104 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK i. 



sets aside a portion of the new grass full of red clover, and from the 

 1st to the 17th of August the tares and the clover are fit for the cattle. 

 The cattle begin to enter the yards about the first of August, those 

 required for the Christmas markets being drafted off, thus giving 

 relief to the pastures and yet leaving enough cattle in them. Through 

 the months of August, September, and October, the cattle do best in 

 the yards, but, when the weather becomes cold, stall-feeding is prefer- 

 able. The cattle should not have unripe tares given to them ; they 

 should be three parts ripe at least ; and, when mixed with the red 

 'clover, a capital feeding mixture is produced. To follow the tares, 

 yellow turnips should be ready. About ten days after the first lot of 

 stock has been taken up from grass, a second lot is taken up, thus 

 further relieving the pastures, and allowing the cattle left in to thrive 

 all the better. The whole of the cattle are thus gradually drafted from 

 the fields to the fold, regularly in succession till the end of September, 

 at which time all ought to be under cover which are intended to be 

 fattened during the winter ; care being taken, as above noted, to draft 

 off the strongest and best first those meant for the Christmas sales 

 till the worst only are left, and these also eventually come into the 

 fold. 



The late Mr. Win. M'Cornbie, of Tillyfour, one of the most skilful of 

 feeders, has left on record some excellent advice, a part of which has 

 already served as a text for the immediately preceding pages : 



" If a grazier has a number of fields and many cattle, to carry out 

 the treatment of his cattle properly, shifting to fresh grass once in 

 ten or fourteen days should, if possible, be adopted. The grazier 

 must always consider the quality of his grass land, and buy cattle 

 adapted for it. It would be very bad policy to buy fine cattle for poor 

 or middling lands. You must always keep in view how the cattle have 

 been kept. If they have been improperly kept for your purpose, their 

 size, whether large or small, will not save you from loss. If the cattle 

 are kept on cake, corn, potatoes, or brewers' wash or grain during the 

 previous winter, it will be ruin to the graziers. You must not think 

 that I wish you to buy lean, half-starved beasts. What I wish you to 

 understand is, that you must keep the cattle always full of flesh ; and, 

 as a breeder, you must be careful not to lose the calf flesh. If you 

 do so, by starving the animal at any time of his growth, you lose the 

 cream the covering of flesh so much prized by all our best retail 

 butchers. Where do all the scraggy, bad-fleshed beasts come from 

 that we see daily in our fat markets ; and what is the cause of their 

 scragginess ? It is that they have been stinted and starved at some 

 period of their growth. If you once lose the calf flesh, you will never 

 regain it. You may get a great deal of tallow internally by high feed- 

 ing, but you will never again make the animal one that will be prized 

 by the great retail butcher." 



As to the breeds best adapted for store cattle under this system, 

 which is that adopted in the northern counties, the following is the 

 conclusion come to by our authority namely, that the best beasts are 

 the Aberdeen- Angus Polls, and the crosses of the Aberdeen with the 



