Breeding, Rearing, and Feeding Horses, Cattle, and Sheep. 51 
can fatten, which have been reared on high grazings, upon which they cannot 
be fed, than breeding them on low-lying arable farms of small extent, and 
often badly fenced. On small arable farms of less than 300 acres, as a rule, 
with laud in its present condition, a suCBcient number of sheep cannot be 
kept to give full employment to a shepherd, and it is not advisable to keep a 
breeding sheep-stock on any farm without having the advantage of the careful 
superintendence of a shepherd. 
Horses, hacks, hunters, &c., can be bred on all farms upon which cattle can 
be bred, and with equal advantage, provided the process be properly under- 
stood by the breeder; and, perhaps, since cattle diseases have become so 
numerous and serious, even more profitably ; but on the mountain and hill 
ranges neither of them can be bred and reared so profitably as sheep. In fact, 
they cannot be bred or reared at all there, these mountainous ranges being 
adapted for sheep only. 
I have known many farmers who have raised the number of their sheep and 
reduced the number of their cattle, and vice versa, but never any one who did 
it on a wholesale, or even an extensive scale. "When changes were made it 
was because the farmer, right or wrong, thought his farm better adapted for 
the one than the other; and also, when the cattle-plague came into the 
country, and destroyed many herds of cattle, sheep to a certain degree at that 
time were substituted on some farms. 
For low-lying arable farms, I prefer the Clydesdale as an agricultural horse ; 
but on higher lands, where much of it may be steep and hanky, I do not like 
them to be very large. On such lands their weight kills them. As for 
cattle, on rich low-lying lands I consider the Shorthorn and Angus as not 
unequal in merit for producing beef; while on many medium farms, where 
some rough pasture land is attached, I prefer crosses, a Shorthorn bull 
with what may be called country cows. Again, when the cattle can be 
kept out through the winter, on rough pasture with an allowance of natural 
hay, with woods for shelter, there is no breed I know equal to the beautiful 
hardy West Highlander. As for sheep, it is impossible to lay down any rule. 
On the mountain ranges of Perthshire and some other counties, the hardy 
Blackfaced is decidedly the best breed ; while in Sutherlandshire, Dumfries- 
shire, and other counties, the Cheviot on the highlands is to be preferred, 
with half-breds lower down. 
Egbert Elliot. 
I 36. The Ddffykn, Newport, Monmouthshire. 
If farmers could, I think they certainly would breed more horses, cattle, 
and sheep. 
I think that horse-breeding can never be satisfactorily carried out, unless 
the farm contains suitable dry paddocks for wintering, and rough pastures 
for summering the horses. Under favoiTrable circumstances, the breeding 
and rearing of horses pay well ; but I think the more they are kept separate 
I from other stock, the more profitable they become ; inasmuch as they are 
I seldom at rest, and are perpetually disturbing other stock. On a purely arable 
! farm, or a farm chiefly arable, purchasing horses will, of course, be found 
more economical than breeding. 
Purchasing store cattle would be preferable to breeding where wintering is 
expensive ; for instance, on a grazing farm, where straw is scarce, or on 
any farm where straw and hay are saleable commodities, purchasing store 
stock in the spring of the year and selling them again in autumn would be a 
more economical system than breeding. 
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