18 NOTES ON FIELDS AND CATTLE. 



whose heraldic boast extends through a dozen 

 generations of approved blood and shape. Small 

 diamonds the judicious breeder will attain in abun- 

 dance, with the occasional reward of a finer gem. 

 The great charm of this sort of breeding is, however, 

 that you have a comparative certainty of ultimately 

 possessing a herd like in feature as kindred in blood, 

 and how much more delightful is this for the farmer 

 to view than a yard full of all sorts bought on this 

 side or that with the simple view of fattening, and 

 which can never excite in his mind the least interest 

 beyond a dull daily calculation whether this beast or 

 that beast will weigh the most at scale, and whether 

 this one will even pay at all. 



The fact is, I don't believe that fattening animals 

 for the butcher pays any one. The manure they 

 leave is the main profit, and even that when allowed, 

 as it usually is, to lie exposed to the violence .of the 

 elements, is weak as tea-leaves compared with what 

 it should be, and would be, if the accumulation of 

 trodden and soaked chaff from the floor of well-tended 

 box-fed pets. 



To buy beasts with a view to making profit by the 

 amount of beef into which one can encase their ribs 

 is at least a hazardous affair. Only this last autumn, 

 sheep that had been bought in to fatten on the 

 pastures which rinderpest had swept of their legiti- 

 mate occupants were actually sold, I see, at some 

 shillings less per head than they had been bought in 

 for in the first instance. What amount of rent will 

 this bring ? The only sort of meat-making that pays 

 is, I believe, the keeping all stock bred upon the 



