CATTLE AND SHEEP. 39 



inconveniently scarce,' in proportion to the demands of 

 John's increasing family ; and thus stimulated, his inge- 

 nuity has found a substitute in an immense extension of 

 artificial feeding. Our ancestors had an ample supply of 

 heef from August to November. By dint of lattermaths 

 and a little hay, a few beasts were kept on, rather in a 

 stationary than in an improving condition, till the cold 

 weather had fairly set in ; then they were slaughtered, and 

 by pickling and salting dry (nothing exists now on which 

 Mr. Moore could found his joke, " hung beef, my Lord, if 

 you try it,") furnished beef for the winter and spring. A 

 stalled ox was a luxury, and a rare one. We believe we 

 need not go far back to the period when the Midland 

 Counties did not furnish a single systematic stall-feeder. 

 By most farmers the process was considered to be ruinous. 

 Artificial green food is now grown on land of every 

 description. The tables have been turned on the mere 

 grazier. The mixed farmer overwhelms him with num- 

 bers, with weight, and with fatness. We have daily under 

 our eye lands, now united into one farm, which bring to 

 market annually 250 beasts, averaging about 100 Smith- 

 field stones each, and a still larger number of fat sheep. 

 Within thirty years those lands supplied about a score of 

 the former, of about two-thirds the above-named individual 

 weight, and only a few score of the latter. On two some 

 what smaller and neighbouring farms the change has been 

 still greater, and in the same direction. The mere 

 grazing farms have receded in value more than any other 

 lands in Britain. Men of capital, occupying largely in the 

 Lothians, Northumberland, Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and 

 Norfolk, have improved their systems, have stood their 

 ground, and have many of them been blessed with pro- 

 sperity. Those who live in the vicinity know the melancholy 

 list of Leicestershire and Northamptonshire graziers who, 

 starting with undoubted capital, and carrying on business 

 on a large scale, have occupied as their fathers occupied 

 before them, and, with no fault but that of belonging to a 



