November 7, 1878. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
entirely in the boxes or stalls. We will suppose that the steers 
become yearlings about the Ist of February, and they will require 
to be fed until the month of May, and treated as they had been 
since the month of October previously—that is, that they should 
be accommodated in a dry sheltered yard and roomy shed, the 
yard to be floored with earth or burnt clay and ashes about 8 or 
10 inches in depth, the shed to be floored with the same material, 
but raised by several inches higher than the yard, so that the 
animals after the yard and shed have been littered with straw 
as cleanliness requires, may lie high and dry at all times in the 
shed. The shed, too, should be fitted with mangers 2 feet wide 
and 2 feet deep with divisions, and capable of holding fodder, 
such as chaff, cake, &c., as well as roots; and in order that the 
steers may feed without disagreeing we like to divide the shed 
and yard, with three or four rails, into pens for two, or at the 
most three animals, with 12 feet by 12 under cover free of the 
feeding path and manger, and 15 by 12 feet outside. In this way 
the animals always have the benefit of sufficient air and exercise 
to fit them for their future existence in the pastures during the 
next summer, The yard in front of the shed should be lowest 
on the outside, so that any excess of rain may pass away instead 
of keeping the pens wet and cold. In this way litter will be 
economised, whether it consists of clean straw, fern, or rushes, 
As the manure will be allowed to acumulate, soft sand or ashes 
should be strewed over the pens every other day, which will 
consolidate it, and improve the manure by keeping the pens drier 
both under cover and outside, and will effectually prevent any 
fermentation of the accumulating dung, which may then be 
allowed to remain until it becomes inconvenient or is required 
for use on the home farm. This course of management in the 
yards and sheds will be continued until about the Ist of May, 
at which time in ordinary seasons the grass land, if it is rich 
enough to fatten or partially fatten cattle, will be ready, for, 
unlike short feeding for dairy stock, it is essential that there 
should be a good bite of grass before the steers are turned in, 
and for a few nights before entirely leaving the sheds they should 
return in the evening and receive there the cake with mangolds 
mixed ; but when they lie out in the pastures night and day it is 
a question of situation, for if the meadows are low without any 
high and dry brows for them to lie upon at night it is well to 
remove them from the low meadows, particularly if they are 
below the fog level, into a high and dry pasture, and there to 
receive their artificial food, as few pastures are rich enough to 
fatten the stock without it. 
The method of giving the artificial food is of consequence, 
because some farmers merely place the cake in little heaps on 
the pasture and allow the cattle to pick it up clean, which they 
will do and eat the grass with it down to the bare ground ; but 
it is a slovenly way, and we preter to put the cake, «&e., mixed 
with cut mangold into troughs, move them daily, and turn the 
troughs upside down when empty to keep them dry until the 
next feeding time. In giving artificial food a mixture of linseed 
cake and bean meal, or otherwise decorticated cotton cake (which 
loes not require so much meal mixed), will answer a good pur- 
pose. On first going into the grass about 2 lbs. of cake and 1 Ib. 
of bean meal mixed with about 10 lbs. of mangold for each bullock 
will be sufficient. The mangolds should be quartered into the 
cutter, the roots then will, after being passed through the 
Gardener’s turnip cutter, come out in short pieces and well 
adapted for the meal and cake to adhere to. When eaten in this 
way it is done without waste and without scouring the cattle, as 
at this time of year the mangolds are ripe and in good order for 
feeding, and should be with care preserved for this purpose until 
midsummer, or at any rate until the early crops of roots, such as 
early turnips, cabbages, &c., are ready for use. This mode of 
feeding may be continued until the month of October, but as the 
grass becomes poorer in August and September the cake and 
meal may be gradually increased up to 4 tbs. of cake with meal 
2 Ibs. per day for each bullock. This will be necessary eyen 
where the grass land has been fed Judiciously—that is to say, with 
some pastures laid up without feeding to get fresh, or with a 
constant change to fields of good grass. After being managed 
thus we expect them to have made good proof, and have con- 
tinued in good health, barring any epidemic complaint like pleura 
or foot-and-mouth disease. We have particularly referred to the 
night lying of the animals in order to avoid if possible the black- 
eg or quarter-ill, which such young and thriving animals are 
liable to, although steers do not suffer from it so much as heifers 
under two years old. The mode of feeding also with mangolds 
and cake is especially adapted, being of a laxative nature, to 
prevent blood poisoning; the origin of the complaint is often 
accelerated, however, by lying in low, damp, and foggy places. 
During the first week of October we bring the steers to the home- 
stead, placing them singly in stalls or boxes. We prefer the 
patter) so that the animals may lie quiet and not disturb each 
other. 
The foregoing remarks apply chiefly to the pasture feeding 
down to Michaelmas, after which time the animals will require to 
be fed during winter in the same way as those which have not 
been fed in the pastures all the summer. We therefore proceed 
to state the plan of feeding those animals which are kept entirely 
under cover both in summer and winter, until they are fit for 
slaughter on the home farm or for sale to the butcher. After the 
root-feeding in the spring is over or partly over the earliest crops 
of rye will be ready, followed by trifolium, or yetches and oats 
mixed, as the case may be; but after the trifolium is gone we 
prefer to give clover, as we find it answers a good purpose, and it 
disposes of the clover crop without the risk and cost of making 
into hay, for we find that an acre of clover cut for soiling fatting 
cattle will make double the quantity of both meat und manure 
than when made into hay, and this refers to both the first and 
second crop of clover. When we commence feeding with green 
fodder, which we give ad libitum in the mangers, we still reserve 
a portion of mangold, with which we mix the cake and meal, and 
feed the stock twice a day, gradually increasing the quantity 
from 2 tbs. of cake and 1 Ib. of meal, so as to give double the 
quantity of each at Michaelmas, from which time those steer. 
which may have been to pasture and those which have been in 
the boxes will from that time all alike be put upon root-feeding, 
which will consist of first early turnips or carrots, then Swedes, 
and if required mangolds. Two feeds of roots per day are sufficient, 
the daily allowance of turnips being 65 tbs., of carrots 50 Ibs, of 
Swedes 60 Ibs., and of mangolds 56 Ibs., always being passed 
through Gardener's cutter, and given mixed with cake and meal. 
At no period of the fatting process do we exceed 4 Ibs. of cake 
and 2 Ibs. of bean or barleymeal per day, as the animals do not 
assimilate and return a proportionate profit when given larger 
quantities. No hay is given under any circumstances, and if none 
is given they never miss it; but the cattle will always eat a good 
quantity of clean oat or barley straw when fed only twice a day 
with roots, and will lie down quietly and digest their food. And 
let it be remembered that practically hay is not only unprofitable 
as food for fatting cattle but positively injurious. When fed as 
directed we have had both steers and heifers for exhibition as 
well as sale when slaughtered weighing over 96 stone (of 8 Ibs.), 
being at the time under twenty months old. 
(To be continued.) 
WORK ON THE HOME FARM. 
Horse Labour is still in connection with wheat-sowing and pre- 
paring the land forit. The drilling of winter beans should also 
be attended to if it has not already been done, and whether they 
are drilled, or dibbled, or planted under furrow, it is essential that 
good room should be left for horse-hoeing, &c. This being a fallow 
crop generally before wheat, the importance of complete inter- 
culture cannot well be over-estimated ; great care should also be 
taken to lay the land into ridges suitable to the soil, so that the 
water may pass away freely during the winter months, and to 
effect this the land furrows and water furrows also should be 
thoroughly made out, and even after that is done a man should, 
spade in hand, examine the water furrows after the first heavy 
rains in order to clear away any grit or sand accumulations. The 
carting and storing of root crops must still be continued if not 
already completed in order to ayoid the damage by frost, which 
often occurs if storing is too long delayed ; in fact, we are never 
sure of a season for storing roots properly. Aninstance of sudden 
and severe frost we well remember occurred in the autumn of 1859, 
in which season we had nine days of the severest frost we can 
ever remember before Christmas, and in this case it occurred 
during the second week in October. Very few people secured 
their mangolds in that year ; enormous quantities were frozen and 
totally lost for consumption, except a portion used immediately 
after the thaw broke up. The frost was so severe that it stopped 
the ploughs and all preparations for wheat-sowing for upwards of 
eight days. This is certainly exceptional as to weather, but it 
should be remembered that our climate is full of surprises. The 
slug being so strong, the young plants of trifolium have in many 
instances been destroyed, and many farmers fancy it is too late to 
sow again, but we recollect an instance when the slug was very 
strong as at present, when we lost our first sowing of 20 Ibs. of 
seed per acre. We then sowed 25 lbs. per acre, and that was 
destroyed by the same enemy; we, however, nothing daunted, 
knowing the value of the crop for spring cattle food, sowed 30 Ibs. 
of seed per acre as late as the 13th of November, and this time it 
succeeded although so late, and we found that the night frosts 
stopped the slug but did not injure the young trifolium plants, 
and we had a bountiful crop, although it was rather later for use 
in the spring. 4 
Hand Labour is yet employed in spreading manure on the clover 
leas, and if any threshing of corn by steam is going on men will 
be required to assist in the work and afterwards in tucking and 
topping the ricks. The odd horse will be engaged in carting away 
the chaff hulls and caving, as the case may be, to some place on 
the home farm, where it can be kept quite dry for use, otherwise 
these offals should be put into heaps and thatched, for the sub- 
stances when mixed together as yielded by wheat, barley, and oats 
furnish chaff for various purposes on the farm without the labour 
of cutting hay or straw into chaff by the aid of machinery. The 
best time for thatching buildings is now ; the straw being fresh is 
more enduring, and the placing of thatch where required, if done 
