THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



LONDON, OR CENTRAL FARMERS' CLUB. 

 STOCK FARMING ON STIFF RETENTIVE SOILS. 



The Monthly Discussion Meeting of the Central 

 Farmers' Club took place, on Monday, December 5, at 

 the Club-house, Klackfriars. There was a very full at- 

 tendance of members. The chair was taken by Mr. T, 

 Owen, of Clapton, Hungerford. The subject for discus- 

 sion, introduced by Mr. R. Bond, of Kentwell, Long 

 Melford, Suftolk, was " Stock Farming on Stiff Reten- 

 tive Soils." 



After a few opening remarks from the Chairman, 

 Mr. Bond rose and said . Mr. Chairman and Gentle- 

 men, — As a body of business and practical men I know 

 we meet here not simply with the philanthropic notion 

 to advance the agricultural interests of the kiugdom generally, 

 but we meet here feeling that our own individual interests are 

 concerned; feeling that here we may learu something which 

 will be to our own individual benefit; something that will in- 

 struct us to increase the per-centage of our own individual 

 returns ; something that will cause us either to lessen our cost 

 of production or to increase our pecuniary gain ; something 

 that will make the pounds, shillings, and pence of practical 

 farming less difficult. I know that it is with feehngs akin to 

 these I always enter this room ; I know it ia with feelings 

 akin to these that I read your monthly discussions ; and I 

 know it is by improving our own individual practices that we 

 shall best promote the agricultural progression of the kiugdom 

 at large. Anxiously as we long for agricultural advancement, 

 we cannot afford to be all patriotism. No. 1 must stand fore- 

 most ; and however little or much you gentlemen may have 

 shared in my feehngs of self-interested motives upon your at- 

 tendance here, yet I am convinced the agriculturists of the 

 kingdom have appreciated your exertions as embodied in the 

 London Central Farmers' Clul), and the agriculture of Eng- 

 land has been greatly benefited by your discussions. I know 

 from my own experience aud personal profit that your efforts 

 have not been in vain. I am convinced thousands and tens of 

 thousands have gathered many a useful hint from the expres- 

 sion of your opinions and the revelation of your practices ; 

 and if any man in the United Kiugdom doubts the individual 

 benefit to be derived from your free discussions, I advise him 

 to staud in the position of an introducer of one of your monthly 

 subjects, aud I will venture a thousand to one he leaves this 

 assembly a wiser and a better man. My observations this 

 eveuiug must be considered to apply generally to clay lands, 

 but especially to those soils of a stiff retentive character in 

 Suffolk, Norfolk, aud Essex. In my remarks upon the stock 

 farming of such districts, I will not lose Eight of the profit or 

 loss of the question; I will give you my experience; I will 

 freely tell you wherein stock farming has answered my pur- 

 pose, aud wherein it has failed to answer. I propose, first, to 

 show that iujudicious stock feeding and stock farming may he 

 a losing speculation. Further, that an entire dependence 

 upon the corn crops for all the pecuniary returns, without stock 

 farming, ia unpaying. I propose, also, to consider the present 

 condition of many farms in districts with a stiff retentive soil, 

 relative to stock, and to give you my experience in lamb rear- 

 ing, aiieep grazing, rearing and fattening young beasts, fatten- 

 ing old beasts, cow and pig keeping, and horse keeping. I 

 know stock farming baa been so generally applauded of late 

 that one might presume it to be an agricultural short cut to 

 riches — a certain highway to wealth under any circumstances. 

 We hear much that there is nothing to he done without stock, 

 that stock must be the mainstay of the farm, that " without 

 stock no manure, without manure no corn ;" and all this I 

 fully believe and subscribe to in a mitigated sense ; but at the 

 same time it has been my experience that all stock farming 

 does not pay ; it has been my experience that stock farming, 

 on stiff retentive soils, must he carried on with judgment, or 

 it will not pay ; and it has been my experience that buying 

 dear beasts, feeding them on dear oilcake aud expensively- 



grown roots, may be a very losing game, with wheat at 403. the 

 quarter. Manure, of course, is one main point. I have heard 

 many a man of spirit grumbling upon his heavy loss in bul- 

 lock grazing, yet in the same breath declare he cannot and 

 will not pretend to farm without good rich bullock muck. 

 With such men, I must admit, I have no feeling in common ; 

 for though I prize the manure as very valuable, I am well 

 aware gold may be bought at too dear a price, and that expen- 

 sive manure may be produced by a very unprofitable process. 

 If there is a heavy loss iu the manufacture of the article, I 

 think it very questionable whether ulterior results in the pro- 

 duction of corn will repay the first coat sacrifice. I am a great 

 advocate for stocking a farm to the utmost of its capabilities, 

 but I want a direct profit upon the animals reared or fattened, 

 as well as an indirect return in the growth of corn. I want 

 a clear balance in hand, after deducting the expenses of food 

 and attendance. I do not like such items in the stock account 

 as the following, viz. : — 



Dr. 



20 beasts at £15 £300 



Cake, corn, & attendance 112 

 12 acres of mangold at;e9 108 



Total cost. 



,£520 



Or. 

 Saleof20beastaatse20..£400 

 Loss ,. 120 



£520 



There has been many a stock balance sheet in Suffolk of which 

 this is a facsimile, and the consequent cost of the manure 

 from 20 beasts is £120, or, as it is more commonly expressed 

 iu the eastern counties, " I am just paid for the artificial food, 

 an-^ I have the muck in exchange for the mangold consumed 

 aud for attendance." Aud what amount of muck? Probably 

 just about as much, or but little more, than produced 20 acres 

 of maugold in the preceding year, and which will now in its 

 turn be used to produce 20 acres in the following season. 

 Gentlemen, this is a slow way of getting rich. The system 

 might answer in times of extreme high prices, but it does not, 

 cannot, and will not answer at the present time. We must 

 have direct profit from the animals we feed. I have heard 

 men for the past twenty years vowing they will never fatten 

 another beast; yet, as October or November comes rouud, 

 you see them buying fine old beasts in ths market, under the 

 annual impression that this year's beasts must pay. You hear 

 the old question, "What can prevent meat from being very 

 dear in the spring ?" I have lived long enough to see that 

 this is a periodically recurring semi-monomania. In the aver- 

 age of years, bullock grazing, as practised in the eastern 

 counties, does not answer; and whether men take to it wil- 

 lingly or unwillingly, whether they doit by choice or necessity, 

 the sooner they alter from a losing speculation in practice the 

 better for the condition of their pockets and the position of 

 their bauking accounts. I know well that buying old beasts 

 on Norwich Hill or elsewhere at £15 or £20 a-piece and up- 

 wards, and feeding them expensively, may assist to make many 

 a man poor ; but it will never make one man rich, with cake at 

 £10 lOs. per ton, and wheat at 40 per quarter. I don't want 

 to take isolated years, but yet I must ask what were the pro- 

 fits from winter grazins: last year ? We all know it was a 

 ruinous " get up." With dear beasts in the autumn, disease 

 throughout, expensive food, and comparatively cheap meat in 

 the spring, the losses were extreme. The avernge loss was not 

 less than 30 per cent., and I know of different cases in large 

 sheds of beasts where the loss exceeded 60 per cent. The 

 facts of the rise are these :— For years past we have had an 

 over-tax" 1 ucLjni.J upon the supply of lean cattle; only take 

 the prices each recurring autumn on Norwich Hill. The 

 amount demanded per head has continued so extreme that the 

 general pass-words from grazier to grazier have been, " How 

 dear they are asking for beasts to-day," and tlie result has 

 proved that the rearer of beasts has pocketed the profits, how- 

 ever large or small, and the fatteuei has found his grazing in- 



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