68 THE CATTLE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 



however, cannot have this luxury, and hence we must consider 

 how buildings without these modem adaptations can best be 

 arranged. 



The want of proper accommodation for cattle is very apparent 

 in many of our principal dairy districts, cattle being treated 

 much in the same way that they were a century and more ago. 

 As a rule, the management is bad, or rather, to speak more 

 accurately, there is a total want of any in many cases, the 

 animals being left out in the grass fields all the year round. 

 The want of proper accommodation is often the cause of this, 

 and the landlord is more to blame than the tenant. Without 

 good buildings, properly fitted up, both the farmer and his 

 stock are more or less at the mercy of the elements. The 

 buildings on most grazing farms are quite inadequate to the 

 wants of the cattle they are intended to protect. We believe 

 that by a little trouble and a small outlay they might be made 

 much more comfortable than they are generally found. No one 

 accustomed to travel about the country can have helped seeing 

 the mess a lot of store cattle make in a field, especially near the 

 shed and gates during the winter months. These sheds, which 

 are so common in grass fields, and which are intended to protect 

 a lot of beasts in winter from the inclemency of the weather, 

 may be made much more useful at little cost. They now consist 

 simply of a shed with manger and rack, a food house in one 

 corner, and perhaps a small rickyard at the back ; in few 

 instances do we find a yard attached, consequently the animals 

 cannot in the wettest weather be prevented from poaching the 

 land, thereby rendering its surface more like a ploughed field 

 than anything else. We would propose to have yards made to 

 these sheds and a gate attached, so that the animals can be shut 

 in ; if the yard be walled in so much the better, from its being 

 so much warmer than if merely railed round. By a little 

 contrivance the shed may be made available for two or even 

 four fields. 



The yard need not be large, and must be made in proportion 

 to the number of animals that the shed will accommodate, so as 

 to give them all room without the stronger ones knocking their 

 weaker brethren about too much. Unless they are tied up, this 

 cannot be helped, the underlings getting less food than the 

 others. 



