THE UNITED KINGDOM. 83 



powers of the animal; you have no more material with which to supply 

 the two bodies than you had for the one. 



Individual cases of success from early breeding may be quoted, but 

 the general results, as ascertained over wide areas, are against it. The 

 certain results of breeding from heifers at too early an age will be a race' 

 of cattle diminished in size and weakened in constitution. From 2J 

 years to 3 years old is quite early enough for a heifer to calve if she is to 

 be the mother of a long line of noble animals. And no bull can be 

 freely used without injury until he approaches two years old. In any 

 system of breeding the time for dropping calves must, to a great extent, 

 be regulated by the accommodation afforded, and by the length of time 

 which the animals are to be kept upon the laud before feeding out or 

 breeding. For economical meat production I know no time preferable 

 to the very early spring. Cows, when not required for the dairy and 

 in-calf heifers, can be cheaply kept in the straw-yard during the winter 

 if they are to calve down in the spring; and thus more bullocks can be 

 fattened out upon the fodder and the root crops. But if the breeding 

 animals are turned upon really good pasture during the summer when 

 they are in calf, they frequently lay on fat and produce puny calves. 

 Where the progeny is to go out as a fat steer under three years old, this 

 time of calving is well adapted, as it gives the animals three summers 

 at grass and only two winters in the yard. 



Before calving, exercise in good open yards is far preferable to tying 

 up in stalls. Too high a condition at the time of calving is apt to pro- 

 duce inflammation, resulting in milk fever and speedy death. When 

 the eye at such a period has a glassy appearance some aperient medi- 

 cine should be instantly given. About half a pound of Epsom salts, 

 with some powdered ginger and a little sulphur and niter, will answer 

 the purpose if given in time. 



C. STOCK-FEEDING. 



Food of young stock. Food of young stock must be essentially bone 

 and muscle forming, and it is well known that the continuous grazing 

 of pastures by young stock and by dairy cows very rapidly exhausts 

 the bone-earths, so that the land deteriorates and becomes year by 

 year less adapted to rearing or dairying. Consequently, the ultimate 

 success of either system pursued for any length of time upon the same 

 laud must depend very much upon the feeding of artificial food or upon 

 top-dressing. A cow in full milk and yielding 750 gallons a year gives 

 up in that milk the earthy ingredients of 33 pounds of dry bones. If this 

 milk be sold off the farm or be made up into butter and cheese for mar- 

 ket, of course the whole of it is lost to the land; and as this loss is 

 equal to 30 pounds of common bone-dust, and every calf reared may be 

 Idered to carry away another 10 pounds per annum, the condition 

 of such pastures can be kept up only by supplying in some form to the 

 land the ingredients of 50 pounds of bone-dust every year. It is well 

 known that in the animal rapid growth and quick fattening are opposite 

 qualities ; so, to encourage both, the muscle and bone forming constitu- 

 ents and the fat-forming elements must be given at the same time. In 

 a general way, with liberal feeding, the animal makes more progress up 

 to two years old than ever afterwards. With an animal in its natural 

 state, the waste of the body is just counterbalanced by the food con- 

 sumed. All excess of food beyond waste goes to form bone and muscle 

 in the growing animal and fat in the mature one. 



