312 [Assemble 



cattle, but enough is known to show that it was as high as | or g 

 of pure Short Horn blood. 



The Steers were purchased by me of Judge Fitzhugh, at two years 

 old. That gentleman, in a letter to me of the 3d inst. says: " The 

 Steers while I owned them, received no other care than any other 

 stock. They were, with other calves, taken from the cow at one 

 week old, and received new milk for a week or two, afterwards 

 skimmed milk until 2| or 3 months old — then turned to grass, taken 

 up in November or the first of December, and fed with hay alone 

 until the 1 ith or 15th February, then about a pint of meal a day, 

 with a pint of oil-cake a week, until about the middle of April, 

 then turned to pasture, and the next winter fed on hay in the field, 

 without shelter." 



They did not, at the time of my purchase, present the appearance 

 of being cattle of uncommon excellence, but were considered as fair, 

 average steers. They were domesticated, broke to the yoke and 

 worked till near five years old. They were always good workers, 

 but were never put to any very severe labor. 



Their keeping while thus at moderate work, was not more than I 

 usually give to my working oxen or other stock. They received 

 bay, with a small quantity of grain from March, till they were put 

 to grass, but the improvement made under this treatment soon evi- 

 denced that they were superior animals, and such was their promise, 

 that, in the winter previous to their coming five years of age, they 

 were high fed, and then in the summer afterwards, moderately fed 

 with grain, about 6 to 8 quarts of meal each per day. For one 

 year after 1st November, 1846, and until the time that I sold them, 

 I gave them the best keeping that could be furnished, making the 

 whole time of feeding about twenty-one months. 



The last year of that time, they were kept at the barn on dry 

 feed, averaging about 12 or 14 quarts of meal each, with some car- 

 rots, potatoes, pumpkins, &c., and to sustain their appetite in vigor, 

 sometimes ground barley was used, and oats and corn, and sometimes 

 clear corn meal, changing from one to the olher. Great care was 

 taken in the quality and preparation of this corn meal, indeed so far 

 as to have some ot the corn kiln dried. 



The cattle were never stabled, but usually put up to receive their 

 food, and then exposed to the season with more or less of shed pro- 

 tection. To a roomy yard, with the ground to stand or lie upon, 



