28 A HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



Ordinary farm practices have not greatly changed 

 within the life-time of the last two generations in 

 Herefordshire. But every operation is carried out 

 with as great saving of manual labor as possible, 

 and machinery is largely used. Cereals are grown 

 more for the supply of straw than with a view to 

 making the growth of grain a profitable undertak- 

 ing, which it has long ceased to be. The way in 

 which cattle are now fattened for the butcher, how- 

 ever, differs materially from the old days. Early 

 maturity and the demand for small joints, with 

 a small proportion of fat to lean, have reduced the 

 age to which it is profitable to keep the steers. In 

 England, as in our own country, early maturity and 

 constant progress from birth are found to produce 

 the most desirable class of beef. Nearly all the 

 Herefordshire steers now meet their destiny at from 

 eighteen to thirty months old. There are a great 

 many steers reared and sold at twelve to eighteen 

 months old to graziers in other counties for the pur- 

 pose of fattening and on most breeding farms there 

 is no beef made excepting from the draft cows and 

 undesirable heifers, it being found more profitable 

 to breed a larger number of cattle and sell the steers 

 to other people to be fattened. 



Probably most of the home-grown wheat, barley 

 and oats (especially the latter) are consumed on the 

 farms. In addition large quantities of linseed and 

 cottonseed, crushed and pressed into cakes, are used, 

 and also compound feeding cakes composed of a 



