Ch. XXXIV.] WINTER STALL-FEEDING. 391 



been made are rather favourable to the opinion that a small ox, when kept 

 fattening in a stall, will eat proportionably more, without fattening quicker, 

 than a large one. The meat, however, of the small one is finer grained, and 

 the size rendering it also more generally acceptable to family consumption, 

 it consequently commands a higher price in the market. The size of the 

 animal has, therefore; probably but little effect upon the return to the 

 grazier ; for the flesh of the large beast, though coarse-grained, yet if he be 

 well fed, perhaps gains in its rich juiciness what it wants in delicacy, and is 

 fitter for the common population of the large towns, and the uses of our 

 shipping. On the whole, therefore, it appears difficult to decide which 

 species should be joreferred, and we believe that either will in general pay 

 a fair profit if properly managed : this, however, will mainly depend on the 

 knowledge and judgment that have been employed in selecting such cattle 

 only for stall-feeding as are already in good condition, and by their ap- 

 pearance of high breeding and mellowness of touch evince an aptitude to 

 fatten. 



The object of stall-feeding is, however, sometimes carried to too great 

 an excess : the beef, if too fat, is not thus improved in flavour ; while, if 

 effected with costly food, the expense may be found to exceed the return. 



Chapter XXXV. 



ON FAT CATTLE. 

 An ox in high condition may be said, by the most unpractised observer, 

 to be fat, but the points by which his real value must be calculated can only 

 be ascertained by very strict examination ; and the observation which we 

 made in the last chapter respecting apparent and real fatness is so just, 

 that the most experienced judges are frequently deceived with regard to 

 that most material object in the estimation of a purchaser, which consists 

 in the butcher s profit; or, in other words, his " fifth quarter," — compris- 

 ing the offal, hide, and tallow. The fat which, in the course of feedino-, 

 accumulates about tlie intestines of a beast, is distinctively termed tallow, 

 from the uses to which it is so commonly applied : this, as it can be neither 

 seen nor felt, can only be judged of conjecturally, and it has been not un- 

 commonly remarked that beasts which have exhibited great fattening on 

 the exterior, have been found so indifterently filled with fat in the internal 

 parts, that the difference in weight of tallow between cattle of the same live 

 weight has been as much as from 8 to 10 stone *. The following hints, 

 however, — which we extract with great confidence from the " Complete 

 Grazierf", — may afford some criterion in leading to an accurate judgment 

 on those parts of the animal which, being received as the chief, are dis- 

 tinctively called their 



" POINTS." 



" First, when the appearance of the animal shows that each bone is 



* Thus, in Youatfs " Cattle," there is an account of several short-horns, amongst 

 which is the following diflference in tallow, namely : — 



A steer under 4 years old, . Carcase, 106 st. . Tallow, 19 st. 7 lb. 



Ditto ditto . ,,112 St. . „ -if) st. 



Ditto 3 years, y months „ 101 st. . ,, last. 



Ditto 3 years, 2 months ,, 95 st. . „ 17 st, 10 lbs. 

 t Gth edit, book i. p. 104. 



