58 Th3 Early Fattening of Cattle and Sheep. 
anitnal of any age ; and in the case of young animals intended 
for early fattening mere sustenance rations, for however short a 
period, cannot be attended with profit. Mr. McCombie, whose 
cattle-feeding was conducted with great skill, lays down some 
golden rules worthy of being quoted in cxtenso. He says : 
" Jf a grazier has a number of fields and many cattle, to carry out the 
treatment of his cattle properly, shifting- and fresh grass once in ten or 
fourteen days should, if possible, he adopted. The grazier must always 
consider the quality of his grass laud, and buy cattle udapted for it. It 
would be very bad policy to buy fine cattle for poor or middling lands. You 
must always keep in view how the cattle have been kept. If they have 
been improperly kept for your purpose, their size, whether large or small, 
will not save you from loss. If the cattle are kept on cake, corn, potatoes, 
or brewers' wash or grain during the previous winter, it will be ruin to the 
graziers. You must not think that I wish you to buy lean, half-starved 
beasts. What I wish you to understand is, that you must keep the cattle 
always full of flesh ; and, as a breeder, you must be careful not to lose the 
calf flesh. If you do so, by starving the animal at any time of his growth, 
you lose the cream — the covering of flesh so much prized by all our best 
retail butchers. "Where do all the scraggy, bad-fleshed beasts come from 
that we see daily in our fat markets ; and what is the cause of their 
scragginess ? It i9 because they have been stinted and starved at some 
period of their growth. If you once lose the calf flesh, you will never regain 
it. You may get a great deal of tallow internally by high feeding, but you 
will never again make the animal one that will be prized by the great 
retail butcher." 
It is evident that early fattening reduces time and labour, 
and lessens risks, because the animal is always ready for the 
market, or it may be held on awhile for better prices. But it 
requires skill. I have shown elsewhere that young animals make 
more carcass, as well as live weight, than older ones. It is pos- 
sible that animals may assimilate their food better when young ; 
or perhaps they apply more of it in building up the body, and 
less in repairing the waste of the tissues, than older animals. 
But, however this may be, they should be of good breed, as 
coarse and ill-bred animals are always slow to fatten ; and ,they 
should be so fed that no check will occur to them from the 
period of their birth till they are slaughtered. 
Every experienced feeder must have noticed that lean stores 
often require a great deal of feeding and careful management 
before they make what stockmen call " a move," and begin to 
thrive. Without dwelling on the physiological reason for this, 
I will pass on to observe that retrogressive feeding is very bad 
economy. The rule of management should be progression, and 
therefore the calves intended for early fit timing should be either 
bred on the farm or bought when young. 
It usually pays best to breed al home, unless the farm is well 
situated for collecting calves from the dairy districts, or, in some 
