248 FEEDING ANIMALS. 



ble lesson from the practice of the best English breeders 

 and feeders. Their lands are so expensive, and cattle food 

 so dear, that they have long been obliged to look at the 

 question of cost in feeding very closely, and have been able 

 to produce results that we may most profitably imitate. 



In a previous chapter we have strenuously insisted upon 

 the speediest growth consistent with health, showing ,that 

 early maturity offered the only safe system of profitable 

 beef production ; and as these pages are written to teach 

 more by example than precept, we shall often try to illus- 

 trate the principles taught, not only by our own practice, 

 but by that of the best feeders in this and other countries. 

 In those countries where the first study is to furnish food 

 for the greatest number of animals, that abundant manure 

 may be returned to the soil, we may expect to find little 

 matters studied that quite escape the attention of feeders 

 in a country like ours, where space and food are so abun- 

 dant. But we are also now strongly admonished that the 

 generous production of a new soil cannot last forever, with- 

 out also studying, as all other countries do, how to com- 

 pensate the soil for the crops taken from it. 



The tendency of the best English feeders has been, for 

 many years, towards the early maturity of cattle for mar- 

 ket. They are fast exploding the old idea that four-year- 

 old beef must necessarily be better than younger beef. 

 They first compromised on three years old, fearing that 

 cutting off one year would reduce the quality; but that 

 proving entirely satisfactory to butchers and customers, 

 they continued to shorten the time down to 30 months, 

 with very little falling off in weight, and no deterioration 

 in quality. It was at once discovered that shortening the 

 market age added a large percentage to the profit, and the 

 best feeders have at length succeeded in maturing the steer 

 at 24 months, reaching about the same price^ they had ob- 

 tained at 36 months; and now Mr. Henry Evershed writes 



