382 Rearing Cattle as practiced in Berwickshire, England. Vol. X. 



Rearing Cattle, with a view to early ma- 

 turity, as practiced in Berwickshire, 

 England. 



By John Wilson, Edikgton Mains, Berwickshire. 



The valley of the Tweed has long been 

 famed for the rearing and fattening of cattle, 

 its rich pastures, warm turnip-soils, and prox- 

 imity to England, affording peculiar facilities 

 for prosecuting this branch of rural economy. 

 The " Short-horns" were early introduced 

 into it, and soon became its established 

 breed ; and though still inferior to the Tyne- 

 side herds in symmetry, colour, and grazing 

 quality, yet nowhere, perhaps, are they 

 brought to market, at two years old, in such 

 perfection of weight and fatness. 



The production of beef, at the quickest 

 and cheapest rate, being the object in view, 

 the first requisite is a stock of cows possess- 

 ing qualities suitable for this purpose. Ac- 

 cordingly, they should be good milkers — able 

 to keep at the rate of two and a half to three 

 calves each — of a kind known to have a tend- 

 ency to fatten readily, and to come early to 

 maturity, and of a structure likely to produce 

 a vigorous, well-grown steer. In other words, 

 they must be good Short-horns; only having 

 more regard to their milking properties than 

 is usually done by breeders of bulls. And 

 here it may be well to notice, that it is in 

 general highly inexpedient for the beef- 

 grower; the farmer who depends largely on 

 his regular cast of fat cattle — to attempt 

 breeding his own bull. It is only a few in- 

 dividuals in any district who have the taste 

 and skill requisite for this difficult depart- 

 ment of the business, not to mention the 

 large capital lohich must necessarily be in- 

 vested in it, the precariousness of the re- 

 turn, the greater liability to casualties of 

 such high-bred animals, and the additional 

 expense of their housing and maintenance. 

 On Tweed-side, the breeding of bulls is con- 

 fined to a very limited number of persons, 

 chiefly Northumbrians, who, by devoting 

 their whole attention to this department, 

 are able, from year to year, to furnish a 

 class of bulls which are steadily improving 

 the general breed of the district. The con 

 trary practice is at this moment compromis- 

 ing the character of this valuable breed of 

 cattle in several districts of Scotland, into 

 which they have been more recently intro- 

 duced. Made wiser on this point by expe- 

 rience, the farmer of the Border jmrchases 

 from some breeder of established reputation 

 a good yearling bull, lohich he uses for two 

 or three seasons, and then replaces by an- 

 other in like maimer. This bull serves his 

 own cows and those of his hinds, and some 



of the neighbouring villagers', and thus, 

 though his own stud be limited to six or 

 eight cows, he can select from the progeny 

 of his own bull as many calves as he re- 

 quires to make up his lot, and has them 

 more uniform in colour and quality than 

 could otherwise be the case. As the male 

 parent among sheep and cattle is known to 

 exert by far the greatest influence in giving 

 character to the progeny, and increasingly 

 so in proportion to the purity of his breed- 

 ing, it is evidently much for the advantage 

 of the beef-grower to spare no reasonable 

 trouble and expense in obtaining a bull of 

 thorough purity, and then to select his 

 calves with the most scrupulous attention. 

 From overlooking all this, how often may 

 cattle be seen, on the best of land, too, 

 which can only be fattened at an enormous 

 expense of food and time, and after all, are 

 so coarse in quality as to realize an inferior 

 price per stone. Occasionally a few beasts 

 of the right sort will be seen in such lots, 

 which, by going ahead of their fellows, to 

 the extent of £4 or £5 a piece, of actual 

 market value, show what might have been 

 done by greater skill or attention on the part 

 of the owner. 



It is very desirable to have all the cows to 

 calve between the 1st of February and the 

 1st of April. If earlier, they will get al- 

 most dry ere the grass comes, and calves 

 later than this will scarcely be fit for sale 

 with the rest of the lot. When a calf is 

 dropped, it is immediately removed from its 

 dam, rubbed dry with a coarse cloth or wisp 

 of straw — this being what the cow would do 

 for it with her tongue, if allowed — and then 

 placed in a crib in the calf-house among dry 

 straw, when it receives a portion of its own 

 mother'' s first milk, which, being of a purga- 

 tive quality, is just what is needed by the 

 young animal. For a fortnight, new milk 

 is the only food suitable for it, and of this it 

 should receive a liberal allowance thrice a 

 day; but means should now be used to train 

 it to eat linseed- cake and sliced Swedish 

 turnip; and the readiest way of doing so is, 

 to put a bit of cake into its mouth immedi- 

 ately after getting its milk, as it will then 

 suck greedily at anything it can get hold of. 

 By repeating this a few times, and placing a 

 few pieces in its trough, it will usually take 

 to this food freely, and whenever this is the 

 case, it should have as much as it can eat, 

 that its allowance of milk may be diminished, 

 to meet the necessities of the younger calves 

 which are coming in succession. This is of 

 the greater importance that it is always most 

 desirable to avoid mixing anything with their 

 milk by way of helping the quantity. When 

 a substitute must be resorted to, oatmeal por- 



