Book VIL FATTENING THE BULL FAMILY. 065 



in the spring. When calves are slaughtered at six weeks or two months old, the veal is seldom of a good 

 color; neither has the flesh of these young calves a taste equal to that where the animal has been suffered 

 to live a few weeks longer. To attain both these ends of color and flavor, it is necessary tiiat the calves 

 should be maintained with plenty of milk, and regulated under such management as before directed, till 

 they arrive at the age of eight or ten weeks, according to the season of the year, the more or less kindly 

 state of the calf, the particular demand of the markets, or other eventual circumstances. In the summer 

 season, it may be proper to dispose of them at an earlier period than in the winter ; not only on account of 

 their growing away with greater celerity in warm weather, but likewise because of the increased demand 

 for small veal, which is then most saleable. During the last thiee or four weeks, blood should frequently 

 be drawn from the calf, which will be a likely means towards rendering the veal of a color delicately 

 white; a circumstance so much attended to by the butcher, that he will commonly depreciate such calves, 

 which, from the appearance of their eyes, are likely to die black, as they term it, though m other respects 

 not to be despised. 



6171. Such calves as are suckled on their own dams wilJ, generally speaking, fatten in 

 a shorter time than those which are afterwards bought in to supply their places. The 

 first obvious reason for this difference in their favor is, their not having been removed 

 from the place where they were first dropped, and having always continued to suck the 

 milk of their parent animal, which must in all reason be supposed of a more nutritious 

 quality to them than that of any other cow. Secondly, the cow having so lately calved, 

 the aliment nourishes and fattens in a higher degree than when the animal becomes stale- 

 milched. Cow-calves are observed to fatten more kindly than the male or bull-calves ; 

 and these last are much more coarse-grained, and their flesh less delicate in taste than the 

 former. Calves of the largest size are fattened in Essex, where the business of suckling 

 seems to be better understood, and more properly conducted, than in any other county, 

 and where the farmer keeps the calves to a greater age than in any other part of the 

 kingdom. 



6172. Marshal is clearly of opinion, that to suckle calves in general after they are ten w^eeks old is bad 

 management ; for his account in this respect is uniform, those of nine or ten having paid as much a week 

 as those of twelve or thirteen ; and although a calf of six weeks old may suck nearly as much milk as a calf 

 of twelve weeks old, yet the first month or five weeks the quantity is considerably less, and this advantage 

 of their infancy is doubly as valuable to nine as it is to twelve weeks. There can lie no doubt but that 

 the profit of this system of fattening depends materially upon the quickness of return. 



6173. In some districts, barley-meal, linseed boiled into a kind of jelly, and such-like articles, are given 

 to calves in the course of fattening ; but the methods above described are greatly superior, although it 

 must be allowed that they may sometimes be considerably more expensive. 



SuBSECT 6. Of Fattening Horned Cattle. 



61 74. Thefattening of cattle demands considerable and constant attention, and the grand 

 object is to fatten quickly. An animal when in a state of rearing may be considered as 

 a vessel open at both ends, in which the supply and the waste being nearly equal it can 

 never be filled : fattening an animal may be considered as an attempt to fill the vessel, and 

 which can only be done by excess of supply. The waste being the same as before, this 

 excess must be great ; if it is not so, the vessel maybe rendered fuller than before without 

 ever becoming full. An important hint might be taken from this simile by many farm- 

 ers, who know little of the difference between feeding and fattening. We have known 

 cattle, sheep, and swine, kept for months and fed, with a view to fattening them, without 

 their gaining a pound of meat. 



6175. The food on which cattle are fatted^ is grass in summer, commonly on pastures, 

 butin a few instances on herbage cut and consumed in feeding-houses or fold- yards ; and 

 in winter, by far the greater number are fatted on turnips, along with hay or straw, oil-cake; 

 carrots, potatoes, and other articles of food, are used occasionally, and in particular dis- 

 tricts ; oil- cake chiefly for feeding the larger animals ; but few, comparatively, are fatted 

 on any of these without the addition of turnips, of one or other of the varieties formerly 

 mentioned. (4879.) A considerable number of cattle are also fatted on the offals of 

 distilleries, when distilling from corn ; a source of supply, the frequent interruption of 

 which has been much felt in those situations where the soil does not permit the extensive 

 cultivation of turnips. It is seldom or never the practice of the best managers to fatten 

 cattle with roots or other winter food on the field, during that season ; but to confine them 

 to houses or fold yards, where they are well littered, regularly fed, not liable to be dis- 

 turbed, and sheltered from the inclemency of the weather, and where the manure they 

 make is an object of very considerable importance, and of much greater value than if it 

 were dropped at random over a whole field. 



6176. The age at which cattle are fatted depends upon the manner in which they have 

 been reared ; upon the properties of the breed in regard to a propensity to fatten earlier or 

 later in life; and on the circumstances of their being employed in breeding, in labor, 

 for the dairy, or reared solely for the butcher. In the latter case, the most improved 

 breeds are fit for the shambles when about three years old, and very few of any large 

 breed are kept more than a year longer. As to cows and working oxen, the age of fat- 

 ting must necessarily be more indefinite : in most instances the latter are put up to feed 

 after working three years, or in the .seventh or eighth year of their age. In general, it 

 may be said, that the small breeds oi' cattle are fattened on pastures, though sometime* 



5 Q .'5 



