4 o WINTER BEEF 



on the best valley grass! Such instances could be multiplied 

 ad nauseam ; and the great pity of it is that not only did the 

 employers of such agents allow these practices to continue, but 

 actually believed, in their ignorance, that the exhibition of these 

 wastefully fat brutes was doing good to agriculture. 



Absolutely the reverse is the truth. Even if there were some 

 special value in the plant-food contained in rich, cake-fed farm- 

 yard manure, which, with very few exceptions, there is not 

 it is bound to be a very wasteful way of supplying such material 

 to the land. For the richer the feeding, the greater is the pro- 

 portion of plant-food that is found in the liquid which often 

 runs to waste. Our farm-buildings are very often structurally 

 deficient of means to collect the liquid manure, and as the 

 convenience of farm operations often makes it necessary to 

 store the stuff in the field, much of the liquid is lost and the 

 essence of what the rich cake-feeding gives to the manure simply 

 goes down the ditch to contaminate the horsepond. I have 

 known one of the most self-satisfied and extravagant winter- 

 feeding farmers cut a channel from the feeding-shed to the 

 nearest ditch, so that the overfed Jbullocks might "lie more 

 comfortable," thus losing the benefit of the rich fertilizing 

 material. Such deliberate waste is not uncommon, for many of 

 the practical men who feed heavy rations to bullocks refuse to 

 believe in the value of the liquid from the feeding-stall or court. 



There is, indeed, great need for a series of demonstrations 

 all over the kingdom to show the value of the liquid part of 

 farmyard manure. It is a matter of common knowledge to the 

 professional agriculturalist, but not to the practitioner. Such 

 demonstrations cannot be given without expense, and in the 

 past the British public, to say the least of it, has not taken a 

 wide view of spending money on agricultural propaganda. The 

 misfortunes of the past four years have, however, been so largely 

 caused by ignorance, that it is not too much to hope that it 

 may before long be thought worth while to spend money in 

 giving information which may prevent waste even of food- 

 producing material. Every penny spent on cake and other 

 feeding-stuff is waste if it is not returned through the animal 

 or the plant ; and it may be national waste of the most pernicious 



