70 
Relative Profits to the Farmer from 
and would, with profit to themselves, breed and feed more stock than they do, 
more especially for some years at the end and also at the beginning of their 
leases.] 
Proximity to large towns, and imenclosed badly sheltered-farms, make 
buying of horses preferable to breeding. On enclosed suitable breeding-farms, 
horses reared generally do better than those bought-in, and they seem to be 
less liable to disease ; they are generally more carefully handled when young, 
if they are to be retained and worked on the farm. 
On certain farms, generally the heavier lands, and where the water is bad> 
breeding-cattle do not thrive. The cows are more liable to cast calf, and to 
come irregularly to the bull. Young cattle are also more liable to diseases of 
several kinds, and the percentage of deaths is much greater. On such farms 
it is more profitable to buy six-quarter or two-year-olds for feeding, than to 
attempt to rear them. The same remarks apply to sheep, while the size of the 
holding has also something to do with the question. If a man has to be kept 
to look after a small lot of ewes, and another to look after a small lot of 
feeding-sheep, the expense would be too great, and it would then in all like- 
lihood be more profitable either to keep a breeding- or feeding- flock, according 
to the nature of the farm. 
I think the circumstances very rare in which the breeding and rearing of 
horses is more profitable than the breeding and feeding of cattle and sheep. 
Sheep are more profitable than cattle to the British farmer on dry, light soils. 
They can be managed at less expense, are less liable to destructive diseases, 
make as much or more weight of flesh for the food consumed, and the wool 
besides. 
I consider Clydesdale horses ; Shorthorn cattle, and crosses of these with 
Black-polled ; and crosses of the Leicester with Cheviot and Black-faced sheep, 
the most suitable for this part of the country. 
Thos. Yool. 
60. White Hall, Gbats, Essex. 
There can be no doubt that British farmers could profitably breed more 
horses, cattle, and sheep than they do, except in very early districts, where 
market-gardening is practised extensively, and the value of land thereby 
so greatly increased, that the breeding of any kind of stock would not prove 
remunerative. 
The buying of store-cattle and sheep in preference to breeding is practised 
in those districts where pasture is naturally rich, and capable of liEittening 
without the aid of artificial foods. 
The upland pastoral districts seem peculiarly adapted for the breeding and 
rearing of young stock of all kinds ; and though they might also be fed-o£f there, 
the outlay necessary for other foods would leave no margin for profit. Again, 
the buying of lean sheep is generally the practice in our southern early 
climates, where usually two crops are grown. The second crop, for the most 
part consisting of roots and rape, being fed-oflT, will usually pay well in meat 
alone, whilst the land is enriched and brought into excellent condition for 
succeeding corn crops. This system of farming is widely adopted as being 
more remunerative than the rearing of stock, even with the exceptionally 
high prices of stores. 
Shorthorn cattle and Down sheep are best suited for this district, their 
fattening properties and early maturity giving them precedence over any other 
kind; and perhaps no class of horses are found moro generally serviceable 
