102 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK i. 



broad and level, of a well-formed good-conditioned animal, will fill up 

 this frame, as in fig. 48, the hinder quarter, from the hock bones to 

 the rump or pinhead or tail-bone, forming a kind of rounded triangle, 

 the front quarter a kind of square rounded off at the shoulder points. 

 What might be called a " back elevation " would show a square frame 

 equally well filled in from the hock bones to the thighs, both of these 

 parts being rounded off to meet the back at the rump and the thighs 

 at the lower part. The "front elevation," so to say keeping up 

 the similitude borrowed from architectural nomenclature would also 

 show a "square frame," the shoulder-points at the front showing a 

 breadth nearly the same as that of the hock bones at the hind-quarters. 



Such, then, may be taken as some of the leading features of the 

 methods in use for judging the value of fattening beasts ; but, from 

 what has been said, it wiil have been, we trust, perceived by the tyro in 

 the art of grazing, that to make a good judge he must take every oppor- 

 tunity of examining and handling the animals themselves ; attending 

 sales and shows, visiting "crack farms," and educating himself by all the 

 means at his command ; using his ears in listening to what known judges, 

 experienced feeders and breeders, and successful dealers say of certain 

 animals, his memory in remembering all that is said, his eye in noticing 

 the difference between good and bad form, and his delicacy of touch in 

 handling the beasts that come under his notice. It takes the exercise, 

 indeed, of no small amount of skill in observing, noting, remembering, all 

 the points to be considered in cattle-judging, and the novice may con- 

 ceive that he has no mean task before him when he bears in mind the 

 saying of one of the most successful breeders of the century that not 

 a day passed over his head when he was amongst stock but what he 

 saw in them something he had never seen before, and learned some new 

 point of which before he had been ignorant. 



xin. On the Selection and Management of Store Cattle in Stocking 

 the Farm. No class of farm stock in the department of cattle 

 require in their selection the exercise of so much skill and judgment, 

 and in their management so much care, as store cattle. 1 Many think 

 that any sort of beast will do to lay in, feed up, and sell off at a 

 profit. But a little consideration will show that store cattle are the 

 source from which are drawn the supplies of animals which are sent 

 to market, and how to forward them there in the best condition, with 

 the least expenditure of food and labour, is the problem which the 

 store cattle-keeper has to solve. An eminent feeder states that it 

 is one of the most difficult problems in stock-keeping to know how 

 to decide upon the value and qualities of store cattle. 



The sooner store cattle can be got out to grass in spring the better ; 

 and if attention has been paid to the pastures so that there is an early 

 bite of fine, sweet, rich grass, it is surprising how rapidly the animals 

 improve. If well kept during the winter, and put out to grass as 

 now stated, they will add as much as one-fifth, or at least one- sixth, 

 to their live weight during the first four or five weeks of early 



1 The term ' ' store " is applied to animals not yet put upon fattening food. 



