PRINCIPLES OF FEEDING. 36 



per week, charging a full price for tlie hay and straw. It will 

 be found good work — more, we suspect, than an average result 

 — if the animals increase 141b. a week of dead weight; and 

 as the market value even at present rates hardly reaches the 

 cost, it will be evident that stall feeding can seldom be made to 

 pay expenses and leave the manure clear. The farmer must 

 consider himself well-off if he gets his manure at half the price 

 it would cost him to buy ; and such manure as will result from 

 box feeding on the food described is well worth the price we 

 have estimated, viz., 6s. a ton. Feeding cattle is a necessity on 

 light thin soils. On strong land artificial manure and thorough 

 cultivation will produce remunerative crops, at any rate, for a 

 number of years ; but we cannot do without fold-yard manure 

 on weak sandy soils. 



Where we rear and feed — ^which with good management will 

 on mixed farms pay, as a rule, better than buying in animals to 

 feed — there can be no doubt that we should feed from birth, 

 never allow the animal to stand still, much less go back, and 

 thus bring our animal out at an early period. How this can be 

 done will depend upon circumstances. Our practice in this 

 respect has undergone a wonderful revolution in the last ten 

 or twelve years. By pursuing the system sketched out, it is 

 quite possible to bring out two-year-old steers averaging from 

 nine to ten score a quarter, and equally practicable to have our 

 heifers producing their first calves at the same age. Unless our 

 soil is rich, and the produce very nourishing, we may not be 

 able to make beef so economically at two as at three years. In 

 the latter case we force less, but always should have the animal 

 gently thriving. Where practicable, we recommend turning the 

 animals off at two and a half years old, as a quick return is a 

 great point in these days ; but this requires a continuation of 

 good feeding during the second year. If in the field, the pasture 

 must be abundant, and night and morning trough food must be 

 given. Comparatively early in autumn the beast should be 

 housed. A well- ventilated box, which allows of more freedom 

 of motion than the stall, is preferable for young beasts. The 

 taste of turnips should have been previously acquired by a few 

 roots scattered about the pasture. With the chaff and corn 

 they are familiar enough, and so we get them to settle down 



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