CHAP. XL EARLY MATURITY. 189 



fill up with. Their constant cry is ' Give ! give ! ' and like the grave, 

 they never return what is given. For two months they seem to do 

 nothing but eat, and at the end of even that time the skin sticks hard 

 to their ribs. Then you finish off with two bushels of roots, hay ad 

 libitum, corn and cake up to six, or even eight pounds per day, and the 

 feeder must put a very high value on his manure to convince himself 

 he has had a good investment. 



" I have found that ten bullocks of this latter character consume more 

 food than twenty young steers in good condition at sixteen months old. 

 It is a very difficult thing to estimate the exact cost of bringing up a 

 calf to the ripe maturity of sixteen or eighteen months, and any esti- 

 mate must be more or less vulnerable ; but what I have always tried 

 to do is to make every man who looks after my stock, of whatever 

 character, an enthusiast in his work. When that is accomplished, your 

 feeding will be satisfactory, and not till then. 



" I find the old-fashioned corn-barns very useful for my growing stock. 

 A good ' bay ' will carry a dozen young things all the winter. They 

 have plenty of air and exercise, and the dung is first class. I generally 

 have about twenty bullocks on the chains, and keep them filled from 

 the bays, picking out the best steers as required. The young beasts 

 (of the Shorthorn breed) do quite as well in bays as when tied up, but 

 if there should be a bad-tempered one amongst them, the sooner he is 

 got out the better. 



" One great advantage of my system appears to be this : whether the 

 bullocks are twelve months old or sixteen months they are always 

 ' beef.' We can therefore suit ourselves as to when they go to 

 market. If trade is bad we slacken, and sometimes hold over for two 

 months, and then with markets better out they go. The greater 

 number go out between May and October ; then we generally wait till 

 Christmas, and in January especially find a demand for a small ripe 

 bullock. But as a rule they pay better in the summer months, when 

 nice small joints of the primest quality are wanted by the Brighton 

 and other butchers who attend our local markets. My bullocks gene- 

 rally weigh from 65 to 90 stone, according to demand (consequently 

 age). They fetch top prices on the market, buyers knowing by ex- 

 perience that they ' die well.' " 



Earlier maturity of live stock is the goal at which breeders have for 

 years been aiming, and in proportion as they have been successful in 

 their efforts, so have they advanced in the direction of early fattening. 

 The latter reduces time and labour, and lessens risks, for if a bullock 

 can be turned out in a ripe condition for the butcher a year, or two 

 years, earlier than was formerly the case, the cost of merely maintain- 

 ing the life of the animal no trivial item, by the way is greatly cur- 

 tailed. Mr. John Coleman, in the columns of the " Field," clearly 

 indicated the conditions and requirements : 



" First and foremost, a tendency to early maturity, rendered here- 

 ditary by cultivation. Secondly, abundance of good natural food ; our 

 land must be in high condition, the pastures composed of nutritious 

 grasses, and the crops we grow of the best possible quality : poor, 



