Breeding, Rearing, and Feeding Horses, Cattle, and Sheep. 93 
Then in the vicinity of large towns there is often very little 
grazing land. Here, as on the unhealthy farms, it would 
be unwise to attempt extensive breeding. Good store cattle 
bought-in to fatten during the winter on turnips, straw, and 
cake, pay better than breeding in such circumstances. Also 
some naturally rich land in high manurial condition is better 
adapted for a feeding than a breeding stock. Indeed, I know 
several tenants of very highly conditioned farms who had to 
give up breeding because the nutritious nature of the grass and 
roots made the cows too fat for regular breeding, which in the 
case of a pure-bred herd signifies a heavy loss. On very highly 
rented land, too, buying stores finds more favour than breeding. 
The more liberal use of cake on a feeding than on a breeding 
stock helps to maintain the condition of the land. I readily 
grant that in these exceptional cases breeding and rearing are 
not so profitable as feeding, but I still hold that a very much 
larger proportion of British and Irish farmers could with benefit 
to themselves combine breeding and rearing with feeding. Let 
us see what those who prefer buying and feeding to breeding 
and rearing, in certain farming circumstances, say for the system. 
" Of late years," says Mr. Smith, West Drums, "the better class 
of English and Irish cattle with which I have had chiefly to 
do have been bought at rates yielding a better return for keep 
than would have been obtained by maintaining a breeding stock 
with its many hazards." This opinion is shared by many. No 
doubt occasionally, when the lean animals can be bought at low 
prices and the fat disposed of at high rates, and especially w^hen 
the better sorts can be got, the farmer mav have less risk and 
about as much profit with a feeding or flying stock as with a 
regular breeding herd ; but in the long run, there can be no 
doubt the man who breeds as well as feeds has decidedly the 
best chance. He not only then has the breeder's profit, but the 
feeder's too ; and if he bestows anything like care in the selection 
of his bulls, fosters his calves well, and feeds them liberally all 
through, he has this satisfaction and reward, that the food will 
not be wasted. The home-bred animal, if it is liberally fed and 
properly reared, will keep constantly progressing ; whereas a 
month's good feeding or more is often bestowed on bought-in 
cattle, that may have suffered from scant feeding and otherwise 
bad usage, before the brutes show the least signs of thriving. 
When they do begin to take on flesh and fat, if they happen to 
be, as many of them are, ill-bred, they make comparatively slow 
progress, and are never worth so much per cwt. as the better 
class of home-bred beasts. The question is not so much one of 
whether the buying-in and feeding of droved cattle pays the 
farmer, as whether the breeding, rearing, and fattening a good 
