THE OX. FATTENING. 457 



On the banks of the Elbe, in Holland, in the neighborhood of 

 Arnheira, the meadows are depastured during one year, and cut, 

 and their produce made into hay the following year, and so on alter- 

 nately. The cattle are fed in the house with the hay during the 

 winter. They are driven out into the pastures in May. In the Low- 

 Countries, it has been found that to fatten a large ox a surface of 

 meadow-land of about 9960 square yards, upon which he will pas- 

 ture during five or six months, was necessary. In the bottoms of 

 greatest fertility near Dusseldorf, it has been calculated that to keep 

 a cow, an extent of surface equal to about 1800 square yards was ne- 

 cessary. 



In countries which possess rich pasture lands oxen are put to fat- 

 ten immediately upon the richest of them. In the valley of the 

 Auge, in Normandy, these meadows are designated as herbages. A 

 meadow of this kind requires a rich, damp soil, capable of retaining 

 moisture. It is, therefore, to a considerable extent dependent upon 

 its subsoil. In the district mentioned, the soil of the pastures con- 

 sists of a thick layer of vegetable mould resting upon clay ; it is 

 therefore very rare that this meadow land feels the effect of drought ; 

 it is indeed, only in the early spring that the pasture upon such 

 lands sometimes fails, in which case the stock must of course be as- 

 sisted with hay, the quantity being gradually diminished as the sea- 

 son advances. 



M. Dubois finds that a lean ox weighing 473 lbs., after fattening 

 in the valley of the Auge, will weigh 763 lbs., so that he will have 

 gained 290 lbs. ; the degree of fatness attained in this district is often 

 prodigious. M. Dubois mentions oxen which weighr d when fat 1760 

 lbs., upwards of 125 stone, and he speaks of one which attained the 

 enormous weight of 2750 lbs., upwards of 196 stone. 



The height of the oxen fattened in the herbages of the Auge va- 

 nes from 4 ft. 7 in. to 5 ft. 3 in. measured at the haunch ; when 

 thoroughly fat, the four quarters will weigh from 550 lbs. to 990 lbs., 

 the hide will weigh from 70 lbs. to 116 lbs., and they will yield from 

 100 lbs. to 150 lbs. of tallow. 



It is calculated that on the meadows of the greatest fertility, a 

 surface of 2760 square yards are required to fatten a large ox ; on 

 meadows of medium fertility, a surface of 4680 square yards are re- 

 quired to fatten an ox of medium size ; on those of the third quality, 

 a surface of 3720 square yards is deemed necessary to fatten a 

 small ox. 



M. Dubois calculates the quantity of green fodder consumed by 

 an ox during the eight months when he is fattening, is equiva'ent to 

 6600 lbs. in dry hay ; this, at least, is the quantity that the extent of 

 meadow required to fatten one ox would produce. The average 

 ration of green forage per diem is, therefore, equivalent to about 27 

 lbs. of hay, a quantity which appears small, and which would be so 

 in effect, were not the oxen kept so long in the meadows. M.Du- 

 bois, indeed, observes that in the stall, with a ration composed of 

 from 11 lbs. to 13 lbs. of linseed oil-cake and 26 lbs. of hay, an ox 

 will become sufficiently fat for the butcher in seventy days, and will 

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