THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



manure reraaina under tlicm for about three weeks ; from 

 bein^ made under cover it is much better in quality ; and 

 comfort is preferable to discomfort to the animal itself. 

 After a hard day's work, quietly to feed and quietly to rest 

 must be more desirable than lighting or beinj' fought from 

 the shed or the feeding bin ; and in proof of the healthiness 

 of the system I will here read a letter from the most emi- 

 nent veterinarian in Sulfolk, who has had much experience 

 upon this subject, combined with an extensive practice : — 



" Veterinary and Livery Establishment, Museum- 

 street, Ipswich, 'Nov. 27, 1858. 

 " Dear Sir, — I am decidedly an advocate for well- ventilated 

 stables for cart horses to feed and sleep in, rather than open 

 yards, although I believe their general adoption would not 

 advance the pecuniary interests of the " vet.'' Mr. T. 

 Harwood, Belstead Hall, Ipswich, has had some 18 or 20 

 farm horses constantly in boxes for the past six years, and 

 to him 1 would refer you for a reliable practical opinion, 

 feeling sure he would with pleasure give it you — I am, dear 

 sir, truly yours, " C. T. Shorten." 



" Belstead Hall, Oct. 2, 1858. 

 " Dear Sir, — I am sorry I was prevented replying to your 

 letter yesterday. It is quite correct I have had 20 horses 

 for several years kept in boxes, and from my experience I 

 am satisfied the health of the horses is certainly improved, 

 as Mr. Shorten can testify. I think his bill the year pre- 

 vious to the alteration of my stables was £3G, and during 

 the five or six years since it has not been .36s. for the entire 

 period. I think for both food and attendance the cost is 

 more, as they consume less inexpensive food, but the com- 

 fort and security is very great. I am fortunately situated 

 in having a constant supplj' of water in each box. I am 

 not quite certain that the horses make so much muck as 

 when turned into the yard, but it is decidedly better. It 

 will afford me pleasure to show you my stables. — Yours 

 very truly, " Thomas Harwood." 



In all feeding and fattening of any description of animal 

 it has been my experience that warmth and comfort are 

 equivalents for a certain amount of food. I have found 

 that regularity of feeding and cleanliness are essential to 

 progress. I have alwaj's discovered that an extravagant 

 system of feeding is most unpaying ; that we require to 

 give such proportions and admixtures that the animal can 

 manufacture the largest amount of meat from a giviai 

 quantity of food ; that an excess of the nutritive is unassi- 

 milated and voided in the excrement ; that although the 

 manure is thereby improved, it is too expensive to manure 

 with that which should by proper management — by proper 

 admixture in a larger bulk — have been converted into meat. 

 On the other hand, I have found, as every one else has, that 

 an insufficiency of the nutritive in the food causes retrogres- 

 sion, instead ot progression. Further, I have always ob- 

 served that rest and quietude are necessary for rapid 

 progress ; that exercise is (mdesirable. la fattening 

 animals we have an unnatural object in view, in the undue 

 development of flesh and fat ; consequent!}', an unnatural 

 means best secures the ends desired, and exercise under 

 such circumstances is injurious rather than beneficial. If 

 we frustrate nature's purposes, and have objects antagonis- 

 tic to nature's intentions, wo must deviate from nature's 

 prescribed laws of exercise for strength to secure our alien 

 ends. I am, therefore of opinion, and it has been my ex- 

 perience, that fattening beasts ranging at large, in an open 

 yard, lose much of the benefit of their food bj' waste in ex- 

 posure to cold, and from superfluous exercise. I have no 

 objection to the loose box system ; under certain circum- 

 stances, I think it the most desirable course to pursue ; but 

 as the beasts in loose boxes stamp away one-half more 

 straw thau the stall-fed animals, and again, as the loose box 

 system requires a much larger extent of buildings, which 

 landlords usually are not very anxious to erect, nor tenants 

 to pay a per-centage upon, I think stall feeding both the 

 more desirable and the more feasible system to adopt 

 generally. As to the description of animal to feed, we re- 

 quire healthy, symmetiical, and docile animals ; we require 

 animals that will manufacture meat, and not offal ; animals 

 that will assimilate food to their own superstructure, and 

 not such as fill the office simply of root pulpers, cake 

 grinders, and manure stampers ; we want animals that will 



make a return in meat and profit for kind treatment* 

 attention, and good food. I will briefly recapitulate by a 

 .summary of the foregoing. I have shown that although 

 stock farming is desirable, yet that all stock farming is not 

 profitable. I have pointed out, that the judgment required 

 for the most profitable consumption of the root crop, for the 

 most paying manner in which to manufacture straw into 

 manure, is something to tax the observation and attention, 

 and that it requires no mean powers of discrimination. I 

 have shown that an unpaying and unprofitable root crop 

 will not do ; that no roots and no stock and an entire 

 pecuniary dependence upon the barn doors will not do. I 

 have shown that stock farming with ordinary stock is very 

 unpaying ; that extravagant feeding in stock farming will 

 not answer directly or indirectly. I have shown by my 

 own experience, and the experience of my friend Mr. 

 Goodwin, that lamb rearing is practicable and profitable on 

 heavy land, and that it is the most paying course. I have 

 shown by ray own experience that sheep fattening is prac- 

 ticable and next in profit after lamb rearing on stiff retentive 

 soils. I have shown with mutton usually from 7 to 10 per cent, 

 dearer than beef, with sheep growing less offal in propor- 

 tion by 5 to 7 per cent, than beasts, and producing from 12 

 to 20 per cent, in wool, in addition to meat. — I have shown 

 under such circumstances that if the sheep manufactures as 

 much meat from a given amount of food as the beast, that 

 the sheep must necessarily be the more profitable animal 

 of the two to grow, graze, and fatten. 1 have shown that 

 young growing beasts necessarily assimilate a larger amount 

 from a given quantity of food to convert into bone, flesh, 

 and fat, than the old full-grown beast; and that early 

 maturity is the correct principle whereby to manuflrcture 

 the largest amount of meat without loss or waste from a 

 fixed quantum of food. I have further shown by my own 

 experience that early maturity is the most paying course, 

 and that young beasts, by proper economy in feeding, may 

 be so fattened as to pay the marketable value for all the 

 food constmied, whereby the manure is obtained free of 

 cost. I have shown by general experience that buying lean 

 beasts at a high price, and feeding them at an expensive 

 rate, is not a cheap, but rather a very dear system of 

 manure making. I have shown that such a system is un- 

 paying as a meat manufactory, or a manure manufactory ; 

 that it is only warranted by the ulterior results when wheat 

 is 30 per cent, above the average price, but that it is 

 ruinous when wheat is 30 per cent, below par. I have shown 

 that by the force of circumstances, from a restricted sup- 

 ply of "lean cdttte— from sheep husbandry, and beast fat- 

 tening in tlie old rearing districts, having superseded calf 

 and beast rearing ; further, from an increased demand, 

 from increased root culture — I say 1 have shown from the 

 force of circumstances that the system of one man rearing 

 beasts, and another man fattening them, has gradually 

 become untenable, and that heavy losses by disease would 

 appear to be hastening on a change to a more reasonable 

 and secure course of procedure. I have shown the vast 

 benefit which an intimate friend of mine— a farmer of 

 stiff retentive soil— has derived from a change from bullock 

 fattening to colt fattening, realizing in the one case a cipher 

 for the Voot crop, but in the other securing 8d. for every 

 bushel of mangold wurtzel consumed. I have shown that 

 from the high price of dairy produce cows make a good 

 return, and are profitable ; at the same time, I have sug- 

 gested the possibility of an improvement upon my expe- 

 rience, by substituting well-bred cows, which are capable 

 of breeding good calves, in lieu of such as are simply use- 

 ful fbr the pail. I have shown that pigs are profitable to 

 such an extent as a sufficiency to consume the waste of the 

 farm, but that beyond that number my experience does 

 not sanction. I have instimced Mr. Shorten's veterinarian 

 experience, and Mr. Harwood's and my own practical 

 knowledge, to prove that cart horses require comfort and 

 warmth,"with good ventilation, as much as any other ani- 

 mal. I have compared the yard, box, and _ stall-feeding 

 systems, and have shown, that as our fattening ends are 

 unnatural, our means must be unnatural also. I have ex- 

 pressed my desire that upon the stiff retentive soils of the 

 eastern counties we should have more lamb rearing and 

 sheep grazing, more dairy produce, with calf rearing, and 

 young beast fattening, securing early development and early 

 maturity; also more colt fattening— all of which would pay 



