THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



veatment a losing speculation. It is qiiite clear that the 

 supply of lean beasts has not been equal to the demand, and a 

 very hi^h price has been the conaequeut reiiilt; this fact is 

 explainable bj' reason. The agriciilturista of niauy hitherto 

 purely rearing districts in Scotland and En<(land have beconie 

 fatteuers of a part of their animal produce in addition to rear- 

 ing, whilst in other cases sheep husbandr.. has supplanted the 

 system of calf breeding and reariu":. These causes have 

 operated to curtail the adequate supply; whilst our fattening 

 districts, such as the eastern counties, have {gradually produced 

 an increased acreage, and a greatly increased quantity per acre 

 of roots, especially of mangold wurtzels ; therefore, with a 

 restricted supply and an increased demand, we have been 

 buying lean cattle at a dearer rate than we could have reared 

 them; and I think the unsatisfactory nature of cur position 

 calls for the serious consideration of the agriculturists of the 

 eastern counties, viz. : — Can we do better than purchase old 

 beasts at a high price, subject to much disease, fattened at 

 great cot, and resulting in the average of >ears in an actual 

 annual loss in the transaction ? I say, can we do better ? 

 What are our future prospects? 'With England's wealth and 

 prosperity we have, and we must continue to have, a meat- 

 cousuraing population. The consumption, too, will ui ques- 

 tionably increase. Cheap breail, withau abundant demand for 

 labour, will render the cotton spinner, the artisan, and the 

 well to-do labourer even greater meat coi sumers thau hereto- 

 fore. The price of animal food is at this time dear, vtiien com- 

 pared with wheat ; and meat will probably remain dispropor- 

 tionately high in price, iu comparison with wheat; but the 

 heavy-laud farmer in the eastern counties requires to be in a 

 position to profit by such advantages, by such high prices, and 

 not annually to throw away his chance of remuneration iu an 

 extravagant purchase of the beasts of the rearer. I know the 

 system of buying beasts and fattening them at considerable 

 cost has long been the practice in Norfolk, Siiffolk, and Essex ; 

 but time and circumstances may have invalidated the sound- 

 ness of the custom, and rendered the position untenable. It 

 is well, for us at least who are interested, to investigate the 

 matter; and do not let us clir.g to the notion that things will 

 change — that "a good time's coming" — when there is no rea- 

 sonable ground for such a conclusion. Lean beasts have long 

 been at too high a price; and though we may have fluctua- 

 tions, yet there is every chance of lean beasts remaining at too 

 dear a figure for profit to the grazier iu the average of years. 

 I am no man for clinging to asi iking ship, to »n uupayiug spe- 

 culation ; and the course which w ould answer for producing corn 

 by txpensive manure at 703. per qr. will not do with wheat at 

 4O3. per qr. Let me clesriy sec ihtst any course is wise and pru- 

 dent, and I am a willing disciple ; but I am not prepared 

 continuously to rush into the quick-set fence of bullock 

 grazing blindfolded, and then anuually awake to the un- 

 pleasiug fact that I am in a very uncomfortably Icsiug posi- 

 tion. We must remember, further, that years since, with 

 cheap wheat we had cheap oilcake ; but now we have cheap 

 wheat and dear oilcake, which makes our position even 

 more untenable ; yet notwithstanding I meet with merchants 

 who assure rae they are doing a good business at £10 10s. 

 per ton in oilcake. By no rule of arithmetic can I reconcile 

 this outlay of the grazier to any extent with common sense 

 under existing circumstances; literally with wheat at a far 

 cheaper rate, and I believe it ia a better fattener than the 

 adulterated or even unadulterated oilcake of the present day ; 

 yet men are to be found who invest in cake probably to pro- 

 duce wheat, which is cheaper by 20 per cent, as a first cost 

 than oilcake, the means taken to produce it ! I s ly this may 

 be custom, but it cannot be wisdom ; we are creatures of habit, 

 but our habits mHy be very unwise. Stock farming, then, may 

 be very unprofitable ; but again, to go to actual facts, an en- 

 tire dependence upon the corn produce of the farm will not do. 

 We hear men continually com[)lainiiig that the sole reliance 

 upon the barn doors for every penny will not answer, and they 

 are quite right. Which portion of tlie agricultural community 

 suffered most during the depression prectding the late Kus.siau 

 war? It was the cultivators of the clay districts whose lands 

 yielded corn crops, but no animal produce. Tliis truth admits 

 of a reasonable explanation ; for whilst wheat fell in price 30 

 per cent, meat but slightly receded in value; and the relative 

 prices are the same at the present time ; meat is dear com- 

 pared with wheat, consequently meat must be produced. We 

 have long since condemned the practice of bare fallow ; we 

 hare streauously urged the cultivatioa of roots, but we don't 



require a profitless root crop ; we want a direct-paying vege- 

 table produce, and I think it both feasible and possible to se- 

 cure it. But before attempting to demonstrate a remunerative 

 method ol stuck farming on stiff retentive soils, 1 should prefer 

 to glance at the actual position of many such farms relative 

 to stock farming at the present time and (or years past. Some 

 ofciipants of the clay or loamy districts have a very summary 

 process of stock farming ; they grow no amount of vegetable 

 produce, and consiquently require no stock to consume it. 

 This, uudtr special pccuninry circumstances, in different cases, 

 may not be entirely apart from necessity, for the " heavy land" 

 districts of the kingdom have never been noted for a galaxy of 

 wealthy owners or occupiers, nor has the soil ever been noto- 

 rious for its wealth of producing powers. Is it this description 

 of soil which our agricultural millionaires take through choice? 

 Is it here we meet with our Hudson?, our Crisps, or our Mills ? 

 Is it here we meet with large occupations aud vat invest- 

 ments? Is it here we meet with farm houses as mansions, and 

 a princely hospitality ? Is it here we meet with the well-to-do 

 groom, and the well-conditioned hacks and hunters? Is it 

 ht re we meet with first-class stock, model homesteads, and supe- 

 rior farming ? We ki,o v 'tis money which is the main spring 

 of progress, aud we must confess to the fact that the clays of 

 England do not command the wealth of England. To many a 

 spot conld I take you, where the farmhouse of the small occu- 

 pant is a cottage, the buildings are rubbish ; where a clearance 

 fire would be a geucral benefit; where the farm is a succession 

 of corn fields and bare fallow ; where stock is the exception, 

 and net the rule ; and the tenant, though all kindness, is far 

 from being all intelligence ; and he is both literally and figu- 

 ratively "a man of straw." I know clay aud water are not 

 very inviting for investment or occupation ; but if the pro- 

 prietor is too poor to build suitable buildings, if the tenant is 

 too poor to grow roots aud to buy or rear suitable stock to 

 consume them, I can say nothing to such an improvement, but 

 I recommend the one to sell and the other to qui*-, and make 

 room for better men. I advise it, because in these days of 

 competition tliere must be adequate investment for adequate 

 return, and to neglect outlay is but to go to the dogs by de- 

 grees — the landlord to repossess a whipped, a jaded, and worn- 

 out farm ; and though the tenant may keep himself from the 

 workhouse, and exist iu fustian and subserviency, he will re- 

 quire no man to make out his will, as it is now the law of the 

 land that every man desiring to bequeath should have some- 

 thing to devise. We may settle it, theu, as a fact, that no 

 stock at all is not profitable stock farming •, but there is yet 

 another phase of the class of heavy land farmers to whom I 

 would allude: I mean the mau with sufficient means ; aud 

 there are many such, with stock of a doubtful character — so 

 doubtful iu quality, that early maturity, aptitude to fatten, 

 symmetry, and shape, would appear to be undesirable qualifi- 

 cations. I now know of many such inferior, ill made, coarse- 

 bred animals ; I have even tried them, and I still have two or 

 three young beasts to test the truth of how much go d food 

 may be thrown away and wasted to manufacture one stone of 

 ordinary beef. These animals of which I speak, especially, are 

 often the prcduce of an ordinary cow, end of the nearest bull 

 in the neighbourhood; there arc other beasts of the old Irish 

 character aud the like, but I will warrant each specimen, one 

 aud all of them, as a sure and certain preventive to grazing 

 proving a profitable investment in their individual cases. I 

 should like to see the balance-sheet of but one trial ; aud if 

 men more fully calculated the cost even of their successes, 

 they would be more wary of future attempts. It would be a 

 case of " once bitten twice shy." Don't think, gentlemen, that I 

 am ignorant of the vast improvement which has takeu place 

 in the stock of the kingdom within the last 20 years ; don't 

 think that I am blind to our exalted national position in ani- 

 mal productions. Our Koyal Agricultural Exhibition, our 

 Stnithfield Club Cattle Show, and the local exhibitions in the 

 country generally, are evidences of the perseverance, the in- 

 domitable perseverance, and triumphant successes, of the 

 middle classes of England, combined with instances of aristo- 

 cratic assistance in animal culture. No other nation in the 

 world possesses such general comparative perfection in animal 

 symmetry ; aud I but complain tliat such improvement has not 

 reached every occupation — that men are still to be found who 

 attempt to fatten those cattle which have no disposition to fat- 

 ten ; aud, when prepared for the butcher, have much offal, but 

 little prime meat, aud entail heavy losses upon the grazier. I 

 have shown different attempts at grazing, and certain neglects 



