, is not to be 

 discovered from the treatment they receive from the railway 

 company, but are shunted backwards and forwards, and left 

 standing often for hours together without either shelter or 

 shade, just as so much coal; and when it is considered that 

 cattle are often carried along in this manner for two, and even 

 three days, it is not surprising that the results are anything but 

 satisfactory ; but perhaps it will be better to glance at these in 

 detail. 



The first evil of this system which strikes an observer is the 

 overcrowding of the trucks. This, however, is not an evil of the 

 system itself, but arises from the greed and narrow-mindedness 

 of certain stockowners, who in this way try to lessen the ex- 

 pense of transit per head. The remedy for it seems simple 

 enough, viz., that the railway company should only allow the 

 official number (supposing these to be properly gauged) to be put 



