966 PRACTICE OF AGRICULTURE. Pakt III. 



finished off on a few weeks' turnips ; and that large cattle, at least in the north, are chiefly- 

 fatted in stalls or fold-yards, by means of turnips, and the other articles before men- 

 tioned. 



6177. Stnll-feeding is the most common f and , when judiciously conducted, probably 

 the most eligible method, in regard to the cattle themselves, the economy of food, and 

 the expense of farm-buildings. The small shed and fold-yard, called a haminel (2657. ) 

 are used only for the larger breeds; but they do not seem well calculated for an extensive 

 system of fatting by those who do not breed, but purchase stock every year from different 

 parts. {Sup. E. Brit. art. Agr.) 



6178. The tiuo great points in feeding animals, to proof, according to the author of the 

 Farmer s Calendar, are, regularity, and a particular care of the weaker individuals. On 

 this last account there ought ever to be plenty of trough or rack-room, that too many may 

 not feed together ; in which very common case the weaker are not only trampled down 

 by the stronger, but they are worried, and become cowed and spiritless, than which there 

 cannot be a more unfavorable state for thrift ; beside, these are ever compelled to shift 

 with the worst part of the meat. This domineering spirit is so remarkably prevalent 

 amongst horned cattle, that he has a hundred times observed the master-beasts running 

 from crib to crib, and absolutely neglecting their own provender for the sake of driving 

 the inferior from theirs. This is, much oftener than suspected, the chief reason of that 

 difference so visible in a lot of beasts, after a winter's keep. It is likewise, he says, a 

 very common and very shameful sight, in a dairy of cows, to see several of them gored 

 and wounded in a dozen places, merely from the inattention of the owner, and the neglect 

 of tipping the horns of those that butt. The weaker animals should be drawn and fed 

 apart ; and in crib-feeding in the yard, it is a good method to tie up the master-beasts at 

 their meals. 



6179. Fattening cattle, Donaldson observes, are usually put to grass in Mayor June, 

 according to the season and situation in regard to climate. The period necessary for tit- 

 ting an ox for the butcher depends on several circumstances ; as the condition he was in 

 when put to grass, the nature of the pasture, and many others ; but, in ordinary cases, 

 an ox will be completely fattened in three months. There is, he says, one method of fat- 

 tening, connected with the grazing system, that the farmers in England are enabled, from 

 the superior excellence of the climate, to adopt with success, which can never be at- 

 tempted with propriety in Scotland. It is very common, at the close of the grass-season, 

 when the fattening stock happen not to be fully in condition for the butcher, to render 

 them so, by giving them hay two or three times a day in the field, or in hovels erected for 

 the purpose, into which they have access at pleasure. 



6180. When turnips are employed fur tlie jmrpose of fattening cai/Ze, especially if they 

 are put up to the stalls in proper condition, which, considering the season of the year 

 (November), must, with ordinary attention, always be the case, from ten to thirteen weeks 

 is fully sufficient to render them fit for market. 



6181. The fattening of cattle with grains may, in some respects, be considered as a 

 branch of the distillery business ; but yet there are some instances wherein those who 

 cultivate farms practise it with a double view of obtaining a profit on the sale of cattle, 

 and the acquisition of a valuable treasure of useful manure. Adam, the renter of the 

 farm of Mount Nod, near Streatham, in the county of Surrey, erected a very com- 

 plete building, for the purpose chiefly of fattening cattle on grains. In this building 

 might sometimes be seen several hundred head of cattle. 



6182. The method of fattening cattle with oil-cake, corn, cut chaff, &c. is practised in 

 many of the English counties, with a degree of success sufficient to warrant farmers in 

 other parts of the island to follow the same practice. The cattle are commonly put up to 

 fatten at the end of the grass season. The usual allowance of oil cake, after it is broken 

 in a large mortar, or, in the fruit districts in a cyder-mill, is about half a peck per day, 

 which is given, one half in the morning, and the other in the evening ; to which is added 

 hay, and in some cases ground corn, that is, oats or barley of inferior quality, and cut 

 straw provincially " chaff." As bullocks fattened in this manner get regularly five, 

 and sometimes six meals a day, it is sufficiently evident that, although it may be 

 upon the whole an expensive mode of fattening, yet it must be both expeditious and 

 effectual. 



SoBSECT. 7. Of the Management of Cows kept for the Dairy. 



6183. Milch coivs are kept for the manufacture of butter and cheese, for the suckling 

 of calves for the butcher, and for the immediate use of the milk. 



6184. The kind of cow nsed by the dairyists who supply the London market, is chiefly 

 the Holderness, a variety of the short-horned, breed, with large carcases and short horns. 

 They are bred chiefly in Yorkshire and Durham ; but in part in most counties. The 

 Edinburgh dairies are supplied by short-horned cows from Roxburghshire, and other 

 pastoral districts in the south of Scotland. For private dairies, the variety bred in Ayr- 



