12 STORE CATTLE 



decreased, and that the number of sheep to graze on the in- 

 creased area of grass had declined. Why was their place taken 

 by store cattle ? Chiefly because land could only be kept under 

 corn when and where it was possible to produce very high yields 

 of cereals, or to combine corn-production with some more 

 remunerative crop like the potato. Such crops demand very 

 high manuring, and our farmers came to rely upon large doses 

 of rich farmyard manure with which to improve their land and 

 so make it produce enough to pay for ploughing, even when 

 wheat stood between 25$. and 305. per quarter of 504 Ib. weight. 

 Lean or store cattle of age enough to stand very large rations 

 of concentrated food and big enough to tread underfoot great 

 quantities of litter while consuming incredible quantities of 

 roots, were an admirable means of making the richest possible 

 "dung" in sufficient bulk to satisfy the demands of the land. 

 While the store cattle from overseas were coming in large 

 numbers, the farmers could command a supply at reasonable 

 prices. That is to say, they could buy lean stock at a cost which 

 allowed of the cake, corn, roots, and hay being paid for out of 

 the increase in price which the fat animal made when sold-for the 

 butcher ; the straw used as litter was usually thrown in as a pro- 

 duct that was useless for anything but farmyard manure-making. 

 When the supply of imported stores was stopped, the corn 

 growers had to fall back upon the home-bred supply. Buying 

 on a market that was not an open one, the feeders of beef often 

 created a demand that was greater than the supply. Thus even 

 in the most unhappy days for farming, the growing of store 

 cattle was, to a certain extent, remunerative, while feeding 

 became a very extravagant process of manure-making. Fre- 

 quently the difference between the buying-in price of the lean 

 bullock and the selling-out price of the fat animal hardly paid 

 for the cake and corn, which was only too often given to the 

 beef beast in inordinately large quantities; the hay and roots 

 were left uncashed ; and the cost of their production absorbed 

 in the expenses of manure-making. This kind of farming, it 

 must be realized, involved two, or at most three, acres of corn 

 carrying the charges on an acre of roots, as well as the expenses 

 of their own growing. 



