80 WEST OXFORD SOCIETY. 



cau help observing how soon a dairy former suffers loss from dete- 

 rioration of his herd, if it consists of Short horns. A breed created 

 by crossing, it is aflSrmed, can only be kept up by crossing, and 

 great skill and care. 



Says an English writer, the most uniform drove of ox^n which I 

 ever saw, consisted of 500 fi-om Ukraine. There is, then, good 

 evidence to believe that the Herefords are the representatives of a 

 widely difiused and ancient race of cattle, for the aforesaid drove 

 was very like the Herefords of Britain. 



The mode of feeding cattle is a subject intimately connected with 

 successful farming and profitable stock-raising. To neither over- 

 stock, nor under-stock, requires the exercise of more than ordinary 

 judgment. To come within half a bullock in a pasture of 100 acres, 

 as an old English grazier was wont to do, shows the possession of 

 remarkable skill in cattle feeding, or grazing. Grass fed beef is 

 not up to the state of the English market now, as formerly. 



Stall-feeding, as some have supposed it to be, is no new practice. 

 The "stalled ox" is alluded to in Proverbs as a luxury. Ten fat 

 oxen and twenty out of the pasture, ai-e spoken of in connection 

 with the daily consumption of the household of the man "of three 

 hundred wives and seven hundred concubines." 



Cooked feed, steamed, raw or uncooked, have been topics exciting 

 much interest among feeders. But the conclusion arrived at, now, 

 is, that no advantage is derived from cooking. The want of econo- 

 my, to say nothing of the inhumanity of the same, is no where more 

 apparent in rural affairs than in the neglect to provide comfortable 

 and well ventilated stables for cattle, and sheds for sheep. An 

 English Lord made the following experiment : He separated a flock 

 of two hundred sheep into two equal lots. One of them was fur- 

 nished with sheds with an unlimited supply of Swedish turnii:)s. 

 The other was supplied with equal liberality, but without shelter. 

 After a few months, it was found that the latter lot had consumed 

 on an average, 25 pounds a day, while the former had eaten but 21 

 pounds a day per head, and had gained on an average, 3 pounds a 

 head more than the former. The loss of the lambs of the lot with- 

 out shelter, was 20 per cent, greater than of the lot provided with 

 sheds, and the loss of ewes 8 per cent. So much for the economy 

 of shelter. 



In conclusion, allow me to urge the members of the West Oxford 

 Agricultural Society, that if they would keep up with the spirit of 

 progress and improvement in all matters of rural economy, they 



