Breeding, Rearing, and Feeding Horses, Cattle, aud Sheep. 99 
and rearing are common. If they were not, I fear they woukl 
have fared difFei-ently. Home-breeding affords no security from 
disease if only adopted by a farmer here and there, with the 
neighbours trafficking among stock brought by rail from all 
parts of the country. Warmly as I advocate breeding, I should 
have some hesitation in advising any farmer to go in for a stock 
of cows and young animals, if his neighbours worked with a 
Jlying stock, especially as long as disease is so rife as it has lately 
been. Breeders situated in districts into which stock are im- 
ported extensively, and often recklessly, are not to be envied. 
Their risks are very great, and their losses from disease in recent 
years have not been light. So frequently do droved or im- 
ported animals bring disease with them, that at least, until 
Ibot-and-mouth is more successfully grappled with, the advant- 
ages of breeding on the farm will largely depend on what 
course one's neighbours adopt. By neighbours I mean the 
farmers generally in the district. My contention, however, is 
that, making due allowance for unhealthy grazing land, highly 
rented farms, and scant grazing accommodation, whole districts 
would benefit by more home-breeding and less dependence on 
the inferior sorts that form the majority of the bought-in lean 
beasts. 
On the other hand, if the breeders were to a considerable 
extent also the feeders of the animals, we should see more 
! attention paid to the character and qualities of the sires used. 
I Hitherto, from a sadly mistaken notion, many of those who breed 
I cattle, and sell them either as calves or yearlings, are not so 
scrupulous as they ought to be about the bulls to which they put 
their cows. They know that they will soon be clear of the 
progeny, and so they are less fastidious about their descent than 
if they finished the beasts off for the butcher. It is true that, in 
Ireland especially, there has lately been a great improvement in 
I the quality of the cross-bred stock, through the more extended 
use of well-bred Shorthorn bulls. There are still, however, an 
immense number of very indifferently bred beasts, both of Irish 
and British extraction, sold lean. It may be said that feeders 
or rearers are partly to blame for not encouraging better breeding 
more, by giving considerably higher prices for the well-descended 
sorts. No doubt any farmer would give more for properly bred 
calves or stirks than for others ; but one cannot judge fully of the 
animals' superiority so early. While one can have a pretty good 
idea of well-bred calves or stirks, the real merits of the animals 
cannot be so accurately gauged until "feeding" begins. Then 
there are so many ill-bred creatures among the large lean lots, or 
droves, from which the feeder has often to pick, and even the 
better-bred beasts look so ill after so much driving; about and 
