1034 THE COMPLETE GRAZIER. BOOK xn. 



FEBRUARY. 



Young Stock should be kept steadily progressing week by week, for 

 if through neglect they are allowed to " go back," what is lost may 

 never again be regained. This care is specially demanded during the 

 present month perhaps of the spring months the most trying to the 

 health and condition of all classes of stock, as the winds are generally 

 high, and bitterly cold and searching. See then to the proper bedding 

 of the animals, using dry and sweet straw. Barley straw, especially in 

 the spring months, is liable to make animals lousy ; if this happens, 

 a dressing of diluted tobacco-juice with a small quantity of paraffin 

 should be applied, taking care to brush out any scurf previously. 



To what was said last month of Fattening Stock, little requires to be 

 added this month; let, however, the caution just given as to the 

 weather be attended to, as it is specially applicable to beasts getting 

 ready for the butcher. Cold, damp, and what is known as "muggy" 

 weather, does more injury to cattle well advanced to the sale period, 

 and which are, therefore, more susceptible to sudden changes and to bad 

 weather than at earlier periods. Against the effects of both fat cattle 

 must be specially guarded. Give the best and most nutritious food ; 

 see that the bedding is clean, dry, and sweet, the water good, and that 

 the feeding- vessels are in a state of the most scrupulous cleanliness. Pay 

 special attention to the state of the bowels, for if these are constipated 

 the best food will fail of its effect. The sulphur and nitre dose is the 

 safest and the best ; many valuable cattle have owed their health, 

 indeed their lives, to its use. Be careful, too, not to allow the animals 

 to scour or suffer from diarrhoea, for one day's scouring will hardly be 

 got over in a week ; if they scour, withdraw part of the corn or roots 

 for a day or two, and gradually increase the allowance afterwards. 

 Mouldy cake is a frequent cause of scour, so cake should be carefully 

 bought, and stored in a dry house : if broken and left in a heap for a 

 lengthened period it is very liable to heat and mould. 



MARCH. 



The cold and variable weather of March is trying to stock, the east 

 winds which are common during this month being bad alike for man 

 and beast ; therefore, clean, dry litter should be plentifully supplied. 

 Keeping as a rule to the recommendations we have given for the last 

 month or two, the stock-feeder may consider that he has done all that 

 may be reasonably demanded of him. He cannot expect and we 

 should be wrong if we led him to do so that the results will be 

 satisfactory in any sense, so far as true progress of the animals is 

 concerned, if he has persisted, in spite of all that has been briefly 

 hinted in this calendar, and fully explained in the text, in exposing his 

 Young and Store Stock to wintry weather in outlying pasture fields, 

 with their poor supply of herbage, and without shelter of any kind being 

 provided. Where, however, this is persisted in, let daily visits be paid, 

 let the food be of good quality and abundant in quantity, and let the 

 water supply be attended to. If roots begin to run short, steaming 



