EARLY MATURITY 245 



natural conditions enables them to make up more than the 

 winter's loss of flesh. To those not fed on cake during winter, 

 a few pounds per day, given for five or six weeks before they 

 go out, affords a good start, and " comes out " afterwards in 

 "extra condition." Cattle at three or four years old arrive 

 more quickly to maturity than two-year-olds, and " kill 

 better" than they look, having more internal fat, and 

 being "better made up," though they lay on a smaller 

 amount of beef in a given time during the period of their 

 existence (see p. 281). Three-year-old grazing cattle are 

 now difficult to procure unless from poor land and high 

 or cold districts, where it would not pay to force by artificial 

 feeding, and where breeds exist in which maturity is slowly 

 reached. 



Early Maturity. The propriety of making beasts prime 

 at two years, or of allowing them to be three or even four 

 years old before finishing, must be determined entirely by 

 the quality of the natural products of the farm, the climate, 

 and the tendency to the laying on of flesh in the animals 

 suited to those surroundings. It would be absurd, and it 

 would never pay, to try to force a Galloway or West 

 Highlander to maturity at two years, when kept in its native 

 conditions. Time must be allowed for the purpose of over- 

 coming local natural disadvantages. It would be an equally 

 bad practice, with a good climate and the best of food at 

 hand, where animals of a breed accustomed to mature 

 rapidly would do best, to keep them a year longer than 

 necessary. A large proportion of food (and in this instance 

 expensive food) is burnt up to supply the waste of 

 the system ; so that keeping animals till three years old, 

 when by proper management they could have been fat 

 at two, increases the loss by at least one-third of food 

 substance. (See Appendix L for fig. of cattle dentition.) 



The points of a good feeding animal are very much 

 those already described at p. 52, in treating of the char- 

 acteristics of all flesh producers. M'Combie says, the follow- 

 ing denote slow feeders : " Deep neck ; thick [' trousery '] 

 legs and tail ; thick skin, with hard hair and hollow eyes." 



Grazings in this country may be divided into three 

 qualities: (i) First-rate pasture, which is rented at three 

 guineas, four guineas, or in some instances (which are admitted 



