CHAP. xrr. LITTER. 217 



properly conducted, the young grazier will find it useful to weigh 

 each beast once a fortnight, at the least, before he gives the morning 

 allowance, by which he will be enabled to form an accurate estimate of 

 the real progress his cattle are making. If they do not continue to 

 advance according to the result of former weighing, it will be necessary 

 to change their food. It will, perhaps, be satisfactory to weigh the cattle 

 that are considerably advanced in the fattening process quite as often, 

 or oftener than this. A more adequate idea of their thriving may 

 thus be formed, and also the real profit and loss may be ascertained. 



Of equal importance with regularity in feeding, is cleanliness, a point 

 which is admitted by all intelligent breeders to be most essential to 

 the health and thriving of the cattle. Animals, also, that are not at 

 stall-feeding, should not only be supplied with plenty of pure water, 

 but likewise, whenever they are brought home, either from pasture or 

 work, their feet should be washed, lest any filth should remain about 

 them, to soften and produce disease of the hoof. Frequent washing 

 after hard labour in the case of " yoke " wrought oxen, or at least 

 once in the week, should always take place ; and though the practice 

 of currying and combing, or of friction with brushes, cannot, perhaps 

 be adopted where the beasts are numerous, yet it would be of con- 

 siderable advantage if they were rubbed with a wisp of straw. The 

 mangers and stalls should likewise be kept as clean as possible ; and 

 the former, if they cannot often be washed, should be cleared every 

 morning from dust and filth, which may be easily effected by means of 

 a common blunt-pointed bricklayer's trowel. They otherwise acquire 

 a sour and offensive smell from the decay of vegetable matter left in 

 them, which will nauseate the cattle, and prevent their feeding. 



It still remains a disputed point whether cattle thrive best in stalls 

 whence the litter is removed and replaced by fresh straw every second 

 or third day, or in boxes where it is suffered to remain for weeks, and 

 only has fresh straw scattered over the surface. In the former case, it 

 is evident that some of the most essential portion of the manure must 

 inevitably be wasted, even supposing the manure heap to be well pro- 

 tected from rain ; while in the latter, the whole is compacted into a 

 solid mass of fertilizing matter. But under all circumstances a good 

 and sufficient bed of litter is indispensable, especially during the 

 winter season, and the farmer cannot be too careful of his straw if he 

 would avoid being compelled to buy for the purpose of bedding his 

 cattle. 



It has been found that forty-five oxen, well littered, while fattening, 

 with twenty waggon-loads of stubble, have made two hundred loads, 

 each of three tons, of manure, the greatest and most valuable portion 

 of which would have been lost, liad it not been mixed with, and 

 absorbed by, the straw. Every load of hay and litter, given to beasts 

 fattening on oil-cake, yields at least ten tons of dung ; and, on com- 

 paring the dung obtained by feeding on oil-cake with that of the 

 common farm-yard, it has been found that the effects produced by 

 spreading one load of the former on an acre considerably exceeded 

 those of two loads of the latter. The value of the manure will in- 



