CATTLE. 129 



soonest attain maturity so as to be fit for feedino;. We stop not now to 

 examine whether or not the two principles of taking on fat earlv as well 

 as rapidly arc necessarily connected — though it is very probable they 

 are — and that a tendency to lay on fjit will show itself at a very early 

 period of the animal's history; though it may possibly be a mere result 

 of the breeder's skill to obtain the tw^o qualities combined. 



Now, every good grazier knows an animal which will thrive, that be- 

 ing a simple matter of judgment. A skillful man will select out of a 

 drove, five, or ten, or twenty animals, and nineteen of the twenty will 

 be the best grazers for his particular farm. The eye guides him par- 

 tially — the signs we have described in our remarks on the breeds of cat- 

 tle also — but more than all he is directed by the touch. 



Having selected the animal, the mode of feeding him is to turn him 

 out into a grass field skirting a river — if such be within the grazier's 

 power — where alluvium of ages has been washed into the soil so deep 

 that the roots of the herbage cannot find its bottom, and so firmly com- 

 minuted as to admit of the minutest filaments of the radicles of the 

 plants to penetrate it with facility, so porous as to admit the air to 

 enter, and the water to filter gently through, and containing its elements 

 in a state of solution so delicate that they are ready for food to the 

 plants which consume them ; but last, though of greater importance 

 than all, having the elements of vegetation in plentiful abundance. Now, 

 all men know that on such a soil, in fiv^e, six, or even in four months, a 

 lean animal will become fat. He has all he requires — a little attention 

 to see that he is well is all that is needed, from the time of his being 

 placed in the pasture to being taken out to the butcher. There is 

 neither labor, pains, or expense incurred. He is worth twenty-five dol- 

 lars more when he is taken out than when he was put in, and that is all 

 the grazier knows or cares for. Now, we shall find out the requisites 

 here for feeding, strictly laid down. There is plenty ot fresh and highly 

 nutritive food ; there is scarcely any labor in searching for and obtain- 

 ing it ; with water, and shelter, and warmth ; and also plenty of air, and 

 freedom from constraint. 



Now, this is what the feeder must aim at in his winter-fed cattle. They 

 cannot feed in the open air; the cold and wet would deprive him of the 

 flesh as fast as the food laid it on. Here he must provide shelter. Now, 

 one of the controversies of cattle-feeding in winter is, which is the best 

 mode of providing this. The Scotch farmer loudly contends for full 

 and perfect liberty to the animal. If he is too warm he w.ll sweat, and 

 if too closely confined he will fret and murmur; and he declares that 

 practi3e has decided that they should be fatted in open places; a shel- 

 tered shed they may have, but nothing beyond it. The midland counties 

 man says this exposure is dreadful. It wastes their beef, and renders 

 them subject to disease, and involves long feeding. Another class again 

 insist on the tying up of the animals as injurious to their health ; that 

 a little exercise, but absolute confinement, are equally necessary ; and 

 that they should have shelter "svith freedom — these two classes are con- 

 troverting the merits, of box and stall-feeding. 



And both of them are right. Take a Highland Scot, consider his 

 wild habits, his long stray of mountain and glen, hi? vvide-spread pasture 

 6* 



