CATTLE TWO YEARS OLD SUMMER AND WINTER 63 



that is, at an age when, on the arable farm, they will 

 be almost certainly fattened for spring sale rather than 

 carried over. When grown on the arable farm, it is 

 considered more profitable to turn them off at an earlier 

 age even, unless when the conditions of farming are of 

 the most extensive character ; that is, when they are of 

 such a character that the animals are grown and fin- 

 ished almost entirely on pasture. Such conditions are 

 not common now, except in the newly cleared areas of 

 what are termed " cut-over " lands, on rough tracts 

 where stones and rocks interfere with the cultivation 

 of much of the land, and on large holdings where lands 

 are cheap, as in some of the semi-range country where 

 such holdings prevent settlement. This, however, is a 

 common age at which to buy range stocks for finishing. 

 The winter finishing of such animals is discussed in 

 Chapter VII. 



The shelter called for when these are simply carried 

 through the winter is practically the same as given 

 above as suitable for cattle six months younger. The 

 same is true also of the stanchions and the feed boxes. 

 The coarse fodders fed may be practically the same. The 

 same things may also be said about the concentrates and the 

 succulent food fed. Like the former, they should also be 

 dehorned. 



The aim should be so to feed them when wintered 

 on the arable farm that they will gain not less than a 

 pound daily through the winter, but this may not be 

 practicable under extensive conditions of farming or 

 under semi-range conditions. Where pasture is cheap 

 or entirely free and labor is high and where the condi- 

 tions are not favorable to the production of farm crops, 

 it may be more profitable, in some instances, not only 

 with animals of this class, but also with those younger, 

 to carry them through the winter on cheap food, which 

 may not result in much if, indeed, any, increase. Under 

 semi-range conditions, cattle are thus wintered in some 



