32 THE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



quantity of cake is often found, especially during the latter 

 stages of feeding, a very profitable addition to natural food. 

 Cake is most commonly used, because the most easily given, and 

 less liable to waste than meal ; a mixture of oil-cake and crushed 

 beans would often be an improvement, especially in wet weather 

 or when the grass grows fast. At such times the grass is 

 laxative, and the linseed cake, instead of correcting, rather 

 increases this tendency. Well- ground cotton-cake might be 

 substituted for linseed cake; for, being obtainable at a 

 reduced price, and being equally feeding, it is, weight for 

 weight, much cheaper food. There are some who altogether 

 condemn the practice of outdoor grazing as extravagant, 

 and tending to a loss of food ; and it must be confessed 

 that it is not always easy to regulate the mouths to the 

 growth, and have the food constantly eaten to the greatest 

 advantage. If the keep increases on the beasts, then it is 

 trodden down, soiled on, and, so far as these animals are 

 concerned, wasted ; but after the last lot goes to the butcher, 

 and the land has lain three or four weeks to sweeten, our 

 comparatively hungry store cattle gladly gnaw up all that is 

 left, so that very little is wasted. The injury from flies is often 

 very considerable, especially when there is no shade or shelter ; 

 but this may to a great extent be prevented. No doubt animals 

 tied up in cool, airy sheds, and supplied with grass ad libitum, 

 would, on the whole, fatten faster than animals at large ; but 

 the injury to the quality of the food by mowing would be 

 so great as to render the plan unfeasable. Lastly, we might 

 save the trampling of the grass by a system of tethering, 

 which is carried out on some dairy farms with Jersey stock ; 

 but our beasts would fret at first, and suffer much from the 

 fly, and, we fear, do but indifferently well. We have long 

 been convinced that the most paying practice, when the 

 nature of the grass will allow it, is to give cake or its equiva- 

 lent on grass during summer, and supply the market with 

 moderate weights when meat is most scarce — viz., during the 

 summer months. To do this, the animals must be brought 

 forward during the winter and early spring with generous 

 food. They should be placed in well-sheltered yards, to which 

 a roomy shed is attached, and fed with a mixture of pulped 



