REARING AND FEEDING OF ANIMALS. 353 



wood or stone, for the purpose of holding roots, and similar food. The yards 

 should be so dry, that the animals may not be incommoded. The arrangement 

 oi' these yards, with their sheds, will be seen in the design of farm buildings 

 afterwards given. Before bringing the calves home for the winter, the yards 

 should be bedtled with a layer of coarse straw, or dried stems of plants of any 

 kind. In the middle of each of these yards should be placed one or more racks 

 for containing straw, and preventing its being strewed about. The best kind 

 of straw is pat-straw, and the rack should be kept constantly supplied. 



A quantity of turnips (for this we may suppose to be the species of green 

 food used) must be put into the troughs in the morning; again a quantity at 

 mid-day; and, lastly, a quantity in the evening, before night-fall. 



The calves must receive a full allowance of turnips, that is, they must receive 

 as large a quantity as they can consume. At the same time, the racks must 

 be kept always filled with straw, and some litter sprinkled, wherever necessary, 

 over the yards, so as to keep them dry. When straw fails, hay must be sup- 

 plied, and in place of turnips, should these also fail, potatoes or other succulent 

 food. 



In the month of May, generally about the middle of it, in the northern parts 

 of this country, but several weeks earlier in the more southern parts, the pas- 

 tures will afford sufficient food for the young stock, which have now completed 

 their first year, and are, in the language of farmers, yearlings, or one-year old. 

 Until the grass is fully ready, the animals should on no account be turned out 

 to the pastures, and care must be taken that the grounds are not overstocked, 

 lest the animals be in any degree stinted in their food. They should at this 

 period be gaining fat as well as growth; and no greater error in the manage- 

 ment of feeding cattle can be committed, rtian to allow their progress to be in 

 any degree checked by the want of sufficient food. 



After pasturing for the summer, and at the same period as in the former 

 year, namely, before the end of October, the animals, still yearlings, are taken 

 up from grass. 



In the case of the finer breeds, the animals may now be prepared for the 

 butcher; for which they will be ready in the following spring, after being fully 

 fed during the winter, or after having received some grass during the follow- 

 ing summer. This is the perfection of rearing and feeding oxen, and the prac- 

 tice shows how great must be the superiority of a breed that can be fattened at 

 this early age. It is only, however, the finer classes of animals, and that under 

 a perfect system of feeding, that can be thus early matured. The more com- 

 mon case is, that they require one winter's feeding more before they are ready 

 for the butcher; and it will be better, therefore, to proceed upon this supposi- 

 tion in describing their further management. 



The year-olds, then, are to be taken up from rass as soon as the pastures 

 begin to fail in October or November. They are put into yards with shelter- 

 sheds as before; but, in place of 20 in a yard, there should not be more than 

 10, the animals being now larger of size," and more apt to interfere with one 

 another in feeding; and they are to be treated in the same manner as during 

 the first winter. They are to be well littered, to be fed three times in the day 

 with turnips, and to receive their full allowance of straw. 



It must be observed, however, that this is the period in the age of the animal 

 at which a slight relaxation may be made in the system of full feeding not 

 that it is well to relax in any degree, but that in practice, with the common 

 supply of food which can be obtained on a farm, it is frequently necessary to 

 do so. But wherever food can be obtained to carry on the system of full feed- 

 ing during the second winter as during the first, it should be done; for the im- 

 portance is very great of keeping the animals not only growing, but fattening, 

 from their birth to their full maturity. But if the feeder is unable to carry on 

 the same system of feeding during the second winter as during the first, he 

 may limit the quantity of succulent food, as to the half of the quantity of tur- 

 nips which the animals, if unrestricted, would consume^ giving, however, in all 

 cases, an unlimited quantity of dry provender. In general, however, the neces- 

 sity for the reduction of the quantity of the richer food is much less than is 

 supposed, for if substitutes for the turnip cannot be obtained, the quantity of 

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