146 ox THE AGRICULTUKE OF 



the lields or in the courts. Then during the greater part of the 

 winter they (we refer to cattle being prepared for the butcher) 

 are fed solely on turnips and oat-straw or hay, getting for about 

 six weeks or two months before being sold a liberal supply of 

 cake, linseed, or cotton, or a mixture of both, perhaps with the 

 addition of bruised oats and barley. That is by far the most 

 general system. Others, however, feed much more rapidly, giving 

 a supply of cake or bruised grain, or both, during the greater 

 part of the grass season, as well as throughout the whole winter. 

 Some even give cake to their home-bred stock from the time they 

 are six weeks old till they are sold to the butcher, and also to their 

 bought in stock as soon as they are brought home. When 

 turnips are scarce, and when potatoes are plentiful and cheap, the 

 latter are given freely to feeding cattle, while the supply of oat- 

 straw has often to be supplemented by hay. The breeding 

 stock are generally kept in lean condition, and receive no arti- 

 ficial food. There is little doubt that the feedincj of cattle is now 

 carried on more extensively in both counties than twenty-five years 

 ago, and that the quantity of feeding stufl's, such as cake and grain, 

 consumed by feeding stock has increased enormously since 1855. 

 It should be pointed out that a large number of cattle is pre- 

 pared for the butcher in these counties every year that is not 

 credited to them in the Board of Trade returns. These returns 

 being collected in spring, cannot include those animals bought 

 in during the summer and autumn, and sold oft' before the end 

 of Aprih The number of cattle actually fed in these counties is 

 therefore much larger than the Board of Trade returns indicate. 

 It is hardly possible to give a general estimate of the weights of 

 fat cattle sold in Forfar and Kincardine. They vary greatly ; 

 two-year-olds range from SJ to 8J cwt., and three-year-olds 

 from 6 to 9 J cwt. 



There are few points of more importance in connection with 

 the live stock department of farming than the economising of 

 the turnip crop, and there are perhaps few matters in which 

 among farmers generally there is more room for improvement. 

 Latterly many farmers in these counties have been giving much 

 of their attention to the subject, with results that cannot fail to 

 be beneficial. There is no doubt whatever that, generally speak- 

 ing, farmers would find it to their advantage to give fewer 

 turnips and more feeding stuffs to the cattle they are preparing 

 for the butcher. Mr Buttar, Corston, Coupar- Angus, has for 

 several years been following the pulping system, by which he 

 has been able to economise his turnip crop to a remarkable 

 extent. Formerly, Mr Buttar kept scarcely any but feeding 

 cattle, which he bous^ht in towards the end of summer and 

 during autumn, and fed oft' by spring, the greater number 



