BEEF CATTLE. 277 



this subject, men will raise poor cattle, they must suffer the con- 

 sequences. No good grazier or stall-feeder ought to touch them. 

 Little money is to be made out of them, at almost any price. 



Cattle intended for beef only, as for other purposes, should 

 always be well fed, and kept growing. Full pasture during the 

 grazing season, and plenty of hay, or corn forage in winter, with 

 straw, more or less, to lie upon, with salt every week or ten days, 

 throughout the year, up to two years and a half old, they should 

 have. According to their ripeness for feeding off, the third 

 winter they may be fed some grain. At three full years old, 

 they should have the best pasturage, that they may get fat on 

 grass, as that is the cheapest possible way to put on flesh. The 

 next winter and spring, when coming four years old, any animal 

 intended for beef ought to be fit for slaughter, and if of the 

 proper breed, or a good grade of that breed, it will be. 



We- maintain that where cattle pasture and winter forage is of 

 any value, no neat animal, for beef alono, can be profilably kept 

 after four years old — from three to four years of age being the 

 maximum of time which should be allowed for feeding, up to 

 slaughter. No animal, unless it be a milk cow, or a working ox, 

 can pay for keeping, unless for some extraordinary purpose, a 

 longer time. It has been conclusively proved that cattle of good 

 breeds acquire their full profitable ripeness, at three and a half, 

 to four years of age. Such bullocks, of the Short-horn or Here- 

 ford breeds, or high grades of those breeds, well kept as store 

 cattle, and fed off on grain during their last autumn and winter, 

 will easily attain 1,600 to 1,800, or even 2,000 pounds, live 

 weight, and the Devons and other good lighter breeds, 1,300 to 

 1,500 pounds, and spayed heifers in proportionate weight, with 

 somewhat earher maturity. They can be kept profitably up to 

 those ages and weights; but unless for "show" purposes, or to 

 develop some extraordinary point or characteristic, their further 

 keeping must result in a loss, comparatively, for the food con- 

 sumed, and the flesh they will lay on. 



