272 MANAGEMENT OF GRASS LANDS. 



be opened early, well ventilated, and cleansed by pail and 

 broom of every impurity. When the animals are satisfied, the 

 surplus must be immediately removed, the cribs and mangers 

 swept out, and when necessary well washed. Water must in 

 all cases be given without limitation, clean and fresh, and 

 the watering troughs daily well washed out and cleansed. 



Assuming that six hundred bushels of the ruta-baga will grow upon an 

 acre which we have shown is much below the average where good manage- 

 ment is present and that six hundred bushels of the roots will go as far in 

 making oeef as three acres in corn, with the further advantage, that the latter 

 will cost three times as much labour in its culture as the former. The mangel- 

 wurtzel, the carrot, and parsnep, may all be raised in field culture, at about the 

 same expense per acre as corn and they will give as great a yield, and afford 

 as much nutriment as the ruta-baga. The potato, whose culture we are all ac- 

 quainted with, should be made to yield (average) three hundred bushels; and 

 these afford a far more profitable feed than grain. A bullock will consume 

 from one hundred and twenty to two hundred and forty pounds of ruta-baga 

 per day but, if full fed with this, or other roots, they will consume but little 

 nay, and have little or no occasion for water. Opinion of Judge Buel. We 

 find no notice here of the sugar-beet, as it was just introduced, and its great 

 and peculiar merit and advantages but little known. It is one of the most pro- 

 lific and nutritious roots. The average yield of the sugar-beet and ruta-baga, 

 on good soil, with good culture and a friendly season, will reach one thousand 

 bushels per acre two thousand and upwards of the former, and fifteen hun- 

 dred of the latter, have been raised to the acre; and it has been ascertained, 

 that four bushels of either will go as far as one bushel of grain in the keep of 

 cattle. 



The practice of stall-feeding, properly speaking, is more 

 common; and in the management of this branch of feeding, no 

 common share of attention is required, for the manner in which 

 it is conducted may effect the thriving of the beasts nearly as 

 much as the quantity and the quality of their food and the 

 farmer who thinks he has only to throw them plenty, without 

 regarding the mode of supplying it, will find himself deceived 

 in the expectation of improvement.* The late GEORGE CUL- 

 LEY one of the most eminent cattle breeders was of opinion 

 that a plain, coarse, ugly animal, may pay more than a fine 

 well made one, for the reason that the coarse one is bought at 

 a much less price in proportion; and it cannot be too earnestly 

 pressed upon the feeder, the propriety of selecting those cattle 

 for the stall or indeed for any farm purpose which have the 

 finest points in their form; for these will not only carry beef 

 of the finest quality, but will consume less food in proportion 

 particularly as they attain age and fatness and thereby, 

 generally, realize the greatest profit on their fattening. 



The relative proportion of food consumed by fattening 

 beasts, varies according to the size and quality of the animals, 

 and the nutriment afforded by the vegetables with which they 

 are supplied. It is not the quantity of food which the animal 



* British Husbandry, vol. ii. No. 12. 



