STORE CATTLE I5 



of those in Scotland, Ireland and Wales, and I have seldom been 

 at one without seeing overfed specimens straight from the 

 " home-farm." As the war has once again proved that this over- 

 feeding is opposed to a really efficient national agriculture, it 

 may be assumed that these wasteful and extravagant customs 

 on the part of land-agents will be stopped, and that the land- 

 lords of the future, looking into matters themselves, will insist 

 upon a more scientific practice and one less in sympathy with 

 methods which involve wholesale theft from the land. 



The rather uneconomic demand upon the supply of stores 

 from the arable farms re-acted upon the graziers who wanted 

 to use their rich grass-land to finish stores. It must be remem- 

 bered that this so-called "finishing" land became more plentiful 

 as bad times became worse. 



Many farms had plough-land fields good enough for any 

 purpose. The owners, or tenants of such fields, were under 

 great temptation to lay them down permanently to grass. The 

 owner was assured of a higher rent if he did so, grass-land 

 property demanded less outlay upon buildings, and it was 

 easier to find good tenants for such land. The tenant had less 

 difficulty with labour, he was able to pay a better wage, he was 

 less dependent upon the vagaries of our uncertain climate, the , 

 heavy local taxation on buildings as they fell into disrepair and 

 were finally abandoned had not to be met, and, altogether, 

 grazing land was a less risky and much less .troublesome business 

 than arable land farming. No one can complain of the trans- 

 action under the conditions which existed when the change was 

 brought about, but inasmuch as store-growing demanded to a 

 large extent a system of land-robbery, anything that increased 

 the profit of the venture was to be deprecated from the point of 

 view of the home production of food. 



That the store-cattle industry, as generally carried on, was 

 robbery from the land, a study of the life-history of one or more 

 animals of any class will show, and examples will now be given. 



Store-bullock reared on pasture. 



We may begin by taking an animal bred for beef from non- 

 pedigree parents of one or other of our several large beef breeds, 



