94 
Relative Profits to the Farmer from 
class of cattle on the farm, though involving closer attention, 
would not pay much better. My opinion has long been that it 
would, and I have neither seen nor heard anything lately to 
shake my conviction, always excepting holdings of the character 
already described as specially adapted for feeding only. 
Mr. Clay, Kerchesters, one of the most successful stock-farmers 
on the Border, says that, " cattle can be bred and reared on the 
old grass lands of Yorkshire, Cumberland, and Westmoreland, 
cheaper than we can raise them on our arable or even grass land. 
The coarser grasses seem to suit them better, and the change to 
our richer feed seems to act to great advantage." Roxburghshire 
is not a cattle-breeding county, though I can see no reason why 
much of it should not be, except that it is specially suitable 
for the production of half and three-parts bred sheep, which 
have for several years paid better even than cattle. Mr. Gray, 
Millfield, Northumberland, says, " cattle are most suitable on 
deep rich land, which is less kindly for sheep than lighter soils, 
and on which sheep are apt to get foot-rot, and, if damp, may 
rot." Mr. L. C. Chrisp has no doubt that " if cattle could be 
well reared from their birth, it would be very advisable to breed 
them, and in no manner can they be so satisfactorily brought up 
till eight or ten months old as by allowing them to suckle their 
dams." Calves are better to be allowed six or seven months 
milk ; but that adds so very much to the cost of rearing, that with 
carefully prepared substitutes for milk three or four months are 
sufficient, or less might do, provided the animals are in skilful 
and careful hands. Mr. Charles Howard says that on all fine 
grazing lands where rents are high, and also where the farms are 
almost all arable, it is preferable to buy store cattle. Mr. A. R. 
Algie, a large and experienced Irish breeder and feeder, remarks 
that " on a farm purely tillage, with a short supply of grass land, 
it is more profitable to purchase stock for fattening on roots and 
artificial foods, than to rear and fatten a much smaller number." 
Speaking of the lower, drier, and higher rented parts bf East 
Lothian, Mr. Smith, Stevenson Mains, says, " store cattle can be 
bought cheaper than they can be bred, for this reason, that there 
arc counties better adapted for rearing cattle, viz., those counties 
which have a more humid climate better suited for grass." Mr. 
Linton, Sheriff Hutton, considers that the only circumstances 
to prevent a farmer breeding the cattle that he can fatten, " are 
when all or nearly all his grass land is capable of fattening, and 
is too good or, rather, too high-rented to be used for breeding 
purposes." Mr. R. H. Masfen, Pendeford, near Wolver- 
hampton, notes that " there is little food for cattle during the 
summer months on a large portion of the arable land in this and 
many other districts." 
