10 



THE FARMER'S MAGAZINE. 



— rather than so much old bullock grazing, which does not 

 pay. I have even advocated an alteration, if necessaiy, 

 from the four-course shift to the five-course, that we may 

 grow less wheat, which we don't seem to want, and more 

 mutton, which we do want. In conclusion, and throughout, 

 I have endeavoured to show, we must have young unstunted 

 animal;?, of such. symmetry and docility as to ensure early 

 maturity, and a maximum of meat from a minimum of food 

 — a maximum of first-class quality of meat, with a mini- 

 mum of coarse meat and a minimum of olfal. I would 

 add, that there is no brauch of our business which is more 

 difficult of attainment than judicious stock farming; there 

 is no branch of our business in which there is more ample 

 scope for improvement, and a more full development of 

 latent resources ; and the general cause of advancement will 

 be best promoted by individual judgment and individual 

 effort, and by every man doing his utmost to secure the 

 largest amount of pecuniiiry profit of which his occupation 

 and position are capable. 1 know, Mr. Chairman and 

 gentlemen, it may be considered 1 have too strongly 

 condemned the practice of buying lean old beasts and fatten- 

 ing them, as carried out in tiie eastern counties. I know I 

 have expressed myself freely, but I came before you with 

 the intention to propound my honest convictions. I came 

 before j-ou with the dotorminatiou to pander to no popular 

 principle or general system. I came before you with the 

 resolve to expose what I believed to be wrong and unpaying, 

 and to uphold what I believed to be right and attended with 

 profit. I have fully and openly explained my opinions, 

 founded upon my experience, and if 1 have erred, it has 

 been in my judgment, and not by design. I have the satis- 

 factory assurance that an awakened public opinion will so 

 canvass the deductions as to pronounce a verdict of error 

 upon that which is error, and of truth upon that which is 

 true in principle. I only desire to elicit sound conclusions, 

 and to see established sound practices, baaed upon the cost 

 of production, and the law of supply and demand. Profit 

 best regulates systems of production, and whilst men dis- 

 card the uupaying produce, and resort to the profitable, 

 prices are regulated, and the public interest advanced. If, 

 then, manufacturing lamb, mutton, young beef, milk, and 

 horse-flesh, pays better than grazing old beasts, let some of 

 us at least discard the latter, and adopt the former, to our 

 own individual profit, and the increase of that national 

 wealth which is the more rapidly augmented by the largest 

 number of the most successful investments. 1 could have 

 wished that my observations should more especiallj' have 

 referred to those splendid specimens of early maturity and 

 perfect aj-mmetry which we shall have the pleasure of ex- 

 amining at the Smithfield Club Cattle Show during the pre- 

 sent week. We cannot control the force of circumstancea ; 

 but few such animals are fattened upon the stitF retentive 

 Boils of England by hard-working practical men, conse- 

 quently they were beyond my province of observation. But 

 allow me to add, we prize "them as incentives to exertion, 

 and as models for our standards of attainment in animal 

 development. I beg to thank you for your kind attention 

 to my lengthened observations. 1 can assure you it will afford 

 me pleasure to answer questions to illuminate any remarks 

 wherein I have uuintentionally been opaque or inexplicit, 

 and I much desire to hear the expression of your experience 

 in stock farming upon stiff retentive soils. (The reading of 

 the paper was followed by loud and general cheering.) 



Mr. W. Bennett (of Cambridge) wished for a word of 

 explanation with regard to the two bushels of mangold 

 wurtzel per day, which Mr. Bond said he gave to eacli of 

 his horses, as the quantity appeared very large, 



Mr. Bond said they did not give mangold wurtzel sepa- 

 rately, but they mixed it with corn and chaff', and the horses 

 ate two bushels of cut mangold per day weighing 2^ impe- 

 rial stones per bushel. 



Mr. Ben.vett inquired how much water the horses drank? 



Mr. Bo.ND said they did not take a large quantity, but 

 they alwaya had opportunities of drinking. 



Lord Berneks (Keythorpe, Leicester) wished to express 

 the great pleasure he felt in being present at the reading of the 

 most interesting paper which they had just heard (cheers). 

 For the last two years he had been prevented from attending 

 the meetings ; but he could assure them that he had read with 

 very great interest the discussions which had taken place in 

 that club, and he regretted extremely that it had not been in 



his power to attend them. With regard to the paper which 

 had been read that evening, they would all agree with him 

 that it emanated from a man of great practice and great ob- 

 servation (Hear, hear). There was very much in it to make 

 people think, and he was sure that its dissemination would 

 benefit agriculturists. One thing had especially struck 

 him in listening to it, namely, that as in draiiiiui; ao in stock 

 feediug, there coul.l not be laid down any f;ei ctal rule for the 

 whole country, but that they must all be gnidtd by the pe- 

 culiar circumstances of their districts (Hear, hear). As re- 

 garded the profitableness of sheep feeding in cases in which beast 

 feeding had been carried on before, he could himself speak 

 from experience. He had tried it on land of a very different 

 nature from that which had been described ; b\it he there 

 found the results very beneficial, and he had also realized 

 similar results on the strongest clay soil (Hear, hear). Mr. 

 Bond truly observed that they must look to the races of 

 sheep and cattle, aud must take care to select the best — 

 that is, those which had the strongest constitutions, and 

 were moat suitable for early maturity. JMr. Bond had spoken 

 of the Hampshire dowr.s. He (Lord Beruers) had tried them 

 to a great extent, but upon the land on which he tried them 

 they cost liim £600, and he was glad to get back to the Sussex. 

 He tried the Sussex downs afterwards in Leicestershire. Being 

 very much pleased by the success which he had with them in 

 Norfolk, he persevered with the.m for twelve years in the 

 county of Leicester, but he found the soil and climate unsuit- 

 able to them, and therefore he had to give them up for the 

 Leicester and heavier breeds. Mr. Bond had dwelt very much 

 on the comparative profit of old and young animals. Whether 

 yomig animals would pay better than old ones must depend 

 very much on the nature of the farm, its capabilities for bered- 

 ing purposes, aud so on. That gentleman had also observed 

 that an old beast could not pay if it had 10 lbs. of cake a-day. 

 Now, as he (Lord Berners) was speaking before practical men, 

 he would give them the result of his own experience in this 

 matter. He had found that to give the greatest variety of 

 food was the best way to produce the greatest attainable 

 amount of fat and flesh (Hear, hear). He had not himself of late 

 given any animal more than 4 lbs. of cake a-day. He found 

 that one of his tenants was giving more than 14 lbs. a-day, 

 and he asked him how he could suppose that that would pay 

 when cake was £12 a ton ? He entirely concurred iu the re- 

 mark, that it was best that rapecake should go through the 

 body of the animal, in order that it might increase the quantity 

 of the wool and the value of the mutton. He had himsel 

 adopted that plan ; it was more than thirty years since he first 

 tried it, and he could testify to the value of Mr. Bond's sug- 

 gestion. Again, that gentleman asked, why, when corn was at 

 80 low a price, they should not produce more mutton — why 

 they should not adopt the five-course instead of the four-course 

 shift ? While that suggestion was being made, his friend on 

 his left (Mr. Alderman Mechi) whispered " Won't that pro- 

 duce weeds aud twitch ?" On certain lands it do doubt would 

 produce them ; but how were they to avoid that evil at the 

 time of year when they were most pinched for food ? Some- 

 times their turnips were nearly finished, or their mangold 

 wurtzel was almost exhausted, or was wanted for a better de- 

 scription of stock. Being pinched in lambing time they had 

 recourse to rye. Here was seen the advantage of the fifth 

 course, a second year of clover. In ordtr to obviate the grow- 

 ing of weeds and twitch, he had been accustomed to get what 

 was called a stolen crop of turnips. As soon as he had fed it 

 down, iu May or June, he scuffled it, fed it off, and it then 

 came in for his wheat. As regarded the breeding of horses, 

 considering the high prices which the Suffolk horses fetched, 

 the great estimation iu which they were held, not only in Eng- 

 land, but also in Scotland, and in Ireland, where he saw some 

 splendid specimens this year, he did not wonder, he said, that 

 a gentleman from Suffolk should recommend that horses should 

 be bred more than they had been ; aud he could say from his 

 own experience, that if they selected good brood mares, aud 

 went to the expense of obtaining the best stallions that were 

 available, instead of looking only to a low price, they would 

 find the breeding of horses a very profitable item in the farm- 

 ing account (Hear, hear). 



Mr. Alderman Meiiii (Tiptrce) must congratulate the Club 

 on the very able introduction of his friend from Suffolk. He 

 thought that the principal cause of that gentleman's success 

 was his large consumption of straw. Iu former times he (Mr. 

 Alderman Mechi) was laughed at by some of his practical 



