2 INTRODUCTION 



period of public apathy, and deserved at least to be treated with 

 thoughtful criticism. 



One of the subjects that seems to have been overlooked is that 

 of beef production, and it is the object of this work to show how 

 the continental practice must be very considerably varied if we 

 are to maintain our supply of the " Roast Beef of Old England." 



I once happened to be waiting as an expert witness in court 

 when one of His Majesty's Justices gave a short dissertation on 

 the nomenclature of various articles of food. He explained that 

 to the expert there were differences of terminology which might 

 be of subtle of of emphatic degree: "For instance," said his 

 Lordship, "to the grocer there are new-laid eggs, fresh eggs, 

 and eggs ! " Now, without presumption, I hope, I would follow 

 his Lordship's example, and point out that beef, to the English- 

 man, is quite different from that grown on the plough-lands of 

 the continent. We have to recognize this factor more fully 

 before we are in a position to reorganize our husbandry. 



Let us for a moment review the cattle husbandry of the 

 continent. Obviously, to do this briefly, one must generalize. 

 To review the subject in detail would demand a very much 

 larger volume than the present, but we must at least attempt 

 to visualize our neighbours* conditions if we are to measure 

 home conditions by their standard. 



Our neighbours use their cattle primarily with a view to the 

 making of butter and cheese, to supply the milk-salesmen, and 

 for draught purposes. Meat, though important, is quite second- 

 ary. Their cattle supply meat in the form of veal, cow-beef, 

 and ox-beef; and also, strange though it may seem, as pig-meat. 

 Whey and separated milk, the by-products of their most impor- 

 tant industry, the dairy, are the means of manufacturing very 

 large quantities of bacon and pork. During the war our farmers 

 were urged to graze their pigs on our permanent grass -land 

 wise counsel for Englishmen no doubt at the moment, but a 

 measure that would be looked upon as the strangest extravagance 

 by continental farmers, who regard the pig as most valuable 

 when used to consume stuff that cannot be used more profitably 

 for anything else. When they keep land under permanent grass, 



