NEAT STOCK. 225 



have but to breed to thorough-bred bulls to get valuable 

 grades, a vast improvement upon our native stock. If we 

 discard the inferior animals, and, selecting the best cows, con- 

 tinue to breed up to thorough-breds, never using a grade bull, 

 if it can be avoided, we shall in a few years have grades so 

 high that they will be nearly equal to the original blood, not 

 only in beauty and excellence, but in the invaluable property 

 of stamping their offspring with their own peculiarities. 



This principle in breeding is so very important that it cannot 

 be too often repeated to those who are ambitious to improve 

 stock ; and this, we trust, will be our excuse for reiterating 

 again and again, that real improvement in our stock will be the 

 result of strict attention to the blood of the breeding stock. 



Wm. Logan Rodman, Chairman. 



PLYMOUTH. 



Statement of Austin J. Roberts. 



Fattening Cattle. — Having wished, for some time past, to 

 ascertain with some degree of accuracy the relative value of 

 different kinds of food commonly used to fatten cattle, I have, 

 in accordance with the wishes of the Plymouth County Agricul- 

 tural Society, selected four head of small-boned, medium-sized 

 cattle, in thrifty condition, for stall feeding. They were weighed 

 and put up for fattening in a tiglit barn, well ventilated,* on the 

 4th of September, and fed as follows : — 



No. 1. Best quality of hay. As much as it could eat. 



No. 2. On potatoes. Commencing with half a bushel, and 

 increasing the quantity to three pecks per day. 



No. 3. Indian meal. Beginning with four quarts, and in- 

 creasing to nine quarts. 



No. 4. Oil meal. The same as No. 3. 



Nos. 2, 3 and 4 were allowed a sufficiency of hay for diges- 

 tive purposes. 



* Cattle which are conancd to the stall thrive faster than those which have the 

 liberty of the yard. 



29* 



