PR1CP]S BROUGHT BY THE AUTHOR's BULLOCKS. 



193 



less expense, trouble, and risk, than those in winter, and there- 

 fore make a more profitable return. I could offer several 

 calculations to prove the correctness of this theory, did time 

 and space permit. The object of this letter has reference 

 more to fattening than to rearing cattle, and to proving that 

 double or even triple the present number may be profitably 

 returned, through the medium of linseed-compound, box- 

 feeding, and summer- grazing. The fear of trouble ought 

 not to stand in the way, nor need the farmer be under any 

 apprehension on the score of outlay, as respects the cost for 

 boxes, crushing-machine, cooking apparatus, and the increased 

 number of cattle he would be compelled to keep ; because 

 the expense for boxes, in most cases, if erected according to 

 the description in No. 3, would not amount to more than 20 

 or 30 shillings each ; for iron coppers and crushers, about 

 eight pounds upon a farm of two or three hundred acres ; and 

 for bullocks, I have shown, and now repeat, the lowest priced 

 pay the best. 



For instance, I sold in November last, three small bullocks, 

 bred in the early part of the summer of 1842, one of which 

 was purchased at 41. , on the 11th of March last ; another at 

 3/. 3^., on the 13th of April last; the third was bred on the 

 farm, and valued at 41. 10s., on the 1 1th of March last. Two 

 of them were Durham heifers, the other Norfolk bred ; their 

 ages 18 months each when killed. The first weighed 46 st. 

 7 lbs.; the second, 41 st. 2 lbs. ; the third, 35 st. of 14 lbs. to 

 the stone, making 122 st. 9 lbs., which at 6d. per lb., the cur- 

 rent price of beef in this neighbourhood, amounts to 42/. ISs. 

 6d. ; and, had 1 sold them by weight, would have afforded a 

 balance of 317. 5^. 6d., and a profit unexampled in the agricul- 

 tural history of this country ; unexampled on account of the 

 shortness of time, the size of the animals, the smallness of the 

 outlay, and the food being entirely the produce of the farm. 

 Should it be asked, what was their condition when purchased ? 

 I refer to the cost price, which the practical inquirer will per- 

 ceive admitted only of what the chemical farmer would term 



a very minute development of flesh." 



These bullocks, with about twenty others, were, last year, 

 fattened on my farm consisting of 76 acres only. They were all 



o 



