FARMERS' REGISTER 



131 



meal a sirongor food, beans at 36s. per qr., Is.; 

 steamed or boiled potatoes on the average, about 

 4d. One elone of linseed in a mixture ofl'eed will 

 do as much towards falteninii; as two of calce. 



The makini; out how the expenses of stall feed- 

 jnj^ are repaid, should be thus. The worth ot 

 eacii beast, on goinj^into the stall should be entered 

 into an account; at tlie bottom of which should be 

 (he value of all the diflerent kinds of lijod con- 

 sumed. Turnips, six or seven pounds an acre, about 

 the value to be eat on the land by sheep ; taking 

 (he turnips off may be said lo be robbing the land 

 of manure ; but it is only borrowing Irom a part 

 ot' the farm which is rich, to lay it on other parts 

 where it is wanted. Hay at three pounds a ton 

 is a full ()rice being consumed on the larm. 



To ascerlain the profit ol' each beast mudt be in 

 this manner. The averge cost of the keep lor 

 each beast will be lor the first month, 9s. per week 

 — the month £l Itis.; the cost lor the next month, 

 £2 2s.— for the last Ibrlnight, £1 8s.; whole 

 amount, £5 6s. Ten weeks is the time calcu- 

 lated for feeding, beoauee beasts ought lo be in that 

 forward state when put into the stall, as not to re- 

 quire more time lo come out faf. 



An estimate of the gain or loss in the feeding, 

 may be made out in this way. Beasts of a mode- 

 rate size, if half fat when put into the stalls, will 

 tnciease in the first month about 8 stone of 8lbs., in 

 the next month about 10 stone; in the last fortnight, 

 6 stone. The whole increase of weight in ten 

 weeks' stall feeding, 24 stone, which at 4s. 4tl. a 

 stone, amounts lo £5 9s. When interest of mo- 

 ney and risk is considered, this shows a poor ac- 

 count. But if the value of beasts when put into 

 the stalls was estimated at 3s. 8d. a stone, and the 

 worth of thetn when they came out was 4s. 4d. 

 this would give a profit of £3 6s. 8d. on each 

 beast of 100 stone. Olien has the wrilerfbund no 

 advance in price, and some years a decrease. 



Although it may at times be doubted, if stall 

 feeding proves to be a benefit to those who are 

 engaged in it, it will always be beneficial to the 

 public, by increasing the quantity of animal food 

 for market. Landlords should encourage stall feed- 

 ing, lor it is a likely means of having their arable 

 farms enriched ; besides which it gives employ- 

 ment to laborers on their estates, at that liine of 

 the year when it is in many parishes difficult for t hem 

 to obtain it. They should [lermit tenants to plough 

 grass land that does not produce a good herbage, 

 on condition that they stall-feed, and thus make a 

 great quantity of manure. A profitable crop of 

 oats the first year,and a crop of wheat the next year, 

 may be obtained, a summer fallow the year afier, if 

 not turnip land, and with a crop of barley the year 

 following, the proper seeds may be sown with it to 

 bring the land which produced a bad herbage, into 

 a good pasture. 



After all the great trouble and expense of stall 

 feeding, this mortifying circumstance has frequent- 

 ly occurred. Smithfield being overstocked, beasts 

 have been sold there at less than they were worth 

 in any other market; the butchers knowing that 

 the beasts after their driving, and beingso knocked 

 about in the market, were so injured it could nut 

 answer to turn them out to come in the next mar- 

 ket-day, therefore bought them at their own prices. 

 This often serious lossto stall feeders and graziei?, 

 may in future be prevented if all the diflerent large 

 droves of fat beasts destined for the London mar- 



ket can be conveyed by rail-road at the same time, 

 which appears doubtful. As the population ol the 

 country increases there must be an increased de- 

 iiiand lor lieef; the increased supply must come 

 from stall leeders, for there can be no increase of 

 the acres of feeding land. Twenty years ago 

 there were but few beasts but mine stall-fed in my 

 neighborhood. Now there are many. 



Stall feeding is generally supposed likely to an- 

 swer best when the price of corn is low, but the 

 old saying of "down corn, down horn" should be 

 borne in mind. Such time may be the best to en- 

 rich the land, to produce large crops when corn 

 (etches a better price. 



Fn the feeding marked No. 2, good sweet grains 

 may be mixed with the cut hay and meal. Tur- 

 nips for beasts are best cut by the machines that 

 do not cut them in thin slices, which takes more 

 time in the cutting, and the beasts do not clear 

 them up so well. The dirt is easily chopped 

 oft with the roots of the turnips as they are pulled 

 up, 60 that Wiiehing is unnecessary. 



A bushel of cut Swedes weighs SOlbs.; a bushfel 

 and a half is a fi^ir daily allowance for a moderate 

 sized beast, say from 100 to 122^ stones of 81 be., 

 which is 70 stones of 14 lbs., an acre producing 

 22^ tons will keep twelve beasts thus fed for eight 

 weeks. Every beast in the stalls will make' a 

 large carl-load of manure in eight week?. 



To ascertain the progress beasts are making is by 

 taking their girths once a Ibrlnight. But until they 

 have become marketably (at, the carcasses will not 

 be the weight the measurement computes them to 

 be. Beasts in the first fortnight increase but very 

 little in their girth, because the first progress they 

 make in feeding is in the side. When beasts are 

 bought good lair meat, and driven 100 miles to get 

 them home, their appearance and condition is sad- 

 ly changed. They should lay in a well littered 

 yard, a week or a fortnight, fed on turnips and hay, 

 and, if it can be done, let out once a day into a 

 field for water before they are put in the stalls. 

 Beasts in the early stage of feeding are apt to be 

 blown after eating their turnips. In most cases the 

 swelling will subside if turned out of the stall and 

 kept walking about some lime. A table spoonful 

 of carbonate of ammonia in a quart of water will 

 relieve them, by correcting the acidity in the sto- 

 mach, and expelling the wind. 



No food can be given to stall-feeding beasts that 

 will fiitlen them so soon as linseed oil-cake; but 

 without it is at a low price there is no money ex- 

 pended on a farm that brings back so poor a return 

 for the expenditure, but there is much less trouble 

 in feeding with it than in any other way; beasts that 

 have been fed with it do not, after a long drift lo 

 market, lose their firmness of haridling, as those 

 do fed without either cake or linseed. 



The superiority of the manure produced from 

 oil cake or linseed led beasts ou<iht to be considered. 

 Those who have good feeding hay can lalten the 

 largest sized beasts with it and oil-cake. 



Durhams and Herefords are the most likely to' 

 pay the best lor stall-leeding. When Durhams 

 can be obtained that are well bred, I prefer them, lor 

 although they consume more food they increase so 

 much more in weight as to (jroduce the most profit. 



'I'here is the same trouble and expense in attend- 

 ing small beasts and sending them to market 

 as with large. The writer recommends when buy- 



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