Live Stock. 99 



age, to feed fat with a comparatively small consumption of 

 vegetable food, to lay that fat on valuable points, or in con- 

 stitutional health ; and according to the nature of the origi- 

 nal defect, the breed will become bad feeders, or incapable 

 of producing any but an unhealthy offspring. 



On this branch of the subject, it may be proper to add, 

 that the justly celebrated Bakewell, was the founder of the 

 improved system of breeding. He was, by nature, a strong- 

 minded man, and a superior judge of stock for the times in 

 which he lived. Experience, however, has since made the 

 art more perfect, though it is of all others the one in which 

 blunders are most easily committed. The art is eminently 

 useful, and is capable of almost unlimited improvement ( l33 ); 

 but it requires so much attention and expense, that it can 

 never be kept up with spirit, without liberal encouragement, 

 and good prices. 



III. On the proper Management of Stock in general. 



This is a subject which can only, in this place, be slightly 

 touched upon ( l34 ). It is an object of very great consequence 

 to every husbandman, to expend, in the most economical 

 and advantageous manner, the vegetable produce allottecl 

 for the maintenance of his stock, and to bestow it chiefly 

 on those, from which he is likely to derive the greatest, and 

 the earliest benefit. Notwithstanding many recent, and 

 truly valuable improvements, there still prevails, in regard 

 to some particulars, a sad mixture of profusion on the one 

 hand, and penuriousness on the other. The saving to the 

 public, by careful attention to the feeding of live stock, 

 would at all times be great, but in times of scarcity, would 

 be incalculable. For the attainment of that object, it would 

 be necessary to pay regard to, 1. The due preparation, and 

 frugal expenditure of their food ; 2. The appropriation of 

 that food to the different sorts respectively, according to the 

 different species and breeds of stock, their different habits 

 and degrees of hardiness, and the different degrees of ex- 

 ercise, and modes of treatment to which they are subjected; 

 and, 3. The requisite attention to the deipands of different 

 periods, the relative effects of different seasons, and the 

 state of the animals themselves, in regard to age, fatness, 

 &c. ('"). 



The following general rules, as to the feeding and ma- 

 nagement of stock, may deserve attention. 



G 2 



