646 CYCLOPEDIA OP *JVE STOCK AND COMPLETE STOCK DOCTOR. 



the butcher's block without hesitation. A panic will throw a whole herd 

 off their feed for a week, sometimes, and a single wild brute is amply 

 sufficient to get up a stampede at the slightest provocation. The animal 

 that shows viciousness alone,, or in connection with restlessness, is not to 

 be tolerated anywhere, and least of all in the breeding stables or yards. 



VI. The Breeder Must be a Good Farmer. 



The best animals cannot be raised except on a variety of food. The 

 breeder should therefore be a good farmer, and should know what 

 grasses are most nutritious and best adapted to his locality. He needs, 

 also, to know the varieties of grasses which make the best hay, for all 

 farm animals — cattle and sheep especially — should be kept as much on 

 grass as possible. He should also have studied the important question 

 of winter feeding with a view to deciding what grains are best adapted to 

 his use. 



An important matter, which nearly all American breeders and feeders 

 more or less neglect, is the use of succulent food in winter. It is seldom 

 one sees a sujjply of roots raised for winter feeding in this country. We 

 have deferred too much to English authorities, and because we could not 

 raise English white turnips we have ignored roots almost entirely. Yet, 

 there is no country better adapted to carrots and beets, for feeding, than 

 ours, nor one where they can be more cheaply raised. And carrots in 

 'kvintei', especially for breeding cows, and later on beets for all farm 

 stock except horses, are worth more than twice their bulk in turnips. 

 A peck of beets or carrots daily, to each cow or ox would assist in an 

 important manner the digestion and assimilation of dry food — and herein 

 lies their chief value. The writer has raised them in large fields at a 

 cost of three dollars a ton, including the expenses of hauling and pitting 

 for winter. 



VII. Breeding for Beef. 



If you breed for beef you will have the choice of, say, four breeds of 

 cattle — the Short-Horns, the Hcrefords, the Devons, and the Galloways. 

 The Short-Horns and Herefords are, by all odds, the best breeds 

 wherever the pastures are flush, and the feed plentiful. On short 

 pastures, and when the winter feeding is not ample, their great frames 

 cannot be supplied ; but when the feed is abundant they may be turned 

 off fat at an age at which native cattle are only just getting ready to be 

 fattened. 



Upon all hill pastures, both North and South, the Devons are admira- 

 ble cattle, and their beef is of a quality superior to that of either of the 

 breeds just named. 



Farther North, the Galloways or hornless cattle are much liked for 

 their good feeding qualities, for their hardmcss and for the superior 



