22 STORE CATTLE 



was well sold at 16; I have bought them for as little as 13 

 per head. 



Poor as these results seem, I have " mouthed" very many 

 "stores" on the big markets of England as well as in Ireland, 

 that weighed less than 6 cwt. at 30 months old. On the other 

 hand, better bred animals that have been done well from early 

 life either on the pail (though this is very exceptional), or after 

 leaving their mothers, will do 8 cwt. at 20 months; but these 

 are less common than the starvelings who go under 5 cwt. when 

 their first two broad teeth show them to be over 22 months old. 



From the point of view of feeding ourselves in this country, 

 a great deal too much land is doing nothing but sustain the life 

 of young oxen. Some land, of course, being inaccessible or too 

 poor to work, cannot be used to better advantage. But, whilst 

 fully realizing this, one can but deplore that the economic con- 

 ditions of the past 40 years have forced many of our farmers 

 to an adventure as unscientific as it is unproductive. For every 

 day of an animal's life which sees no reasonable growth, is waste 

 of feeding material. The animal's body-heat and the working 

 of its internal organs absorb food to no purpose when there is 

 no increase in weight, and to little purpose if the increase is 

 slight. It will be shown later how this is done and further 

 demonstrated how the acreage employed in our two examples 

 can be made not only to grow the same amount of meat, but, 

 at the same time, a large amount of bread. 



