CHAP. in. STORE CATTLE. 103 



and good grass feed. Of course, much will depend not only on 

 the grass but on the weather. And, as regards the grass, it is, as we 

 have elsewhere pointed out, an important matter to keep changing the 

 pastures. This plan, if judiciously conducted, on a farm on which 

 there is a wide range of different fields, will alone greatly increase the 

 pasturing value of the fields. The changes should be made about 

 every fortnight, or every ten days, according to circumstances. Much 

 greater attention requires to be given to pasture fields than is generally 

 the case. If the weather is continuously wet, or if much rain falls 

 during a given time, so as to render the surface " trashy," it is quite a 

 mistake to put cattle upon it, however fine the grass may be, and 

 tempting therefore to the grazier for his winter-fed " stores." They 

 will not only be themselves injured by exposure to the wet, at this 

 early season too generalty accompanied by cold winds ; but they will, 

 being in a restless uncomfortable state, keep wandering up and down 

 till the field is "poached " and tracked up ; it will thus be spoiled, not 

 merely for that season, but very likely for several seasons. In this 

 department, therefore, as indeed in all others connected with stock, 

 the master's eye has constantly to be on the look-out to observe what 

 has to be done, what ought to be avoided. This, indeed, is but one of 

 many illustrations of the saying, " The master's eye feedeth the ox." 



In pasturing grazing cattle, much depends necessarily upon the 

 kind of pastures fed off. There is a great difference between the 

 systems of pasturing fields of new and of old grass. In new grass 

 land, for example, there is a certain period in early summer when 

 the grass makes a sudden advance ; and if not eaten down at the 

 proper time it will soon become coarse and rank, so that in the 

 course of a little longer time it will hardly be any better than dry 

 half-withered "fog," with little or no nutritive properties. Hence 

 the .field will prove little other than a dead loss to the grazier. 

 Close attention should therefore be paid to this condition of the grass, 

 so that it be eaten off when at its best ; then the cattle should be taken 

 off and the land allowed to rest ; in time the grass will be as sweet and 

 good as ever, and then the cattle may be put on again. It is attention, 

 never flagging, never wearying, to such points as these that causes the 

 difference between the grazing which pays and that which does not. 

 And, unless the grazier is determined to give this close attention, he 

 had far better never undertake the calling. Losses in grazing are often 

 attributed to bad cattle, bad land, bad seasons, to anything and every- 

 thing bad, in fact, but the bad management, which alone, is really the 

 cause of many of the losses which are so bitterly deplored, and of which 

 we hear so much. 



We now come to the wintering of the store cattle, after the pastures 

 have passed their best, and the beasts have to be put upon turnips. 

 A high authority states that the sooner the cattle are put up the 

 better, much, however, must depend on the weather, and in certain 

 circumstances cattle will do as well on the pastures as in the yards 

 up to the end of September. He sows every year from twelve to 

 sixteen acres of tares (vetches) and at about the beginning of July 



