COWS. 19 



farm in excellent order from the very commence- 

 ment ; never allow the calf meat to waste away after 

 weaning. Support and sustain, and increase it by 

 dint of the most excellent keep and food that you 

 can provide. 



In every herd and flock it will, happen from many 

 reasons that individuals fail to breed. These barren 

 kine, if you have fairly done them from their youth 

 upwards, will be at once ready for the butcher's 

 knife, for it is a vulgar error to suppose that animals 

 in good case will not breed. Look at the example of 

 the late Towneley herd ; how thickly padded they 

 all were with beef, and yet how prolific they proved 

 to their purchasers. Meat gradually laid on from 

 earliest infancy is beautifully marbled with an abun- 

 dance of lean, and interferes not with fruitfulness, 

 whereas meat built hastily is of a blubber kind, 

 mainly fat, and almost certainly fatal to the repro- 

 ductiveness of an animal. Of course something 

 depends upon the food supplied. Oatmeal rather 

 than barley-meal should be the corn-sprinkling on 

 the youngster's roots. The largest, hardiest men aro 

 reared on oatmeal, and in the coal districts. From 

 this one might argue that warmth is essential to a 

 fine development of frame. Although doubtless con- 

 ducing to their comfort, my experience is that it 

 does not of necessity improve the size of the growing 

 animal. I have two sisters in adjoining boxes, both 

 winners of many prizes, one grand in stature and 

 symmetrical withal, the other no less lovely to look 

 on, but half the sister's size, and yet the wee one 

 was the most petted in her youth. 



c 2 



