PROGRESSIVE AGRICULTURE. 153 



So with cattle. The opinion prevailed that oxen must be kept 

 until seven or eight years old, and then a summer of pasturage and 

 two or three months of stall feeding be given them before they 

 were fitted for the shambles. The fact was overlooked, that in the 

 course of the third, fourth and fifth years, there were unquestion- 

 ably periods when these cattle were fat upon the common products 

 of the farm, and might then have been sold at a remunerating 

 profit; but nobody thought of the matter, or investigated the 

 physiology of the animal suflSciently to learn how impracticable it 

 would be to fatten him quickly after the natural period of growth 

 and vigor had passed. The erroneous idea was, in supposing that 

 oxen were not fit for labor until they had passed the period when 

 they grow and fatten rapidly. 



Now, however, much of the best beef produced is from oxen 

 four, five, and six years old, which have been under the yoke 

 through the winter and spring, turned to good summer pasture 

 and fall feed, and indulged with roots, hay and grain for a few 

 weeks in the months of October and November. In this way the 

 labor of the animals will nearly equal in value the cost of keeping 

 during the last half of their lives, and they are prepared for market 

 during that period when they naturally grow and take on fat the 

 fastest. The diflFerence, then, between fatting oxen at this favor- 

 able moment, or postponing it until the natural tendency to take 

 on fat and flesh has passed, and when it can only be obtained by 

 extraordinary care and expense, will be so great as to rob the 

 farmer of all profit in this branch of his husbandry. 



At the period, too, of which I speak, a fleece of six pounds of 

 wool was considered a remarkable product — and so it was, for it 

 was rarely obtained — and a three or four month's lamb sold 

 heavily at a dollar, or a dollar and a half! But knowledge, 

 reduced to systematic effort, now produces fleeces of the finest 

 wool of 10, 15, 20, and 25 pounds weight, and lambs that sell 

 readily at $2, $3 and |4. I speak of those sold for the shambles ; 

 scores sell annually for breeding at prices ranging from $20 to 

 $500 each, and are well worth the money they command. 



Science has taught us, in sheep, how to breed for the largest 

 product of wool, or for muscle or fat ; and we have, accordingly, 

 races distinguished for one or the other of these qualities. About 

 the commencement of this century, the average weight of good 

 fair sheep would not exceed 20 pounds per quarter, in England ; 

 now it is by no means rare to find mutton weighing 40, 50, and 



