44 BEEFLINGS 



year. After that age there is little recorded evidence to show 

 what happens, but from personal observation of cows and bulls, 

 it may be said with confidence that some little growth of frame 

 and muscle continues for at least two years after the animal has 

 a "full mouth." On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence 

 recorded to show that the rate of growth decreases very much 

 during the first three years of life ; the calf making more growth 

 than the yearling, the yearling than the two-year-old, and so on. 

 These facts are well known to physiologists ; the difficulties lie 

 in taking advantage of them in practice. 



To obtain the best, or even reasonably good, results requires 

 much care, for the young animal has not the cast-iron digestive 

 system that the old cow or ox, judging by observation, seems 

 to have. The immature beast must be given suitable food or it 

 ceases to thrive, and that is fatal to good beefling meat pro- 

 duction. Again, care must be supplemented by skill in the 

 choice of feeding-stuffs, or the expenses will be so high that no 

 financial advantage will accrue to the farmer. This latter point, 

 however, may be said to be secondary, for the very best food 

 is often wasted through want of care. It is at the outset that 

 the problem of beefling production is most difficult, for after 

 the first three or four months, or after the weaning has taken 

 place, the difficulties are very much less, though care and skill 

 are, of course, required all through the animal's life. 



The first consideration is that of milk. A calf running with 

 its mother will consume from 150 to 400 gallons; these figures 

 are only estimates, for little attempt has been made to record 

 how much milk is given by cows of the beef-breeds and it is 

 with the beef-breeds that this class of rearing most often takes 

 place. It is, of course, admitted that sucking the mother is by 

 far the healthiest method of feeding for the young calf, but it 

 is apt to be altogether too extravagant a system. It has been 

 shown that to keep a cow a whole year for the sake of one weaned 

 steer calf may be a form of land-robbery that only the most 

 unhappy state of agriculture can justify as a general policy. 

 But the fact remains that a calf brought up on its mother, under 

 good conditions, till the age of four or five months has an ideal 

 start in any career concerned with beef production; heifers 



